Post Apartheid and the Consequences for
South Africa
Stes
de Necker
INTRODUCTION
In
1990 the previous President of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, after an imprisonment
of 27 years, was released from prison, and in 1994 the first multi-racial
democratic elections were held in South Africa which lead to the overthrown of
the National Government, and the political takeover by the ANC.
The outcome of the 1994 election went
more or less as was expected.
Aside from the dozens of political
groups which contested the election, two major trends manifested after the
election i.e. a pluralistic Afro centrism and a pluralistic Euro centrism. (various
separately identifiable groups that form a single unit).
White voters largely sided with the
traditional white political groups, while the black voters sided predominantly
with the black political groups. Coloured voters were more or less evenly
divided between the main trends, while the Indians sided mainly behind the
Indian leadership.
THE
POLITICAL ARENA IN 2014
Today in 2014, whites South Africans not only
find themselves in a predisposition regarding their political identity,
but also run the risk of political isolation if they are not prepared to switch
to a diversified political group. The possibility is increasing that the
longer the status quo continues, the black youth 's collective values and
norms system, will be influenced to the extent that they will eventually no
longer be able to remain objective against the communist -inspired values
of the current government.
As I mentioned before, during the late
1990 and early 2000, the main objectives for the black leadership was about
self - preservation and survival. After political self - preservation was
achieved in 1994, there is now, as was the case with the whites after 1948, a
concerted assault on the traditional white possession of the economic power
base.
Claims for the nationalising of mines
as well as the nationalisation of land and financial institutions on the part
of a largely untrained and unqualified black youth, is characteristic of the
immature understanding among the youth and most people in South Africa, of the
economic realities of Africa.
Frustration among black youth as well
as the current government's inability to sufficient progress in their aims for
economic self-determination and sustainable development is
certainly today the main cause of the spate of senseless violence and crime
committed by (mainly) the black youth.
I maintain that one can assume that
the adult black population and the young black people feel the same about the
state of affairs; they just
differ in essence how to go about achieving their objectives.
Crime and violence in South Africa is
therefore not a systemic phenomenon, but
rather a symptomatic manifestation of a deeper cause, namely frustration. The only way to eradicate this evil is
to solve the underlying cause; a larger police force or bigger prisons will not
solve the problem.
In the hierarchy of basic needs, there
is in fact no significant difference in the basic needs of the White and Black
people of South Africa. (See Abraham H. Maslow's
hierarchy of human needs)
The major differences lie in the
Eurocentric and Afro centric norms and value systems to satisfy these needs,
and the mechanism necessary to achieve these objectives.
The tragedy is however, that white
people and black people lived together for more than three centuries in this
country, and after all this time they never really got to know and understand
each other!
Towards the
end of the last century, South Africa, mainly because of the development in the
field of transportation and communication technology, became part of the "Global
Village".
Globalization placed South Africa's
development under the new ANC government squarely under the spotlight of the
international community.
The latter was largely responsible for
the fact that the South African youth ( black and white ) have abandoned many
of their traditional value systems in favor of associating with their oversees counterparts, mainly in Europe and America.
The result is that many traditional
habits and customs are no longer regarded as important and may even completely
disappear over time.
The fact of the matter remains that
the youth of today grows up with the founders of these cultural norms and
values systems, namely the older generation white and black people, and in
this way still learn and inherits the historical differences between black and
white people. It was after all the older generation that failed to reconcile
the Western and African social customs!
If we want to avoid a future
intensification of this cultural struggle in this country, we should as soon as
possible (if it is not already too late) learn and respect each other’s traditions and
customs and to build a new, ‘ism’, what I want to call, Africanism.
Fortunately, some of our schools are
already working in the direction to meet these requirements.
The challenge for the opinion and
policy - makers in South Africa today,
is to find a commonly accepted (collective) value system that allows
for our unique ‘unity in diversity’. Recognition and respect for the identity
and preserving the cultural values and norms of all groups in South
Africa must be ensured. Only when we achieve
that it will no longer be necessary for so many people to leave this country
for fear of losing his / her self - preservation.
One of the biggest mistakes the ANC
Government could ever make was to attempt to ‘melt’ the different origins,
identities, religions, cultures and languages, in one common society.
America is an example where groups of
different and diverse identity, live peacefully and un-troubled with each other,
but still are proud of their common American identity.
In South Africa, this ideal will only
be realized only if everyone is willing to learn, understand and respect each
other's values , norms and standards.
The "winner - takes - all”
mentality of the past and will no longer succeed in South Africa. The
question everyone should ask him or herself is, who is the true Africanist, to
have the mandate to be ruler? South Africa is a land of minorities and there is
no group which can elevate themselves to be the representatives of another.
The current ANC Government, believe it
or not, is in fact also a minority government; It only depends what the
criteria is to measure representation.
Escape from the current unbalanced
distribution of economic wealth in South Africa, can only be achieved if the
current ANC government, can succeed to distribute aid to the economically
impoverished part of the population, in an economically viable and sustainable
manner.
In a democratic pluralistic society
such as South Africa, where both poverty and wealth should not be characterised
by colour or creed of any kind, the challenge lies in developing the poor,
without impoverishing the affluent.
If the current government is willing
to learn one lesson from the previous order, it is how not to solve
the “poor black problem “in South Africa by creating a new (colourless)
"poor class".
Job creation and mother tongue
education has always been the foundation of economic development worldwide and
it appears that the current government is busy making great strides in this
area. The only negative aspect of this development is the fact that the
government will have to seriously guard against the creation of a welfare
state.
South Africa has the world's largest
welfare system currently, and although recognition should be given to the fact
that millions of people are at least able to survive because of the welfare
grants they receive monthly from the State, these allowances do not create
jobs. (except of course for the number of civil servants to administer the
system!)
One wonders what the result would be
if the money currently spent on social grants, were rather spent on job
creation.
CONCLUSION
True democracy
and peace in South Africa is still a long way off.
It will
depend entirely on the black political elite if South Africa will succeed in
taking it’s rightful place in the International Sosio-political arena.
Forgotten
are the noble ideals of the upliftment of the less privileged. Instead, there
exists a culture today of "Get as rich as possible as quickly as possible."
In
addition, this culture of self-enrichment is only at the disposal of a few
privileged loyalists in the ANC. Differ from this group and your right to
economic independence will be taken away from you very quickly. It is a culture
that embraces a variety of ills, most of which are aimed at the erosion of our
constitutional democracy and the maintenance of the unscrupulous and
incompetent politicians in their panelled offices and luxury limousines.
Inequitable
black economic empowerment, affirmative action and land reform were, and still
is, the greatest evils in the ANC political culture.
Once
highly productive agricultural land lie uncultivated and unproductive today.
The ruins and rusty implements and equipment of once thriving farming units,
serve little more than forgotten tombstones of once vibrant and economically
active farming communities.
Self-enrichment
and personal interest is the order of the day. The inability of the government
to take effective action at the stage when they were suppose to do it, caused
this ill to proliferate to the point that one gets the impression that there
exist a belief that, if you do not grab your share now, don’t cry the day
when there is no longer anything left to grab!
CONSEQUENCES
OF INCOMPETANT GOVERNANCE
Amongst
the myriad of consequences, I wish to highlight only seven of the most severe
results.
1.
The ‘multicoloured’ rainbow of Emeritus Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu is rapidly
being replaced with the mirages of a scorched and desolate desert landscape.
2.
Forced integration at all levels of society is destroying our unique cultural
diversity and identities and creating a faceless society who do not know who or
what they really are.
3.
Indiscriminate granting of exploration and mining concessions are working to
destroy our natural heritage.
4.
Corruption and crime are destroying any hope of this country's potential to
position itself as the tourism mecca of the world.
5.
Personal gain and an uncompromising devotion to economic and political power,
is destroying South
Africa
6.
Corruption and fraud, at all levels of our society, is destroying South
Africa
7.
The indiscriminate allocation of social grants and donations to win political
votes, is destroying our people's work ethics and productivity.
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