Some solid progress with serious problem areas

This week, South Africans celebrated Freedom Day – 16 years after Nelson Mandela’s ANC won the first fully democratic elections under a fair and democratic constitution on a day of hope and promise, one the world hailed as a miracle. Sixteen years later, Jacob Zuma’s ANC is in charge. Despite substantial successes, the miracle has faded and the country is confronted by many problems, although it still cherishes some hope. Political analyst Stef Terblanche takes stock.

Much that is very positive has been achieved, among others:

South Africa’s much hailed Constitution remains intact;

Several successful democratic elections have been held since 1994;

The economy has gone from strength to strength, and has weathered the world economic crisis better than most other countries;

More South Africans than ever before are being educated, while South Africa has one of the highest governmental investments in education in the world;

Far more South Africans than ever before have access to health services;

South Africa is on target with the provision of housing, with millions of people now having proper homes for the first time;

South Africa has passed the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without sustainable water, and is likely to achieve the 2014 goal of universal access to potable water despite various challenges;

As of March 2009, more than 10 million households had access to sanitation compared to about five million in 1994; and

The country finally is coming to grips with HIV/Aids and a new, upscaled HIV/Aids prevention and treatment plan has been launched.

While these achievements and successes are truly remarkable, there are also a great number of serious ongoing problems that need to be addressed. However, maintaining the successes and addressing the problems are both being challenged by a number of political issues at play in South Africa. Here are some of the most important current political issues:

ANC issues of leadership, policy and divisions

One of the most pressing ongoing problems affecting South Africa on all fronts concerns the ongoing problems experienced in the ruling African National Congress. In a nutshell, these boil down to the lack of clear and decisive leadership; ongoing divisions and power struggles; and the battle for factional dominance affecting policy positions. All three feed into and upon each other.

Fear and loathing in the ANC

These developments have produced another byproduct in the ANC, namely fear and loathing – to borrow a phrase from Hunter S. Thompson - among comrades. That is perhaps what best describes the developments around Julius Malema within the ruling party. Loved by many, but also loathed by many in the party, few dare to cross him for fear of endangering their own career prospect.

Malema has proven to be quite a powerful figure in the ANC in more ways than one, not least of all because he leads one of the largest constituencies in the Alliance, if not the biggest. Some 70% of all South Africans are under the age of 35.

Culture of greed and self-enrichment

Much of the motivating forces behind the power, turf and policy struggles mentioned above, as well as the results thereof can be found in the realm of greed, self-enrichment, elitism and growing disregard for democratic fundamentals. Greed and self-enrichment lie at the heart of many of the political factional battles, the widespread corruption and other crimes, and the paralysis of many departments, authorities and institutions when it comes to delivery.

Democratic cornerstones threatened

The above developments have helped nurture another side effect – the growing arrogance of those with political power, accompanied by a growing disregard for democratic fundamentals.

As the political and ideological battles muddied the waters of ruling party politics, and delivery became more problematic, a parallel need for increased power centralisation arose. And with it emerged a tendency to strengthen such acquired power by lessening the scope for democratic intervention.

The realignment of opposition parties

While there are many good people in the ruling ANC doing good things, their efforts, unfortunately, are being overshadowed by those who are corrupt, incompetent or are pursuing a variety of highly objectionable agendas. As a result, it seems that nowhere is the dictum “power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely” more applicable than in the current South Africa.

Therefore, the need for an effective, united opposition that eventually can offer itself as a viable alternative to the ANC as ruling party, is perhaps greater than ever before. In this vein, the recent moves by opposition parties to come together in a coalition, front or alliance has been widely welcomed.

Widespread corruption

It remains open season for corruption in South Africa, with the country gaining a reputation in that regard, which some believe may soon surpass Nigeria – if it has not already done so.

At this week’s Freedom Day celebrations, corruption was the major theme in speeches made by opposition leaders. It has long been a major issue over which the ANC’s allies, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party (SACP), have challenged the ruling party.

The ongoing education crisis

South Africa spends more on education than most other countries. And since the ANC came to power in 1994, far more South Africans than ever before are being educated. Yet serious problems persist and education remains largely in crisis.

Apart from the ongoing ineffective handling of curriculum and examination issues since 1994, among many other things, the following figures supplied by the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga in Parliament – in reply to a question by an MP of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – give some idea of the complete deterioration affecting basic education in South Africa: 19 465 schools have no libraries; 20 961 have no laboratories; and 846 do not even have a single toilet.

Instead of focusing on resolving some of the real problems such as these, the ministers responsible for education tend frequently to rather harp on the old worn-out race scapegoats and to dish up ideological clichés that must somehow resolve all these problems.

Farms security, murders and farmer/worker relations

If anything good is to come out of the recent murder of right-wing leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, it would be that the government should realise the time has come to for it urgently and meaningfully to address the issue of ongoing attacks on farmers in South Africa, which poses a far greater risk to national security than any would-be insurrection by any so-called paramilitary right-wing organisation.

Political/business interest conflicts

The Eskom/Hitachi/Chancellor House debacle, and developments such as Malema’s companies being given lucrative state tenders, have shown that Parliament needs to urgently start processing legislation that will bring about greater transparency and separation of business and politics in order to put an end to conflicts of interest and dubious practices in awarding state tenders. This should include the proposed lifestyle audits for which Cosatu has been pushing strongly, but which powerful parties in the ANC have rejected.

General issues

Finally, there are a number of other critical issues that are currently under the spotlight and go hand in hand with many of the problems that South Africa faces. Among these are the issues of the control, management and role of parastatals such as Eskom, which in this case continues to impact on the efficiency of Eskom and South Africa’s energy security.

Other critical issues include the government’s turnaround strategy for local government, improvements to service delivery, ongoing public unrest over delivery failures, more signs of imminent xenophobic violence, the land reform issue, the emerging nationalisation debate, post Soccer World Cup economic challenges, and continuing poverty and under-development.

To read Stef’s full comprehensive report, click here