Nkosana Sibuyi

Posted by Nkosana Sibuyi: 24 July 2011

It can be sobering, spiritual and defining that there are Biblical verses that remain profound, robust and impactful in human civilisation and development. In this connection, the Verses are, to a remarkable degree, the goose that lay the golden egg. For instance, 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 teaches humankind that we have to be in order to be.
The Verses note: “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record on wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Parallels could be drawn between the above verses and Dr Mongale Wally Serote’s novel, To Every Birth Its Blood, a resistance literature written between 1975 and 1980. The literary, social and spiritual discourse immanent in the biblical verses and Serote’s novel are useful locomotives to relay the human experience and struggle for sustainable human development. However inchoate, Susan Horwitz and Tsi Molope as characters in Serote’s opus interconnect the centripetal forces inspired by a common fortitude to bring about change. For instance, Susan Horwitz’s whiteness did not detract her from expressing worldviews anti-thetical to the white society as reflected in her comments after the trial and passing of judgment to twenty-five cadres when she retorted: “I don’t want any part of this madness, no, I don’t, I don’t want to be white, I don’t want it, oh my god. I am so mixed up”

This is a concrete expression of experiential evidence inherent in the oeuvre through the articulation of criticism and discourse about the struggle for national liberation. Susan Horwitz’s refusal to be associated with the oppressive nature of apartheid system of governance cannot not be equated to Ernersto Laclau’s tome observation On populist Reason when he contends that the “political construction of the people is, for that reason, essentially catachrestical.” On the contrary, it could be paralleled to what William Bloke Modisane wrote in the opening paragraph of his book, Blame Me on History. He wrote “Something in me died, a piece of me died, with the dying of Sophiatown, it was in the winter of 1958, the sky was a cold blue veil which had been immersed in a bleaching solution and then spread out against a conclave..”

Further, the extracts from Serote’s novel, Modisane’s autobiography, Laclau and the biblical verses come closely to the acknowledgement that change is indivisible, possible and desirable biased in favour of human emancipation.

The progress made, contradictions inherent in and steps taken to search for new directions in South Africa is becoming a subject of serious and passionate political, scholarly, academic, scientific research and development. This has evolved in so many ways than one to learn from the sanguinity of South Africans to remake the world with a humble sense of reawakening. Essentially, this brings into the fore the efficacy for the development, meaning and effective implementation of the welter scenario planning processes and systems that have taken place in South Africa. The scenarios have gone beyond explanation and condemnation thus creating a possibility for country to travel through a journey of imagination. They (scenarios) were driven by ideas and construction of an ideational direction to bridge the hiatus of the current transition. The objective and subjective realities that have emerged thus far, with all things being equal, must not be perceived in its narrow changingness and (un)changingness.

Scenario planning is akin to planning for social change and transformation to realise the commitment and promise of our future. Yet, the central challenge is to asses, analyse and examine the extent to which the plausible scenarios could be implemented in a transformed polity and moment of destiny. If not handled with both strategic and tactical maturity, it will create a possibility for the failure of democracy. Furthermore, the lack of respect for the legitimacy and role state institutions ought to be reflected in the manner in which their quality work and recommendations are implemented on the road to transparency, openness and shared vision.

The full measure of the contemporary discourse has witnessed the truculent call for an Economic Codesa (Convention for A Democratic South Africa) or Codesa III as the leitmotif of the basic script. The presumed predilection of this call is its insistence on the need to correct that national atrophy, defective theorisation and praxis that define some parts of the South African society. In this situation, the starting point has to be an appreciation that the previous scenarios were developed under both broad-minded contestations and divergent dimensional circumstances in nation building and nation formation.

Much has been achieved since 1994, but without any fear of compunction, South Africa is out of her depth in the achievement of the objectives set out in the Constitution. South Africa looks bereft of ideas. The failure of democracy has been occasioned by the failure of leadership on the eradication of corruption in all its forms. It is patently clear that government has either gone on leave or taken leave of its senses. Consequently, through the institutionalisation of corruption, the public is gradually becoming blasé about its warped impact on nationhood, statehood and state-society relations. Corruption is a cancer that is eating away the social fibre and undermines the legitimacy state institutions.

The questions are: What will the Economic Codesa portend for the country seventeen years into the democratic epoch? What will South Africa learn from the current dynamics? What will it take for South Africa to restore international credibility before the country’s usefulness meet its Waterloo or reaches an expiry date? Will a practical and sustainable solution be found? What is the way forward?

The answer is: It calls for broad-mindedness, civility, scientific explanation, justification and foresight. The response to these complex challenges must not be sorely driven and captured by the political interest.

The National Planning Commission has released the Diagnostic Overview and elements of a Vision Statement for the construction of a full-bodied country that will be collectively realized by 2030. Contributions to such a vision must be astute enough to include a critical analysis, examination and assessment of all scenarios crafted in the past to enrich the eminence of Vision 2030. All of those scenarios, including but not limited to The Mount Fleur Scenarios: What will South Africa look like in the year 2002?, Southern Africa 2020 Five Scenarios, Memories of the Future, South Africa Scenarios 2025: The Future We Choose?, South African Institute of Race Relations 2020 Scenarios through the Unit for Risk Analysis, Mount Grace Scenarios.

A critical analysis of the Key Driving Forces of the scenarios undertaken at a national level by government, research institutes, institutions of higher learning, state owned entities, private sector and multinational institutions could be consolidated in a manner that will propel the country onto a higher trajectory. This consolidation could constitute a scientific, practical and possible plausible contribution to the nature, form and content of 2030 South Africa Inc. It shall not seek to outshine nor overtake the Bilderberg Group, derived from the name of the hotel in which the first gathering took place and it redefines is relevance in world polity today. Logically, this approach would ensure that the country does not lose on the essence of past and present scenarios to construct a product that will be collectively owned by all South Africans.

The forthcoming release of Vision 2030 in November this year will constitute a defining moment for South Africa. Such product would have been driven by ideas covering the key pillars of what ought to be captured in a vision statement. Clearly, the state does not exist for its own sake. Rather, its actions taken seek to improve the quality of lives of the citizens and the future accompanied by basic pedagogical ability. The content of the vision will reflect a desirable future not only for excitable South Africans but will be based on the idea of principled statecraft.

Ideas enrich. They shape our orientation, who we were, who we are and who we seek to become. Ideas shape our consciousness. They are the sine qua non for intellectual growth and development. Ideas do not gainsay societal development.

The legitimacy and functioning of state institutions will help affirm and retain their original DNA inherent in the Constitution, and in sync with meritocracy as an element of the Weberian state. A democratic and Weberian State is an embodiment of constitutional democracy devoid of corruption, nepotism, favouritism and incompetence. It is a by-word for effective state-society relations, continuity of progressive policy, nationhood, statesmanship and statehood thus giving expression to the survival of the state. Noticeably, the treatment of meted out to the Adv Thulisile Madonsela, The Public Protector and Adv, Willie Hofmeyr, Head of the Special Investigating Unit imposes an obligation on all those who love and respect South Africa’s constitutional democracy to raise their fingers and loudly speak out: Never, Never and Never again shall this country be allowed to degenerate into a banana republic and suffer the crude ignominy of being a laughing stock of the world. The country must heed Ben Okri counsel: "If the rich go on exploiting the poor/We are talking about cannibalism/if the rich go on ignoring the poor/ absolute violence will be the music/To such deafness."

It is worrying that the country feels comfortable to live cheek by jowl with corruption. In a sense, it is sadly a South African moment in recklessness that seeks to bring down the edifice devoid of the consensus building spirit that defined the negotiated settlement. Time has now ripened for President Jacob Zuma to avow his leadership. President Zuma must be reminded of how the country received the National Prosecution Authority’s decision to drop charges against him around his alleged involvement in the strategic arms procurement package. Although some were of the firm view that Mr Zuma must have his day in court, the country respected the decision of the NPA and did not have any misgivings about it. The country embraced and accorded the NPA decision the decorum it deserves. Similarly, the country expects the government, led by Mr Zuma, to respect the integrity, legitimacy and credibility of the Public Protector as a state institution, including the implementation of the recommendations.

In the fullness of time, our beloved country, as captured by the Corinthian Verses, Serote, Okri, Modisane, Laclau and the Diagnostic Overview, love is not self-seeking. Rather it rejoices with the truth and perseveres to create a possibility for hope, growth and development to create a template to a desirable country’s future.