Nkosana Sibuyi

Posted by Nkosana Sibuyi: 14 September 2011

South Africa has embraced a hybrid of welfare and development. This, in and of itself, constitutes both the subjective and objective reality of the moment of unusual connection: welfare state and developmental state. This connection does not serve as an Elastoplast to soothe the pain of implementing social change for a democratic state to draw its legitimacy from the people. The Noble Peace Laureate on Economics, Amartya Sen, in his book, Development as Freedom considers five types of instrumental freedoms, namely: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security.

These instrumental freedoms take into account civil rights, opportunities that individuals utilise to enjoy economic resources for the purposes of consumption, production or exchange. Married to the above, social opportunities, according to Sen refer to the arrangements that society makes for education or health which influence people’s substantive freedom to live a better life. Furthermore, Sen adds that protective security is needed to provide a social safety net for preventing the affected population from being reduced to poverty, starvation and death.

The discourse on the nature, character, form and content of the South African has and continues to enrich the parameters of statecraft and governance. Prior to the ushering in of a democratic epoch in the country, separate development through the homeland system defined the nature of the state. This included amongst others, TBVC States: Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei. In addition, there were Self-Governing Territories known as Gazankulu, Kangwane, Kwandebele, Kwazulu, Lebowa and Qwaqwa.

Every homeland had its own policies, legislative pieces, statecraft and governance system that was created to cement separate development or what became known as a colonialism of a special type. This was complemented by the Transvaal Provincial Administration (TPA). By all accounts, the character of the statecraft at this time was to a greater degree divisive and centrifugal in a manner that created a warped chasm on national development. Accordingly, the balance of forces and the titanic struggle for human emancipation created a possibility to define the nature of the state in keeping with constitutional democracy.

Questions were raised around the benefits, limits and pitfalls of unitary state and federal state. In essence, a unitary state is a state governed as one single component in which the central government reigns supreme and any administrative units exercise powers delegated by their central government. On the occasion of the negotiation process, Unitary states were contrasted with federal states. In federal states, by contrast, states or other subnational units share power with the central government. The states comprising the federation have an existence, presence, being and power functions that cannot be unilaterally changed by the central government. Out of a negotiated settlement, South Africa opted for a unitary system of government.

This pursuit also found expression in the profound document, Ready to Govern, ANC policy guidelines for a democratic South Africa adopted at the National Conference 28-31 May 1992 outlined the ANC'S vision for the future. Furthermore, the basic objectives of ANC policy enumerated in the document are fourfold:

• To strive for the achievement of the right of all South Africans, as a whole, to political and economic self-determination in a united South Africa;
• To overcome the legacy of inequality and injustice created by colonialism and apartheid, in a swift, progressive and principled way;
• To develop a sustainable economy and state infrastructure that will progressively improve the quality of life of all South Africans; and,
• To encourage the flourishing of the feeling that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, to promote a common loyalty to and pride in the country and to create a universal sense of freedom and security within its borders.

The adoption of these policy guidelines two years before the ushering in of a democratic epoch in the country laid a solid basis for the construction of a people centred society.

The future of the country depends on the meaningful understanding and implementation of all four in shaping a national vision and agenda for sustainable development. The eradication of poverty, underdevelopment and inequality in the country will, in no doubt, assist in taking care of the process to enhance social cohesion and human solidarity. From this standpoint, the achievement of unity in action, unity of purpose and a genuine sense of national unity depend on all sectors of society inclusive of organised labour, community, civil society, business and government working together to catapult the country onto a higher growth trajectory. One of these stakeholders is not better than all of them. This brings into the fore the relationship between citizen, state and market. The individual and collective intelligence of all will build a sense of public-private partnership, new patriotism and united action to build a comprehensive social security system for the country.

As pointed in the prelude, South Africa has embraced a hybrid of welfare and development. However, South Africa’s pursuit to construct a developmental state enriched by our collective blameworthiness and participation exposed the deep fissures in the discourse. South Africa should be quarantined from this wretched contradiction or development based on the failure to weigh trade-offs between the centripetal and centrifugal forces inherent is nation formation, nation creation and state construction. This, in and of itself, constitutes both the subjective and objective reality of the moment of unusual connection: welfare state and developmental state. To a dominant degree, the country is gravitating towards consolidating a welfare state to help people out of extreme poverty and vulnerability. Without any doubt, the Welfare State in the fast lane and includes amongst others school nutrition scheme and social assistance programme grants.

On the occasion of the Poverty Conference hosted by the University of Johannesburg on 21 July 2011, the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini said:
“Our most successful strategy in confronting extreme poverty and hunger is government’s Social Assistance Programme which provides relief to about 15, 3 million South Africans. This constitutes 30% of the population. Out of this number, the majority of beneficiaries are children (10,3 million of them) who receive the Child Support Grant (CSG) which stands at R250 per child every month. I must highlight that most of the recipients of the CSG are women who receive it on behalf of poor children”.

Minister Dlamini had earlier pointed out on her Department’s Budget Vote speech that “this year, government has allocated over R100 billion to the social assistance programme, which provides the poor with the means to meet their most basic needs”.

Consistent with the above, it is patently clear that government’s determinations are inspired by a resolve to building an inclusive society to create a possibility for people to participate meaningfully in the affairs of their households and communities. In essence, this seeks to create a state based on the full integration of all its citizens such as the disabled, the aged and children in the provision of social protection, care and compassion. This complements what Amartya Sen said about protective security, as one of the instrumental freedoms, intended to provide a social safety net for preventing the affected population from being reduced to poverty, starvation and death.

These reflections by the Minister reinforce a deeper understanding and appreciation of the consolidation of the welfare state in South Africa. A critical question that stares us in the face is: To what extent can the comprehensive social security programme sustain sustainable development? In what way can the democratic developmental state thrive in an environment characterised by an effective social security programme? Can the developmental state and welfare state survive concurrently for South Africa?

It could be argued that the Welfare State hegemony has been created through the surreptitiousness of the political leadership. Although the comprehensive social security programme seeks address the impact of poverty on the poor, underdevelopment and inequality, it presents a half-baked plan to fix the intricacies of national development. Government has committed, through the New Growth Path to grow employment of five million jobs, narrow employment 10 percentage points from 25 percentages to around 15 per cent by 2020. Notably, failure to create these job opportunities has tempted government to be captured by populist and political interests by extending the social assistance programme to address the magnitude of the poverty and inequality.

In this context, parallels could be drawn between Nigeria and South Africa on the construction of the state. Professor Chinua Achebe, in his book, The Education of a British Protected Child, a collection of essays raises compelling issues making a milestone in his literary work. In the essay, What is Nigeria to me? Achebe contends that “Nigeria is a country where nobody can wake up in the morning and ask: what can I do now? There is work for all”.

South Africa has embraced a hybrid of welfare and development. Paraphrasing from Achebe, the construction of the democratic developmental state enriched by a comprehensive social security assistance is a concrete reflection that there is work for all This observation does not seek to create a damp squid, political fissures or ideological parameters on the nature of the South African state. Failure to harmonise welfare and development in South Africa’s pursuit to construct a democratic developmental state may move towards a precipice, as the country defines the life, meaning and nature of the state it seeks to create. It seeks to breathe relevance, integrity, life and legitimacy into the state thus creating a barometer of unity in action to consolidate constitutional democracy. The shared dream of a developmental state ought to thrive in the midst of an effective social assistance programme for its continued appropriateness, relevance and application.

To that end, the development of South African society and peoples is a colossal responsibility that must be accompanied with an appreciation of the contemporary realities, comprehension of the nation’s capabilities, strengths and limitations. Accordingly, the construction of the state whose vision it is to drive sustainable and people centred development requires the human experience based on solidarity, civilisation and open contestation of ideas to sustain the wellness and wellbeing of the country.

The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) developed in the early 1990s and adopted as the ANC’s election manifesto for April 1994 represented formula and initial commitment to social change and transformation. The RDP’s vision embodied five core elements, namely:

• meeting basic needs;
• building the economy;
• democratising the state and society;
• developing human resources; and
• nation-building

In addition to the RDP and more pointedly, Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) programme, Growth and Development summit, Accelerated and Shared Growth initiative of South Africa (Asgi-SA), New Growth Path, the National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF), Industrial Policy Action Plan and the National Planning Commission’s Diagnostic Overview are vital to South Africa’s economic growth and development, particularly with respect to catapulting infrastructural development, industrial development and employment creation.

Professor Thandika Mkandawire identifies two components of the developmental state. First, a developmental state is considered as one “whose ideological underpinning is developmentalist in that it conceives its mission as that of ensuring economic development, usually interpreted to mean high rates of accumulation and industrialization.” The second component relates to the capacity to implement economic policies “sagaciously and effectively”

To a remarkable degree, the realisation of the people driven and people centred state relies on the underside of power for governance and statecraft. The sagaciousness, efficacy and effective implementation of economic policies, which Professor Mkandawire alluded to, points to the locus for economic policy development, planning, and coordination. In a sense, this bespeaks the centrality of five types of instrumental freedoms that Amartya Sen to usher in a new nirvana and aura of invincibility for the state South Africa seeks to create. South Africa must exercise the mind to construct and affirm the state based on legitimacy, authority, decorum and connected to the national interest based on developmental citizenship. Undoubtedly, the nature, character and content of the state remains contested and contestable!