Nkosana Sibuyi

Posted by Nkosana: 30 January 2012

The ushering in of a democratic epoch in South Africa has brought with it immense opportunities, possibilities, paradoxes and allegories. Owing to the complexities and continuities of the issues, there is virtually no space for dogmatism. This requires of citizens not to merely express their tentativeness. It obliges of the country to effectively put the issues through the prism of diagnostics, agnostics and prognostics without losing sight of the higher purpose. The release of the National Development Plan Vision for 2030 is a high-water mark for the country’s better tomorrow arising from yesterday’s experiences and today’s contemporary dimensional circumstances and conditions. For once, the country has taken decisive forward steps to create society to be proud of. The Plan points towards a rational discussion about the future to be created and the benefits to be gained. Implemented rigorously with vim and zest, the gains could be multiplied in a rapidly changing polity. This calls for a healthy osmosis of the paradox.

However, this does not discount the objective reality that the country is going through a paralysis and the crisis is becoming organic. It has taken the form of the Protection of State Information Bill, national government intervention in provincial governments by invoking section 100 (1) (b) of the Constitution, the effective utilisation of state resources to fight factional political battles, institutionalisation of factions, dearth of thought leadership, paucity of a controlling or galvanising idea and unity of centrifugal forces and selfless stoicism. Such a kamikaze performance is not playing a defining role in developing the nation, human action, reason and thought. It has become necessary to be attentive to the analytic terms we use. It is significant to go back to discourse or tools of analysis about the nature of the world, the country, continent, the relationship that exist between objective and subjective realities. To elaborate this point, it will help to appreciate and comprehend that “no one can climb on your back unless you kneel down for them to do so”.

On this account, a welter of questions and observations has become immanent in de-constructing the South African society. Why is corruption so well entrenched in South Africa? We live in a corrupted world. Those captured by the insatiable lust to be rich have attracted undeserved sympathy. Put bluntly, victimhood or victimology has been consigned on them. What is the defining character of this period?

In recent times, we have witnessed the most fluid environment. The issues, not enumerated in terms of their significance are (a) fluidity (b) humble ordinarisation of the membership and country at large (c) verdict of the ANC membership at Mangaung: what are the facts about Mangaung? What are the dialectical, legal and political concerns about it? (d) growing yawning distance between the political leadership, constituencies and government (e) the challenge and contradiction of the National Liberation Movement (NLM) and centennial celebrations (f) weaknesses of the ANC Communication Strategy such as how the Dr Mathews Phosa and Mr Malusi Gigaba issues were handled. The communication gaffs may be an undoing to the ANC (g) the belligerence and bellicosity characterising the ANC today. (h) The ANC has lost a high moral ground (i) Weakening of the Judiciary (j) the absence of a shared common and controlling idea within the ANC and (k) the struggle to control tenders. All of these issues raise a fundamental question: Is this an illusion of the Movement without a Movement?

The credo or the DNA of the ANC in responding to current challenges must not deviate from the script thus rendering the Movement somnolent in a changing world. The centennial cerebration offers both the ANC and the country a perfect template to arrive at our nirvana. More broadly, as the ANC prepares for the next centenary it becomes necessary and relevant to resolve these issues in a manner that does not create an illusion of the Movement without a Movement. In a sense, shaping the character and content of the agenda for the next centenary requires what is outlined in the UNDP Human Development Report 2011.

The Report points out that “human development is the expansion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives, to advance other goals they have reason to value, and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet. People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups.” The central and complex matter of human development is equally captured in the 1992 “Ready to Govern” document which outlines the vision for a democratic South Africa and the recent policy expressions to construct a developmental state.

Equally, this is given a concrete expression in the preamble to the Constitution that it was adopted to:

• Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values,
social justice and fundamental human rights;
• Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based
on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by the law;
• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person
and
• Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a
sovereign state in the family of nations.

The preamble is a decisive call to action. It is a reflection of the unity in action and unity of purpose. It is a perfect commitment to transform society from liquidity to solidity. The constitutional democracy and its values cannot, advisedly, be objected raucously to adopt the choices we need to address the myriad of questions and observations that have become immanent in de-constructing the South African society.

Ben Okri’s historic address, A Moment in Timelessness delivered on 26 August 1997 is telling. He intimated that: “And so our choice is simple and concurrent. This choice is ours. We rise or fall by the quality of the choice we make. But then the choice we make is utterly dependent on the light that we use, and the light of lies we live by”.
To collectively and individually resolve an illusion of the Movement without a Movement, we will rise or fall by the quality of the choice we make. The choice is ours.

REFERENCES

1. UNDP. Human Development Report 2011. Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future
for All.
2. Ben Okri. A Moment in Timelessness. 26 August 1997
3. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
4. ANC. Ready to Govern. ANC policy guidelines for a democratic South Africa as
adopted at the National Conference. 31 May 1992