President Cyril Ramaphosa tried to paint a positive picture of South Africa at the Mapungubwe Conference, held at the University of Johannesburg, earlier this year. However, the dire socio-economic and political state of the country, made his task nearly impossible. The exponentially growing levels of inequality and poverty clearly militate against such unqualified optimism. In his speech to celebrate “25 years of democracy” (www.gov.za), the President addressed a range of issues but fell hopelessly short of providing meaningful solutions to the socio-economic and political problems that confront our country.
Mr Ramaphosa started by saying: “Firstly, it is an opportunity to assess progress towards the achievement of our vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, prosperous and free society” (Speech made at Mapungubwe conference, www.gov.za)
It should be stated here that Mr Ramaphosa and his party never stood for non-racialism. Their Freedom Charter clearly promotes multi-racialism and unequivocally promotes tribalism with all its undemocratic trappings. In addition, even the constitution of our country makes provision for these tribal chiefs who sponge off poor rural communities and receive millions in tax payers’ money. Under clause two of this much lauded Freedom Charter it clearly states: ‘All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride’ Who are these national groups if we are supposed to be one nation? Are we also to believe that we are part of different races, contrary to all the scientific evidence and the fact that we fought against this absurdity for over 300 years? Is it any wonder that the country is currently mired in racial and xenophobic conflict?
More Spurious Claims
Mr Ramaphosa continues, by saying:
‘…it highlights the remarkable progress we have made in providing basic services and assets to the poor, in reviving and transforming our economy, in opening the doors to education and learning, in advancing non-racialism and non-sexism, and in cementing a democratic Constitutional order.’
These claims fly in the face of the reality that confronts the poor working class daily. Since the advent of the new democracy, South Africa has seen wave after wave of service delivery protests ranging from electricity, water to sanitation issues. We have witnessed the total collapse of multi-billion Rand state owned enterprises, dysfunctional municipalities, the wanton greed and theft by corrupt politicians that rendered our country virtually bankrupt and the unprecedented exploitation of our economic resources by imperialism. We have seen the horrific increase in gender-based violence and the state’s repressive stance this year against the women who protested against their abuse. So much for making a statement in favour of non-sexism, Mr President! In addition, education has degenerated into a complete shambles. A lack of resources, overcrowded classes and failing infrastructure are but some of the issues that have seen a steady decline in the quality of education for the poor. Astronomically high levels of poor learners drop out of school and swell the ranks of the unemployed or become new gang recruits.
These are the harrowing realities that are threatening the ‘cementing of our constitutional order’ as the President so eloquently says. It is however in the same lauded constitution from where the root cause of our problems spread. The protection of private property is guaranteed in our constitution and as such has firmly secured and entrenched unequal property relations between the wealthy and poor in this country. Nowhere was there even a suggestion of the redistribution of national resources in the interest of the labouring majority. Apart from the empty rhetoric from the ANC and EFF absolutely NOTHING has changed in the property relations of our population. The deal struck during the negotiated settlement, ensured the continued exploitation of the poor labouring majority in exchange for a few crumbs from the master’s table for the new Black elite. Mr Ramaphosa is quite open about this: ‘There are several indicators of social progress, from the growth in the size of the black middle class…’
Lucrative government contracts and spurious tenders have also seen prominent government ministers and officials transformed almost overnight into multi-millionaires, with our own President comfortably being a proud billionaire. The President fleetingly acknowledges, in his characteristic diplomatic sweeping manner, the fact that we are faced with an economic crisis but quickly continues to urge all sectors of society to start addressing these challenges. Here lies the problem.
Worsening Economic Woes
South Africa’s economy is shedding jobs. This is because the economic model of privatisation is not geared at employing people but rather utilising the most cost effective ways of generating profit for a few. With further advancements in technology, an ill-equipped educational system to provide requisite skills and even sterner competition from foreign companies, this trend is likely to increase. Not only is our unemployment rate one of the highest globally, we also have the most unequal society! On the flipside of this coin however, the world’s wealthy have seen unprecedented economic prosperity. In a SAFTU website article on the Oxfam Inequality Report (January 22 2019), the following is revealed:
‘Oxfam confirms that inequality is widening even faster than ever, in South Africa and throughout the world, where last year 26 people owned the same amount as the 3.8 billion poorest half of humanity; even fewer than the 43 richest people the year before. The wealth of the world’s billionaires increased by $900 billion (R12.43 trillion), or $2.5bn a day, in the last year, while the wealth of the poorest half fell by 11%.’
Furthermore, South Africa is religiously servicing an odious Apartheid Debt that has seen the country losing billions of rands in revenue for debt incurred to maintain our oppression under the previous illegitimate minority regime. In an article published in Africa Focus (www.Africapolicy.org/docs98), the ridiculous extent of this loan and its implications for Southern Africa are spelt out clearly: “When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison, rich countries and banks handed him and the people of Southern Africa a bill of £28 billion … Apartheid wrought destruction across Southern Africa. Now is the time to rebuild. But the financial institutions and countries which lent during the apartheid war are demanding repayment. The victims of apartheid are being asked to pay again … The apartheid regime not only oppressed its own people, but waged a full-scale war against Mozambique and Angola, made raids into all the neighbouring states, and imposed an economic blockade on Lesotho, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.”
The above comments demonstrate that the government has no solution to the problems of the poor labouring majority. Instead, we have seen an increased militarization against the oppressed wherever they have taken a stance against their exploitation. Our own President was implicated in Marikana. More recently our own women and destitute brothers and sisters from the continent, bore the brunt of police brutality. We have no choice but to organise ourselves independently of the ruling class and their lackeys. We must rally around a common political programme and on a principled basis to achieve a just socialist order where the aspirations of the working class and landless peasants are given priority!