More Plasters Over Fully Festered Wounds Won’t Save South Africa

One has to admire all these good South Africans who are busy forming and introducing a litany of new political parties into an already crowded political party space. The same is happening in the civil society space, of course, as new civil society movements get created by all types of well-meaning and, as we say in South Africa, “gatvol” South Africans who have come to the realisation that if they do not roll-up their own sleeves, the country will continue its slide towards irretrievable loss.

Watching from an imagined distance, South Africans are like an ill-disciplined army facing the same monster but too busy arguing amongst themselves instead of coming together to align on a clear strategy that, buttressed by their combined force and unity of purpose, could have long ago stopped the monster from advancing further in its wrecking ball fashion. In some cases, individual and small groups of soldiers have taken to their own little corners to throw ineffective pebbles at the monster that either only irritate it mildly or amuse it.

Others have taken to defending the monster on the basis of its repeated claims to past glory and unproven heroic acts, anecdotes of which have been told so many times that no one knows anymore where the truth stops and lie begin. It is a cacophonous space indeed.

Amused by the noisy divisions, the monster watches in total insouciance and continues doing what it does best with wrecking ball effect, assured that it still has things under control. But there have also been mild signs of panic as it tries to use its entrenched muscles to ensure it remains in place.

We have a chance to reposition power in the hands of the people

2024 will be a year of no return for South Africa if the status quo remains unchanged or only changes mildly. Those who have begun to roll-up their sleeves must be praised for having done so, but they must also realise how harder and longer the recovery will be to realise if they remain isolated in their little corners hoping to beat the monster by themselves and be the ones to get to “cut the ribbon” heralding a better future.

Ordinary South Africans - those who are not busy forming political parties with the hope that they could be the “next best thing for South Africa” - must realise that they have a lot more to lose if they continue to leave it to the charming, well-spoken men and women in politics to determine on their behalf how the monster will be tackled and what could be in it for them. After almost 30 years of broken promises, abuses, rampant, imbedded corruption, missed and squandered opportunities, high levels of impunity and arrogance, all culminating in an incalculable opportunity cost for the country, it would be careless, to put it mildly, to simply stand by and hope for the best .

South Africa’s future can no longer be left to rely on the goodwill or good health of the unpredictable men and women in politics to determine.

The political tail has been wagging the dog for far too long and only pain has come out of it. It is time the people came together, united in their diversity, and took control. It is only this way that they can take stock and align on what they want to see happen in the journey leading to and after the 2024 general elections. The past 30 years have given us ample opportunities to see what works for the people of South Africa and what doesn’t.

The analysis that must happen must be a systemic one, looking at the supposedly robust democratic institutions created following the end of apartheid that many believed would suffice on their own to protect us and enable South Africa to realise the ideals enshrined in the 1996 Constitution. We have seen how these institutions have been systematically weakened and repurposed over time through toxic, racist, cadre deployment to serve the interest of mafia-style criminal cabals imbedded in our politics. This trend must be reversed.  

The systemic changes We must consider should not exclude the constitution

We cannot continue with the same methods into perpetuity and keep hoping for different outcomes despite all the evidence before us. Something must give. And no topic should be considered sacrosanct and untouchable, including the need to amend the Constitution to, e.g. reduce the powers invested in the Office of the President. Former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke was correct – and he was made to pay for it – for pointing out that we placed too much power in the Office of the President only with Nelson Mandela in mind, seemingly believing that all his successors would come armed with the same levels of emotional maturity, balance, empathy, maturity, and vision. We were wrong and we continue to pay dearly for it.

Anyone winning elections to become president in the current dispensation will walk into that office and find all those powers, including the ones recently concentred into it – e.g., the housing of South Africa’s national intelligence services in the presidency – and see only opportunities to reinforce control for themselves. It is safe to suspect therefore, that the focus of South Africa’s National Intelligence Services has, over the past 15 years or so, increasingly been taken away from looking out for the interest of the country – irrespective of who is in power – to looking out for the interests of powerful political factions. This too must stop.

To thrive, South Africa doesn’t need a strong presidency that reports to the headquarters of any one political formation. The country’s national assembly also no longer needs to be filled with well-fed, arrogant, parliamentarians – some of whom have been implicated in unethical, even criminal, acts - who pretend to be ‘public representatives’ when it has become clear that they are ‘party representatives’ at the beck and call of political masters and will act against the interests of the people if instructed to do by their political bosses, with no wrath of citizen constituencies to fear.   

Constitutional amendments are not unheard of

Other countries have brought needed amendments to their respective Constitutions over time to align them with the changing times and to strengthen democratic practice. Switzerland, for instance, is on its third federal constitution. Its first formal constitution (there had been several forms of federal pacts since 1291) was enacted in 1848, the second in 1874, and the current one as recently as 1999. All these amendments were enacted to introduce or clarify rights and obligations and to strengthen democracy for what is known as the la “Confédération Helvétique” in which the people, not those elected to office, hold power through tools such as the right of referendum, which renders citizen consultation on major government decisions mandatory, and the right of initiative, which give citizens space to initiate amendments to laws.  

There are lessons to be drawn by South Africans from the Swiss and other democratic practices around the world. Since most analysts seem to agree that South Africa’s foreseeable political future lies in coalition governance, it should therefore make sense to envisage a more collegial, multiparty, elected national council with a rotating presidency over a predetermined electoral mandate, e.g., five years, and in which those elected president act more like rotating board chairpersons over short periods, e.g. 12 months, than all powerful individuals and potential despots whose personal moods, preferences, or health must determine the efficacy of South Africa’s democracy.

The devolution of more powers to provincial governments must also be considered under appropriate conditions. Toxic, racist policies discriminating against minorities must be done away with.     

All these proposed changes should not be left to charming, well-spoken political wannabes to promise on the naïve basis that they will “see what they can do” once they cross the electoral line in 2024. They must be defined and insisted upon by the people. They must also be conditions sine qua non for electoral support leading to 2024.