The atmosphere in South Africa in October 2023 is one of pervasive despair. A sense of depression and disillusionment that things are bad and will never get better.
This is partly due to the belief that nothing can be done to rectify what is happening at the hands of the ANC, the liberation movement that led the country to freedom in 1994, then led by Nelson Mandela. Based on.
The early years of the ANC-led government, initially a government of national unity, saw significant progress in education, health care, basic resources such as water, electricity, housing, and many other areas of life.
Particularly in later years, after Jacob Zuma became president in 2006, first as president of the ANC and then as president of the nation in 2008, many of these gains were not simply due to failure to implement policies. Instead, it was reversed.
These setbacks were mainly caused by the massive plunder of ficus and national resources that were supposed to be used to improve the lives of the poor and marginalized.
Although other organizations were involved in the liberation, many people dedicated their lives to the struggle under the leadership of the ANC. Many of those who remained loyal to the ANC and SACP were reluctant to leave these organizations despite theft, believing that it was best to try to change them from within. I believed.
In my case, I left and severed formal ties with the ANC and SACP and did my best to show, primarily through analysis, what went wrong in the early years of Zuma's presidency.
I did not condemn everyone who remained within the ANC, nor did I put much energy into individuals in general. I believe that there are people who stayed and remained within the ANC because they sincerely believed that they could change the ANC from within.
They were proven wrong. It doesn't fill me with joy.
Some are trying to revamp the ANC from within. I do not question the ethical reasons that led them to remain within the ANC and continue to do so. Many are willing to continue the fight for freedom and change that they have dedicated their lives to or sacrificed for.
They hoped that these aspirations would come true, but in many cases they did not believe that they would necessarily live to see the liberation of 1994, much less the transformation that we expected to see in its aftermath. It was even more difficult to see a society that had been affected.
Unfortunately, what has happened since the sacking of Jacob Zuma has been as bad, if not worse, than the earlier depredations. What some have described as the “wasted years” of Zuma's presidency continued to be “wasted years” if that is the succinct description of what happened.
Even in the post-Zuma era, life is still cheap and there is widespread illicit activity that has permeated police services, including the supply of guns through the police to criminal elements in places like the Western Cape. include.
In many parts of the country, such as in Gauteng, members of the security forces and specially established police mechanisms use unlawful force against innocent citizens and even those who violate minor regulations. .
The use of force unnecessary to arrest or stop illegal activity is a continuing pattern in the functioning of police services, as has widely happened during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Worryingly, police are rarely held accountable for breaking the law or committing acts of violence.
The issue of fraud is no longer purely an issue of the early State Capture era. The state capture initiated by the Guptas led to the control of ministries within the South African government and the diversion of resources from finance. This has stopped (as far as we know) unless the Guptas are no longer the initiators. However, this particular route to wealth continues, albeit with some variation, through others engaging in irregular or fraudulent bids and similar practices.
Fraud against state institutions such as Eskom and Transnet has continued since the Zuma/Gupta government. Much of what was supposed to restore Eskom's capabilities has been undermined by illegal activity by Eskom internal or former employees who know how to access elements of Eskom that can be sabotaged, leaving Eskom with irregular prices. and supplies materials at abnormal prices. Illegal methods, such as supplying substandard coal and obstructing Eskom's essential transportation means and coal shipments to ports.
Similar patterns can be seen in other state-owned enterprises.
The weakening and plunder of the state and state institutions continues in all states. In fact, the DA-led municipalities in the Western Cape and Cape Town generally operate more efficiently than those under the federation or those controlled by the ANC. However, in the Western Cape, beyond the aforementioned siphoning of weapons to local gangs, there are also major problems in the relationship between police and gangs. Because that's just one part of the generally damaged relationship between police and gangs. Underworld.
In the context of this national crisis that encompasses almost every area of our lives, it is not surprising that many people want the government of the day, especially the ANC-led government, to be removed. The government controls the central government and all provinces except the Western Cape, but it also appears vulnerable to electoral setbacks in Gauteng and possibly KwaZulu-Natal.
Many people wanted this to happen and came together as an opposition party to secure an alternative to the ANC that could form a majority and govern the country as a clean government. The most powerful opposition party, the DA, is leading many of these efforts, and new political parties such as Rise Mzansi have been formed.
I am not convinced that electoral change, in and of itself, will solve this country's problems.
In local government, the ANC has suffered severe defeats since 2016, and the establishment of alternative coalition governments has resulted in a number of coalition governments and mayors in the Johannesburg region, for example, becoming highly unstable, with corruption continuing despite leadership. We've seen it happen. change.
As in the case of the City of Johannesburg, political parties representing less than 5% of the electorate are allowed to hold the mayoral office in a highly inefficient manner in order to keep one party out of power. You can see the situation. at present.
This is just one example of why an alternative electoral system to the ANC cannot be seen as future-proof. I know that nothing can be guaranteed anywhere in politics, but I think there are problems not only in ANC politics but also in the opposition camp.
The problem this country has with an alternative to the ANC is not (as I said above) a doctrinal one. This means that the ANC may be leaning toward state-run activities, nationalization, and similar quasi-socialist ideas. The problem is not that private companies are tasked with driving growth and development in this country. (See below for why doctrine is not the main issue) here and here).
The main question that concerns me at the moment is that many people, looking at the current Israeli-Hamas-Palestinian crisis and the callous disregard for life and killing of civilians in the initial surprise attack on Palestine by Hamas, is similar to the question that fascinates me. However, Israeli retaliatory attacks are currently being carried out in the Gaza enclave, with civilians being the main victims as people are unable to escape the bombing.
In that case, we lack compassion for the largely defenseless civilian population who suffer numerous harms and deaths.
If your starting point is not a doctrine, whether you are a socialist, a social democrat (actually a type of socialist), a communist, or a liberal;, What matters is whether you care about other humans.
My sense is that the hearts of the ANC in earlier generations may have beat like the hearts of the oppressed. Many were from oppressed peoples and were willing to die for the freedom of all South Africans. The ANC is now indifferent to what happens to the still oppressed majority that once constituted its constituency. Let me be clear that the expression “oppressed majority” is not an exaggeration, but refers to the apartheid-type oppression that continues in the conditions most people experience.
When I think about the opposition parties, I don't get the impression that they have much empathy or sympathy for the fate of those who are suffering. I'm not saying this is the case for the DA or all other opposition parties, but they give the impression that they have a technical and clinical approach to what's going on in this country.
While the DA may claim to be more efficient in its work compared to the ANC, its track record in coalitions in local government is beyond question. Even without that, given the potential composition of such groups, it is questionable whether they can lead coalitions at the national level to solve national problems, since they can be pulled in different directions. It is opaque.
Because neither the ANC nor its alternatives are satisfactory in terms of resolving the country's problems, many people feel a sense of hopelessness, passivity, and an inability to do anything to alleviate their current predicament. Trapped in a feeling of nothingness. South Africa Day. DM
In the second part of this article, we consider hope and prophetic action as resources for neutralizing despair.
This article first appeared on Creamer Media's polity.org.za.
Raymond Suttner is Professor Emeritus at the University of South Africa and Research Fellow in the Department of English at the University of the Witwatersrand. He served a long term as a political prisoner. His writings cover contemporary politics, history, and social issues. His His X His handle is @raymondsuttner.