LIBERATION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY:
Perspectives on a Decade of Democracy1
By
N Barney Pityana2
He was indeed a world historical figure. He captured the spotlight of
history precisely at the right time, and responded with a blueprint for
what America could become if it trusted its democratic
legacy...(1991:xix)
I begin this address with these remarks on Martin Luther King Jr because I
readily acknowledge the effect that the inspiration of one person can be lifechanging, and affect the course of history. Martin Luther King had to take on
the mantle of being the personification of the civil rights struggle in the United
States because, in his own words, “... people cannot devote themselves to a
great cause without finding someone who becomes the personfication of the
cause.” In South African, the name of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela conjures up
similar sentiments.
The
presumed
consensus
about
American
values,
the
common
consciousness crafted by the pioneers of America’s constitutional system,
was shattered when Martin Luther King, Jr demonstrated just how hollow they
always were. He fully understood, in my view, that the ‘negro’ was never a
participant in the creation of the new America. The ‘consensus’ collapsed
under King’s close scrutiny. As James Washington puts it, “consensus faded
when the nation sought to unpack the contents of its national moral creed”
(1991;xviii). Martin Luther King, Jr appealed to the same values that may have
1
This paper was originally presented as the Martin Luther King, Jr Lecture at Rice University,
Houston, Texas on 20 January 2004. It has been revised and adapted for delivery as the Opening
Address at the “Ten Years of Democracy in Southern Africa: Historical Achievement, Present State,
Future Prospects” Conference held at the University of South Africa, Pretoria, 23-25 August 2004.
2
Principal and Vice Chancellor, University of South Africa.
2
been intended to exclude their inclusive meaning. He sought to give effect to
the moral code that gave legitimacy to the American Civil War and the
decolonisation of the New World. For him, the promise of liberty enshrined in
the Constitution was universal. The point of the civil rights movement was to
enforce fidelity to those ideals.
The thesis developed in this paper is that even in South Africa, whatever
common consensus there ever was about democracy at the making of the
national constitution,
soon
collapsed
under the
contestations about
transformation and the rights of the majority of the people of South Africa. An
emotional moment for many South Africans was the moment Nelson Mandela
walked out of prison accompanied by Winnie Mandela. That was itself the
moment of freedom for many South Africans, black and white, especially
those who had suffered for so long under apartheid and white minority rule.
Nelson Mandela himself personifies the cry for freedom that generations of
South Africans prayed for and for which many made the ultimate sacrifice.
Leadership that drives the aspirations of the common people, is one which,
according to Cornel West, is democratic. Democratic in the sense that it is
accountable and draws its legitimacy from popular support. Of course in
South Africa we have struggled preciosely to mark the contours of
“democracy”. Sure, we have a multi-party democracy, free elections, a
constitutional system of government buttressed by a separation of powers.
This dispensation, however, is hardly ever without attack as the government,
with the African National Congress as the majority party, even though other
smaller parties have been invited by the ANC to participate in government, is
often attacked by some opposition forces notably the Democratic Alliance and
the media, for harbouring dark intentions of control under the umbrella of
‘peoples’’, of maximising the control by the state machinery as against
minimising the control of the state, of subsuming the state under the ruling
party, of majoritarianism and disrespect for the rule of separation of powers
and packing independent institutions including the judiciary with appointees of
the ruling party.
3
The Leader of the official opposition, Tony Leon, made these points forcefully
shortly after the elections. His views are often reflected in the publication of
the Helen Suzman Foundation journal, Focus. In one of the latest issues,
James Myburgh, a research student in Oxford and previously an official of the
Democratic Alliance, makes the point that at the heart of the dispute in South
Africa’s politics are the different perspectives on democracy. He argues that
“the ANC has narrowed its understanding of democracy to the crude notion of
rule by majority, seeking to satisfy the aspirations of those who were
previously oppressed.” To do so, notions of separation of powers and checks
and balances have been thrown out of the window, replaced by legitimising
the duty of the majority party to distribute resources to correct the injustices of
the past. The charge is that the ANC has seen it fit to pack even independent
institutions like the judiciary with party appointees.
Of course, once statements like this are made in such a watertight fashion,
they begin to unravel. For example, the South African Constitution makes
adequate provision for separation of powers and of a system of checks and
balances. Clearly, successive ANC governments have consistently honoured
the rulings of the courts and the President has given effect to the nominations
of the Judicial Services Commission. There have been well-known occasions
when the courts have made judgments against the government, notably in the
SARFU case and, more recently, in the TAC case. We shall return to this
later.
In order to assist me to reflect critically on the historical perspectives on a
decade of democracy in South Africa, I shall link my observations with the
celebrations of four decades of the civil rights struggle in the United States
and the influence of Martin Luther King, Jr and the struggle for liberation in
South Africa. I shall also make comments on the values underlying the
struggle and how these values have shaped the character of South Africa
today and the place of our country in Africa and the world.
4
Values in the Struggle
Movements for justice throughout the world and throughout history always
begin with and are sustained by a moral statement, a value idea. It is an idea
whose source can be found in a particular understanding of human nature. It
often begins with the notion that all human beings are equal regardless of
race or colour and that the achievement of equality was in itself the pursuit of
justice. But for such a notion to become sustainable, one must have worked
with a theological tradition, a philosophical construct, a historical interpretation
and a social and cultural context. Movements are sustained when there are
enough people whose imagination is captivated by a vision that lifts them
beyond wherever they may be and which encourages them to have a better
idea of themselves and their history into what they might or could become. In
other words an expansive view of history and a range of possibilities are
critical to capture the imagination. But values are more than just a strategy for
evangelisation of the unsuspecting into a mass movement. Values are the
essential principles of life without which life would be without meaning – things
would fall apart, and the centre cannot hold. They are agents of social
cohesion. Values make social interaction possible and human behaviour
predictable.
In his Speech from the Dock in 1964 ahead of what was generally expected
would be a death sentence, Nelson Mandela invoked memories from his rural
childhood, in his traditional homestead, and among the village elders. He
recalled the pride with which the elders told of the history of his people, the
stories of gallantry and courage, the culture of a proud people and the
responsibility this inculcated in him. He ended the address with this ringing
call
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African
people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought
against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic
and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with
equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to
achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
The rest, of course, is history. He went on to serve 27 years in prison. If he
had been martyred, the Speech for the Dock would have inspired the people
5
of South Africa to even greater heroic and sacrificial dedication to the
eradication of the evil of apartheid. It gave them a sense of dignity and worth.
It gave moral legitimacy to the demands for justice and it rallied generations of
South Africans to a persistent denunciation of apartheid until it collapsed. It is
a moral landscape, a sweep of history, equalled perhaps only by Vaclev Havel
in his lifetime and in their martyrdom, surpassed, by Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, Jr.
It came naturally to Martin Luther King, Jr to declare that civil rights was “a
‘moral’ issue as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American
Constitution” (Cone:199;82), two authoritative guides which, paradoxically, he
shared with the segregationists of his time. For him, however, they were
liberating sources to which America was to be held accountable.
Values are what remains long after the struggle is won, the building blocks for
the new creation. The values that formed the bedrock of the struggle become
the reference point that both judges and corrects when power is being
abused, or when corruption is rife.
The Intellectual Tradition
Social movements are given shape, form, and direction by their thinkers. It is
the thinkers who articulate the “original idea”, the “big thought”. Often it is not
because it is original in the sense that nobody has ever thought about it or
that is was never capable of such thought. A movement grabs an idea and
elevates it. So that it does not become a mere passing phase, a fashionable
idea, it brings to bear the analytical instincts, connects those captivated by it
and their thinking with a series of scattered ideas, pulls them together. Every
modern idea, draws from previous ideas and what makes it sound like it is a
new idea is that it is generated from a series of previous notions which may
never have been conceptualised together in the past in the same way. It is
important to understand that by ‘intellectual’ we do not just mean a thinker or
the educated elite. Warren French suggests that if ‘intellectual’ is to serve as a
valuable classifying tool, it must be reserved “for those who have the gift of
6
abstracting, who are able to perceive the invisible patterns that permeate the
disorder of superficial appearances” (Bigsby:1969;132).
In all struggles for justice and liberation, the intellectual foundation is often
suggested by the ideas that see possibilities beyond the norm, thinking
outside the box, as it were; to interrogate received wisdom, reveal its
shortcomings, and to appeal to a greater idea to overcome it. Criticising a
version of WEB du Bois’s notion of a ‘talented tenth’, Cornel West noted du
Bois’ misplaced optimism and his dependence on the capacity of the
educated and cultured classes to lead and guide the masses. He charges that
du Bois was naive in his social analysis but he later observes that
“Victorian social criticism contains elements indispensable to future
critical thought about freedom and democracy in the twenty-first
century. Most important, it elevates the role of public intellectuals who
put forward overarching visions and broad analyses based on a keen
sense of history and a subtle grasp of the way the world is going at
present...” (Appiah & Gates:1999;1970).
Perhaps one needs to explain that there is a role for intellectuals, and social
critics not just to become part and parcel of the organised force for change. At
times it is as independent commentators and critical voices that the analytical
foresight of public intellectuals can bring to bear on a movement. James
Baldwin, for example, says that in order to be a writer “you have to demand
the impossible. And I know I am demanding the impossible. It has to be – but I
also know it has to be done...” (Bigsby:1969;100). It is that capacity to
demand “the impossible” confident that it can be done, that the courage and
insight into the human condition which intellectuals command, that social
movements can draw inspiration from. Nonetheless, movements thrive from
those within them who can engage the world of ideas and not be threatened
by it, and learn from it, correct mistakes and enhance the original ideas in the
process.
The intellectual content of social movements is affected by younger radicals
within and without the movement, scholars and critics and by writers and
other cultural activists. They are the ones who spin ideas, read the signs of
the times, understand human nature and interpret history. A leader then
7
captures those ideas, gives them form and shape and elevates them beyond
what they may have been originally intended to serve. Hence the leadership is
never in despair, or pessimistic.
It is confident of victory and about the
imperatives for change. It ensures that sufficient numbers share that belief to
form a surging movement for change.
Taking these general principles and applying them to the civil rights
movement and to the liberation struggle in South Africa, one observes that the
confidence and the optimism of the leaders was critical. They ooze the power
of the message. Martin Luther King, Jr stated confidently that “I know that this
is a righteous cause and that by being connected to it I am connected with a
transcendent value of right” (Cone:1991;70). The moral claims of the struggle
for justice were always uppermost as King often quoted the poem “I must be
measured by my soul/The mind is the standard of the man.” To the victims of
racism and segregation, King appealed to the sense of innate humanity that
African Americans believed of themselves: “We must no longer allow our
physical bondage to enslave our minds. He who feels that he is nobody
eventually becomes nobody. But he who feels that he is somebody, even
though humiliated by external servitude, achieves a sense of selfhood and
dignity that nothing in all the world can take away” (Cone:1991;72). In King,
the civil rights movement had one who dared to dream the impossible and
engaged the resources of American history and Constitution and galvanised a
people who had suffered for too long to believe that the future held less
promise than the past and the present.
The liberation movement in South Africa was built first and foremost by
African intellectuals, IP ka Seme was a lawyer at the turn of the century who
trained at Columbia University in the United States and was influenced by the
early civil rights movement. John Langalibalele Dube (popularly known as
‘uMafukuzela’), the first President of the ANC, educationist, journalist and
pastor also had very strong links with the American church. It has been noted
that there were seminal American influences on the men who later became
the founding fathers of the ANC. They were invariably American trained,
maintained strong links with the American thought and drew inspiration from
8
African American intellectuals like WEB du Bois and Marcus Garvey, from the
black church and the American Constitution. Booker T Washington and the
Tuskegee Institute are some of the places which offered them an intellectual
home, together with Lincoln University. The fledgling black independent
church movement, the Ethiopian churches, was connected to the black church
in the United States. Evidence of this thinking can be judged from IP ka
Seme’s famous address which won him first prize in the Curtis Medal Oration
at Columbia University in 1906. He said
The brighter day is rising upon Africa... Yes, regeneration of Africa
belongs to this new and powerful period. By this term regeneration I
wish to be understood to mean the entrance into a new life embracing
the diverse phases of a higher, complex existence. The basic factor
which assures their regeneration resides in the awakened race
consciousness... (Meli:1988;25).
The leadership of the ANC often drew from the civil rights movement in the
United States for inspiration and when Nelson Mandela addressed the
NAACP Convention in 1993, he repeatedly referred to “our common struggle”.
But in looking forward he restated the purpose of the struggle:
The historic challenge facing us all is to ensure that as a result of those
elections (the first democratic elections in 1994), democracy wins, nonracialism emerges triumphant, nonsexism becomes the victor, and the
people take power into their hands. (1991:263)
African intellectuals were at the vanguard of the movement. In their
statements the liberation forces often maintained that no black person would
of their own accord be complicit in their own oppression and that the policy
was predicated on the lack of regard for the capacity of the African people to
think. The formulation of policy was very methodical, rhetoric restrained but
the determination to succeed was strong. The end result of the struggle was
always kept in focus, as Oliver Tambo so often stated, as in this address to
the United Nations General Assembly in 1976:
We will create a South Africa in which the doors of learning and of
culture shall be open to all. We shall have a South Africa in which the
young of our country shall have access to the best that humankind has
produced, in which they shall be taught to love their people of all races,
to defend the equality of the people, to honour creative labour, to
uphold the oneness of mankind and to hate untruth, obscurantism,
immorality and avarice... (1977:204).
9
It is widely acknowledged that the Freedom Charter was the brainchild of the
legendary Prof ZK Matthews, one time Principal of the University College of
Fort Hare. It reflects the best intellectual efforts of the thinkers among the
oppressed, of an all-embracing vision and an ethical statement of the
movement.
Contemporary Challenges
The year 2004 is the one in which both our societies commemorate two
watershed events: 40 years of the passage of the civil rights legislation in the
United States and 10 years of democracy in South Africa marking the end of
legislated apartheid and white minority rule. In a sense these events mark the
realisation of the dreams of our leaders and of our people. In truth they are
mere beacons on a journey, marking a forward movement and no turning
back. They also mark a period where the democratic ideals, ethical
foundations and leadership was to be tested. The intellectual claims of the
movement and its epistemology will be under critique.
When Brown I overthrew Plessy in the US Supreme Court and enshrined the
principle that separation could never be equal, it began the process of
dismantling the Jim Crow laws and declared them unconstitutional. It is
significant that many of the cases that enshrined the principles of equality
were tested in admission policies to schools and universities.
Brown II
signalled a court that was gradualist and which sought to defer to local
cultures and traditions. It was precisely those traditions that Brown I
challenged and declared unconstitutional. In the words of Patricia Sullivan
Brown II was “a licence to resist.” It is interesting to note that for the next ten
years the civil rights movement consisted of an interplay between mass
protests, court actions and gradual legislative enactment culminating in the
passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Civil Rights Act, 1964 declared discrimination and racial segregation in
public amenities, facilities and employment unconstitutional and authorised
the Attorney General to take federal action to enforce integration. In the face
of a relenting legal system, Martin Luther King, Jr called attention to the limits
10
of such action. “A court order can only declare rights” he argued. “It cannot
deliver them. Only when people themselves begin to act are the rights which
are on paper given life-blood. Only when a people in mass begin to act are
they able to make all these laws real and meaningful” (Cone:1999;70). And so
the momentum for change was unstoppable. From desegregation of schools,
enforcement of integration by busing of pupils to schools, and by challenging
discriminatory admission policies in schools, attention turned to the fact that
many black voters were prevented from exercising their constitutional rights.
The Voting Rights Act was passed into law in August 1965 providing for
federal supervision of voter registration practices and protecting the right of
American citizens to cast their vote. The calls to bridge the racial divide: a
nation of two societies – one black, one white, separate and unequal, could
not remain unheeded. Perhaps, turning WEB du Bois’ idiom on its head,
America itself was experiencing the problem of double consciousness: “... the
two-ness – an American, a negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconcilied
strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone
keeps it from being torn asunder...” (1994:2).
Democratic South Africa has unashamedly and demonstrably positioned itself
within the broad canvas of “African renaissance.” It is an ideal captured by
Thabo Mbeki’s “I am an African...” speech during the debate to mark the
adoption of the new Constitution in May 1996. Incidentally, these are words
that began IP ka Seme’s Columbia University Speech in 1906. Mahmood
Mamdani characterises this renaissance as an “intellectual rebirth, a
reawakening of the mind” (Makgoba:1999;129). Mbeki himself often appeals
to the African intelligentia world-wide to become the ‘vital instruments’ in
ensuring the transformation the movement desires and seeks to create. The
African renaissance has been acknowledged to be the driving force behind
the renewal of African unity, in the establishment of the African Union (2000)
and the NEPAD initiative.
The Constitutive Act of the African Union, 2000 seeks to establish a cohesion
of values, principles and objectives within Africa, so that with a common
11
African identity, African states can take their place among the nations of the
world with pride and engage other nations on their own terms and craft the
process towards a better world. In order to enhance the dignity of the African
people, in order to uphold the sovereignty of African nations, and in order to
increase the prestige of African leaders in world forums, the African Union has
adopted under its aegis, the programme called A New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD). NEPAD seeks to present a common front in dealing
with the developed world, in engaging globalisation and brotherhood, in
confronting the problems of the Continent, and in adopting common strategies
that seek to achieve common development goals, mutual support and
correction in promoting good governance, peace and prosperity and in
confronting corruption and maladministration.
The African Peer Review Mechanism is Africa’s own system of mutual
accountability. It is a voluntary system by those states that believe that
partnership with like-minded states in pursuit of common goals will strengthen
national cohesion and benefit from best practices. The primary purpose of the
APRM, is to promote democracy and sound economic practices to the benefit
of the people of the country. To date about 16 countries have voluntarily
acceded to this mechanism thereby submitting themselves to self-monitoring
and to be accountable to their peers. So far NEPAD is fast becoming a model
for African partnership in development
I have deliberately started our assessment of the extent to which the ideals of
the struggle are finding expression in the policies and practices of the
democratic South Africa. I wanted to demonstrate that, as I understand it, a
country’s foreign policy is only a manifestation of its domestic imperatives. If
the first principle of the American Constitution is liberty, for South Africa it is
equality. This for obvious reasons. The South African political system was,
since inception, unashamedly racist, in intent and in practice. The European
settler community’s designs were conquests and exclusion and hardly ever
partnership and sharing of the resources. The racist ideology of white
supremacy was widely appropriated to give effect to policies of plunder and
repression. There was hardly any counter in law and the constitution. The
12
courts were there merely to give effect to the will of the white racist minority
legislature in which the black majority had no place. In that system black
people were conceptually invisible and nameless. Liberation becomes the
determination to assert being and dignity and presence which spells one’s
humanity. Human consciousness to use James Baldwin’s famous idiom, “it’s
not a matter of acceptance or tolerance. We’ve got to sit down and rebuild this
house.” (Bigsby:1969;101). West asserts that “The most effective and
enduring black responses to invisibility and namelessness are those forms of
individual and collective black resistance predicated on a deep and abiding
black love” (1999;1976). What he appears to call love is commitment to
people and a sacrificial giving of oneself, prophetic thought and action.
Social and political organisation at home is guided by the Constitution (1996).
The Preamble states that the purpose of the Constitution is to “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 law...” In this
the Constitution makes a connection between the peoples’ aspirations which
formed the basis of the liberation struggle and the new South Africa. In
another respect also, the new Constitution makes that connection. Section 1
of the Constitution asserts that South Africa is a unitary, democratic republic
founded on the values of “human dignity, the achievement of equality and the
advancement of human rights and freedoms...” Once again consistency with
the ethical claims of the liberation struggle is easy to detect.
Even more has been done in South Africa to advance the democratic
credentials of the system. Personal liberties and individual ideals are allowed
full expression as per a justiciable Bill of Rights, described as “the cornerstone
of democracy.” The judicial system is independent. Within a short 10 years
the judiciary, especially the Constitutional Court, has established the integrity
of the courts and in groundbreaking judgments in matters like the death
penalty, various forms of equality, the limits of state power etc has interpreted
the
Constitution,
laid
the
foundations
for
an
enduring
system
of
constitutionalism and set the tone for an open and democratic society based
on the ideals of human dignity, equality and freedom. The judiciary is assisted
13
by a variety of independent constitutional bodies like the Human Rights
Commission, the Electoral Commission and others whose mission is to bring
the immediacy of constitutional protection to the people. The South African
Constitution represents not only the antithesis of the apartheid past of our
country but also a shared vision of all the people of the country whatever their
past role in whatever political system then prevailed.
It is now ten years since the democratic system, and the rights-based
constitutional order were adopted. The harder question is to determine how
well South Africa has done not only in giving effect to the Constitution but also
in living up to the promises of the liberation struggle. Inevitably comparisons
abound as we approach the 10th anniversary of democracy in our country.
Survey after survey has found that a growing number of South Africans are
more confident about the future under a democratic government than they
were before. South Africa acknowledges that the lives of many people have
vastly improved in the 10 years of democracy. The recent review of the
government’s performance during the last ten years acknowledges that in
areas where government has direct control a great deal of improvement has
been recorded as against those areas of national life where government does
not exercise control3.
Whereas when the democratic government assumed office in 1994 the
economic outlook was very poor, today South Africa is acknowledged to have
a very stable economy with an improving competitive index and better social
cohesion. Inflation, for example, has been managed down from 15% to 6%,
foreign debt has been managed down, the budget deficit has come down from
9% of GDP in 1993 to a fraction over 1% in 2002/2003, government’s own
investment expenditure has grown from 16-17% in 1993 to 9,3%, and the
growth rate of the economy, though disappointing and inadequate, has grown
“Government has made less immediate progress in areas that require partnership with others, such as
human resource development, research and development, restructuring state assets, and black economic
empowerment. In areas where the state depends significantly on the private sector and civil society’s
behaviour, government has seen even less success…”
3
14
negative territory to 2,8% today4. A sterling effort has been made to reduce
dependency on debt. Quality of life is judged by the number of people with
access to education, home ownership, clean water, electricity, transport
system etc, and more and more South Africans have enjoyed a better life. To
sum up the achievements of 10 years of democracy, The Economist (17
January 2004) in a special report on Africa, observed that “South Africa is
much freer than before, and a bit more prosperous.”
And yet serious social problems persist. Unemployment remains a challenge
to government. The government’s own review attests to the fact that
unemployment has grown by over 1m since 1993. various explanations are
given for this together with a denial that no jobs were created in the 10 years
of democratic rule. Whatever the position may be, unemployment has become
endemic and with it rising levels of poverty. Programmes and schemes have
been introduced to create employment and employability, especially among
young South Africans. South Africa remains an unequal society with the gap
between the rich and the poor increasing. Although income levels have
increased, there are still too many South Africans, unemployed and living in
dire poverty. The state, however, has introduced programmes of state
assistance for the poor especially child allowance, disability and free health
care for children and mothers with young children.
There can be no doubt at all, that South Africans today live in a freer society
than ever before. Yet in the robust political environment, it appears sometimes
that government is over-sensitive to criticism. It is not true that the system of
checks and balances does not work, nor that the independent constitutional
institutions are ineffectual notwithstanding the persistent attacks on the SABC,
the public broadcaster. Growing numbers of Soputh Africans recognise that
life has improved since 1994. Critical to this appreciation of freedoms has
been the role of the Constitutional Court. The court’s decisions have clarified
and applied the freedoms provided in the Bill of Rights, the power of the
government has been controlled as appropriate: the abolition of the death
4
Presidential Communications and Advisory Services: Towards a ten Year review: A Synthesis Report
on the Implementation of Government Programmes:2004.
15
penalty, other common law provisions like reverse onus on the right to silence
in criminal procedure, the doctrine of legality as an incidence of the rule of law
was formulated to regulate the exercise of public power, the Presidential
prerogative has been circumscribed and the Bill of Rights applied in order to
give effect to socio-economic rights. To sum up, Andrea Gabriel observes that
“the last decade has seen a massive growth in constitutional jurisprudence
and there have been exciting developments in the common law, and in the
influence of the constitution in interpreting legislation and on fundamental
rights such as the rights to dignity and equality.”5
The South African Constitution represents the common aspirations of all
South Africans. Ultimately, however, the constitution is as good as the people
of the country wish it to be, by observing its tenets, honouring its spirit and
approaching the courts to give effect to it. Hassan Ebrahim, observes
laconically that
... no matter how wonderful the Constitution may be, unless it is respected by all – government
and citizens alike – it will not be of much value. Laws do not make a better society, people do.
Law can only be of assistance in empowering people to achieve their aspirations. 6
But, there are certain areas of life where South Africa does not score so well.
First, South Africans always refer to the levels of crime, the fact that too many
people live in fear often in their homes or when they are about their legitimate
business. Many of the crimes are violent and brutal like murder, rape, carjacking, and corruption. It must however be acknowledged that although the
levels of crime are unacceptably high, much has been done to improve
policing, to put more resources into crime prevention, to improve of the
system of administration of justice and, to address the problem of impunity.
Second, HIV/AIDS has remained a very divisive issue in public life. The
government has not dealt with this matter with as much urgency as it
deserved but public education, availability of condoms, efforts to limit new
infections and the spread of the disease, research and, now, a commitment to
treatment, have cost the government about R3,6bn in this year’s budget. A
very ambitious plan to roll out universal treatment for those living with
5
6
“The Constitutional Court: Brief Reflections on the first Decade”, Advocate; July 2004, p.34
THE SOUL OF A NATION; 1998: OUP, Cape Town; 259.
16
HIV/AIDs was announced recently. The impact of HIV/AIDS on society is
staggering. A growing number of young people, economically active, the pall
of death in many communities, robs South Africa of her vibrancy and the
economy of its much needed economic actors. It has been said that the cost
of apartheid on the people of South Africa is incalculable and the dividends of
democracy are elusive.
Third, socio-economic inequality and racial discrimination prevail. South
Africans today speak less directly about racism than they would have done
under apartheid. This is not because there is any less racism in society. It is
because the language of society is tolerance, human rights and reconciliation.
It is also because systems have been put in place to investigate and prevent
racism. The duty to create a society free of racism remains. Justice and
equality across the race divide remain a challenge. Sampie Terreblanche has
observed that the income of the bottom 45% of blacks halved between 1974
and 1994 and has contracted by another 1% since then. Although the black
middle class has grown, with it has come even wider and widening
divergences in the distribution of poverty among all populations.
Frantz Fanon commenting on post-independence Algeria, observes that
“independence has brought moral compensation to colonised peoples, and
has established their dignity.” He goes on to say, “but they have not yet had
time to elaborate a society, or to build up and affirm values...” (1977:81). In
seeking to understand our society, one is tempted to seek recourse to Fanon.
When one contemplates the violence and other pathologies prevalent in our
societies, one despairs. As a matter of fact, 300 years of a system of
deliberate alienation of whole peoples is not going to wear away
consciousness that easily. Violence is a response of despair and of
hopelessness to those who have not yet reclaimed their humanity. Fanon,
moreover points out that the process of nation-building and of entrenching
values becomes the responsibility of those who consider themselves part of
the new society, whose values affirm their humanity and whose dignity is
assured.
17
This is hard to make out because one always believed that the struggle itself
was instilling particular values and morality on those of us who engaged in the
struggle. It is however also the case that much was done in the name of the
struggle that has legitimised forms of living and entitlements that today
generate the negative instincts manifest in some behaviours. We cannot
completely absolve ourselves from responsibility. We cannot make a renewed
effort to build a new society and assert new values. West (1999:1980) could
be referring to some of the ghetto mentality prevalent in some of our
townships when he says that we must understand that the multiple forms of
social pathologies are forms of societal decay and reminders that liberation is
not an event but progressive. A more complex understanding points to the
fact that in the midst of despair and alienations, therein lies hope of a better
future. Democracy, it may be surmised, is not a state of being but a way of
growing into being.
Martin Luther King, Jr predicted in 1964 “that the United States might have a
negro President within 25 years...” He confessed that he was “optimistic about
the future” (Cone:1999;87). In more contemporary assessments of American
life, analysts like James Cone boldly assert that America “is a nightmare for
the poor of every race.” Both West and Cone believe that central to the failure
to fulfill the dream Martin Luther King, Jr asserted so confidently, is the
centrality of the race question. It is not without significance to an interested
observer that even today Americans are still debating matters one thought
had been settled by Brown. The US Courts are still being confronted with suits
challenging or seeking clarification on the application of affirmative action in
admissions to universities. In Texas, California and Michigan, in the face of an
assault on affirmative action by the courts instigated by white interest groups,
the lack of representation of black and Hispanic students at universities has
led to universities adopting special measures to attract more minority
students.
The debate about affirmative action or percentage plans, I am aware, accepts
that higher education can best be enriched by ensuring that the learning
environment is “as diverse as this nation” (Judge Powell in Bakke). One
18
would have thought that in circumstances where, as some reports suggest,
colleges are experiencing a dwindling enrolment of black males as too many
are getting caught up in problems like drugs or populate the prisons of this
nation, a compensatory measure to encourage and advance those from that
social stratum who wish to undertake academic studies or skills training,
becomes a public policy imperative. Otherwise King’s optimistic prediction of
40 years ago will simply become another unfulfilled dream.
Conclusion
My thesis in this address has been that revolutions succeed best and their
objectives achieved and sustained most where the moral legitimacy resides,
not just in terms of the end-product but also in the manner of the execution of
the struggle. So conceived, revolutions benefit from transformational
leadership, and the values underlying the movement are defensible and
lasting. I have also stated, however, that the values of the movement often
judge it when it seeks to implement its programme.
Two thoughts spring to mind as to what makes for the building of the new
society that Frantz Fanon refers to. The first must surely be the capacity of the
nation to conduct its public debates. In such debates the nation examines its
shortcomings and strengths, surveys the infinite variety of views and opinions
and treats everyone with due respect, exercising tolerance and promoting
meaningful communication. When, however, public discourse degenerates
into “petty namecalling, fingerpointing, with little room for mutual respect and
empathetic exchange” (West:1980) then the nation is bound to lose its soul.
Such a nation is most unfree because “freedom is first and foremost an inner
recognition of self-respect...” (Cone:317).
Making the link between human well-being as freedom and a moral capacity,
Elena Mustakova-Possardt, develops the principle originally mortalised by
Brazilian popular educator Paulo Freire, critical consciousness or in
Portuguese, conscientizadora. In English that became translated as
conscientization. Mustakova-Possardt redefines “critical consciousness” as “a
‘way of being’ that fully integrates the heart and the mind and so creates in the
19
individual a sense of highly principled morality, philosophical expansion, and
historical
and
global
vision
that
represents
the
acme
of
human
consciousness” (2003). The connection between moral consciousness, moral
being and moral action cannot be lost sight of. In fact it establishes wholeness
of being. In this one can feel the resonance of Jurgen Habermas’
“communicative action”.
The moral fibre of the liberation struggle gets stretched to breaking point when
leaders appear to be involved in corruption as the recent Arms Procurement
Investigation suggests. If one suggests that African Americans have lost their
sense of passion for that which is right, South Africans post-liberation have
become very individualist, self-centred and selfish. When that happens then
we can no longer occupy the moral high-ground that served as such a
powerful indictment on apartheid and the white minority system.
A communicative environment is critical if the nation will be able to take stock
of itself. And here, the nation’s critical thinkers, scholars and intelligensia – the
cultural actors and creative artists, the historians and analysts, present the
moral character of the nation and appeal to the nation’s own moral selfunderstanding. In a recent essay Immanuel Wallerstein debates the role of
intellectuals in societies in transition and he emphasises how crucial
intellectuals are at a time when nations are rethinking themselves. He goes on
to say
But if intellectuals do not hold the flag of analysis high, it is not likely
that others will. And if an analytic understanding of the real historical
choices are not at the forefront of our reasoning, our moral choices will
be defective, and above all our political strength will be undermined.
Wallerstein was speaking at the recent UNESCO Colloquium on Higher
Education, Research and Knowledge (December 2003). His comments,
especially about intellectuals opening up the vistas of knowledge and
understanding in order to enable informed choices to be made, are apposite.
The second imperative, is that such a nation must never tire of re-inventing
itself, rediscovering its values and its capacity to become better than it has
20
been. We must eschew the conservative inclination that suggests that “we
have arrived.” A transformative society takes shape when “human beings see
new possibilities, act upon them, and by so doing, transform their own
previous ways of thinking and alter the subsequent course of history, in great
or small ways” (Barnett:2002;216). This draws from advances in education
associated with Alfred Montouri’s models of transformative thinking and
learning.
Forty years since the civil rights legislation, and ten years since the
democratisation of South Africa, our two nations have never shared more on
the world stage.
ends
Pretoria, 23 August 2004.
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2. James H Cone: MARTIN & MALCOLM: A Dream or a Nightmare;
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3. Kwame Anthony Appiah & Henry Louis gates (Eds): AFRICANA: The
Encyclopaedia of the African and African American Experience; 1999;
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21
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