- Programme Director;
- The President of UPenn, Professor Larry Jameson;
- Deputy Provost, Professor Beth Winkelstein;
- Director of the Center for Africana Studies, Professor Wale Adebanwi;
- Distinguished faculty members, students, staff and guests.
First off, allow me to thank THE CENTER FOR AFRICANA STUDIES and THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA for inviting and offering me the honour to address this important congregation and timely dialogue.
Let me use this moment to also acknowledge the role and contribution of the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA in the anti-apartheid struggle, which was part of a global movement against racial discrimination.
Drawing on the theme of today’s event: “30 years of non-racial democracy in South Africa – after the end of apartheid”, the challenge of squeezing 30 years of democracy into a short half hour talk can be complicated and one is bound to unintentionally omit many parts of the puzzle. There are as many interpretations of the past 30 years in South Africa as there are South Africans and I appreciate the opportunity to share but a few.
In order for me to do justice to the topic, I suggest to first give a brief outline of the shared history of colonialism, slave practice, and racism in our two countries.
Second, the legal basis of racial segregation in the Union of South Africa.
Third, the policy of Apartheid.
Fourth, the advent of Constitutional Democracy in South Africa.
Fifth, the work of the Independent High-Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change.
Sixth, Way Forward and Conclusion.
The struggle for independence in South Africa as well as the continent of Africa, and the struggle for equal rights that ensued through the Civil Rights Movement in the United States coincided on matching timelines with concepts, truths and doctrines that overlapped, informed and influenced each other. And still do, to this day.
Shared accounts of lived experiences of oppression and key historical moments ricocheting across the Atlantic, shaped the future of postcolonial Africa and laid foundations for a shift of the mind and stimulation of consciousness that echoed our aspirations for a free world.
In 1776, the geopolitical interpretation of economist and philosopher, Adam Smith, referred to the importance of the discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, as the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of humankind. [1]
A hundred and ninety years later in his address to the student body of the University of Cape Town, Robert F. Kennedy in 1966 captured the shared experience of South Africa and the U.S.A. as follows:
“I come here because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which was once the importer of slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage.”
At that point the audience believed that he was referring to South Africa until, of course, he made the following statement.
“I refer, of course, to the United States of America.”[2]
Similarly, the Dutch landed on our shores in South Africa in the mid-17th Century, later taken over by the British, and dispossessing indigenous inhabitants of their land.
History records that Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company, arrived on the shores of the Cape of Good Hope, accompanied by a garrison of about a hundred soldiers with a mandate to establish a refreshment station. He found a place populated by the San and KhoiKhoi peoples. So, the first question which arose was: on whose land was he to establish such a refreshment station?
Thus, the first war of dispossession broke out almost immediately in 1657 to herald similar frontier wars that were to last for two hundred years.
The second question that arose was whose labour was to till the land?
Since soldiers are not usually trained to till the soil, slaves and indentured labourers had to be imported from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Angola, Zanzibar, Madagascar and more.
Later when the British annexed the Cape Colony, they offered refuge in the Cape to the French Huguenots, who were being persecuted for their religion at the time and encouraged the French Huguenots to till the land of the Cape. Thanks to that, South Africa is the greatest producer of wine on the continent.
- The legal basis of racial segregation in the Union of South Africa.
In 1910, the Union of South Africa was established as a Parliamentary Democracy to the exclusion of Africans from the main body politic of the country. The following host of laws were meant to promote racial, social, and economic segregation:
The Masters and Servants Act of 1856; the Mines and Works Act No. 12 of 1911, which kept black people out of skilled occupations in the most significant sector of the economy at the time; the Natives Land Act No. 27 of 1913, which gave 87% of the land to whites and reserved 13% for occupation by Africans; the Industrial Conciliation Act No. 11 of 1924 introducing job reservation for whites; and the Natives Trust and Land Act No. 18 of 1936, stripping black Africans of the right to vote; as well as the pass laws. Every African male, from the age of 16, had to carry a pass on their bodies at all times. Through the Influx Control Law, all African males were classified as temporary sojourners in white areas and were obligated to have their passes stamped with a work seekers permit which read as follows: “permitted to be in the magisterial district of — while under the employ of —“.
This stamp was ordinarily known as “a special” by Africans. Any African male who failed to produce a pass with a “special” stamped in it would be arrested and charged as a “won’t work”, that is a lumpen. This became a reliable pipeline to supply cheap prison labour to Afrikaner farmers and thus a primitive accumulation of capital by Afrikaners.
- The policy of Apartheid
The Nationalist Party which had won the elections in 1948 then graduated that policy of racial segregation into apartheid.
“[A]partheid, one word — with no specific dictionary meaning — changed the South African scene overnight and won the elections for the Nationalist Party. One word, three-syllabled, charged with emotional intensity which suited the general temper of white South Africa; a one-word ideology which unleashed the race monster of our age”. [3]
- The advent of Constitutional Democracy in South Africa.
It is against the backdrop of apartheid that the advent of a new dispensation held great promise with immense hope that inspired the transition from Parliamentary to Constitutional Democracy in South Africa.
Fast-forward to thirty years ago, on 27 April 1994 in South Africa, the majority of the population voted for the first time in their lives. It was a joyous occasion that reverberated throughout the world.
The overarching vision for a free South Africa in 1994, was the inclusive notion of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous country. This crystalized the objective of the liberation struggle and what should supersede apartheid rule.
There was a recognition that our transition would be based on “restorative justice” and not “punitive justice”, in contrast to the Nuremburg process. To heal the wounds and divisions of the past, emphasis was on reconciliation to forge social cohesion through the mechanism of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The new constitution of South Africa, which was finalised in 1996, denotes a decisive break with the past and sets out a future trajectory of values and principles from which to derive rights, privileges, benefits, duties, and responsibilities of shared citizenship. This ushered in constitutional democracy.
The Bill of Rights, enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, is unique by virtue of its focus on the right to life; human dignity; equality; non-racialism; and freedom as first-generation rights.
Citing an excerpt from the Preamble of the South African Constitution, may offer a deeper understanding into the symbolism of a fledgling democracy and its grand aspirations:
We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as 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 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.
Today, as we speak, freedom and democracy have indeed been achieved, but this only symbolizes a triumph over oppression and apartheid, which is effectively just half of the story.
The other half tells a story of accumulated historical disabilities ensuing from many decades of apartheid rule.
We learn history to know and understand the story of human development through the ages – the various forms of social organisation and the causes of the rise and fall of those forms of human relationships.
So, accordingly, history is only as good as it elevates us to an understanding of where we come from, where we are and what we can bequeath to posterity. It therefore gives us context.
- The work of the Independent High-Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change.
In December 2015, the Speakers’ Forum, as the representative body of the South African legislative sector, moved to establish an independent high-level panel to undertake the task of assessing the content and implementation of legislation passed since 1994 in relation to its effectiveness and possible unintended consequences.
For 21 months, the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change[4], which it was my honour to chair, had criss-crossed the country to hear firsthand from those who lived in the Republic of South Africa about their experience of the laws passed by the democratic state.
The Panel’s mandate was to review legislation, assess implementation, identify gaps and propose action steps with a view to identifying laws that require strengthening, amending or change. In other words, this intervention involves the identification of existing legislation that enabled the transformational agenda and pursuit of the developmental state, as well as laws that impede this goal.
The cardinal question was whether the legislative output of the post-apartheid state had been equal to the challenges already entrenched in society?
The evidence presented showed that the ills of the past were being reproduced in post-apartheid society, despite extensive legislative reform.
The observed changes had not dented the deep inequities in the quality of services received in many instances, nor had they made fundamental shifts in outcomes as seen in evidence presented in the Report.
Thus, in some areas, society appeared to be ‘progressively realising’ the inclusive vision of the Constitution, while in others there was a need to accelerate fundamental change. Legislation can have both positive and negative impacts on people’s lives, as we know from the legislative history of colonialism and apartheid cited above.
- Way Forward
Without economic redress, there is a growing tension and turbulence between our constitutional democracy and a population suffering the triple threat of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
The promises of the 1994 political settlement have yet to significantly improve the conditions of the majority of South Africans, in other words most black people in South Africa still live in poverty; white people in South Africa still hold the lion’s share of all forms of capital; and the concentration of wealth is still along the lines of the old patterns of apartheid and colonialism.
There is a mismatch between the education system of South Africa and the skills that are required by the economy, and this leads to high levels of unemployment even amongst young people who hold tertiary qualifications.
Although the country has made great strides in providing universal education, basic healthcare, extensive welfare grants and strong labour laws, these provisions have not remedied the inequality gap.
The gains that were celebrated, confronted a challenge as these gains slowed down precipitously and service delivery began to flounder. Corruption crept in and the politics of patronage took over, draining the energy and the objectives of freedom.[5]
The frontline soldiers and harbingers of malfeasance and corruption are usually the gifts offered to public servants and public representatives.
We have had jobless economic growth based on commodity price boom as well as investments in the money market and financial sector, instead of investing into industrialisation and the productive sector of the economy.
Land dispossession remains a source of national grievance for the majority of South Africans.
Given a chance to review the crises that South Africa still faces today, we must work towards identifying catalytic projects and opportunities that may deliver equitable and inclusive growth, to all.
For example, investing in tourism and local economies of the leisure sector may increase job creation in tourist services such as restaurants and hotels, in the construction of tourist accommodations and attractions, and local infrastructure in tourist centres. Tourism is therefore a catalytic sector that may offer countless opportunities for government to narrow down their focus and concentrate on certain issues that need attention.
The ripple effect of this has the ability to also empower municipalities by investing in their local government capacity to enable local economic development and inclusive growth; as well as retaining human capital at such tourist destinations that are outside of urban areas, in order to reduce the influx of urban migration to our major cities.
Another low hanging fruit would be the local beneficiation of our precious metals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the pillars of democracy albeit not delivering the material benefits as expected have remained strong, attesting to the strength of the constitution. Multiparty democracy for whatever it is worth has continued to bloom and blossom. [6]
Whereas in 1994 there were 20 political parties contesting elections, today we are informed by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) that there are 150 parties plus independent candidates contesting the 2024 elections. Which means the ballot paper will be quite bulky. This is a sign of the times, a reflection of a young but robust democracy.
The fight for democracy was characterised by a prolonged struggle where for freedom, loss of limb and life were expected and often occurred. [7]
Such high levels of commitment are invoked with such energy and force to inspire today’s activists who are stepping up to the plate, driven by both noble and selfish interests. Many of them who would say, “why not me?”.
As I conclude, I want to leave you with the following thoughts.
All progressive causes are inspired by love and not hatred. Love for land and liberty, love for humanity and love for a sense of worth. Neither hatred nor revenge can contribute towards a humanely managed and sustainable world.
Remember, before the invention of the mirror, the most handsome and beautiful human beings could only see beauty in others because they could not see themselves.
I thank you for your kind attention.
[1] http://gesd.free.fr/smith76bis.pdf
[2] https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy/robert-f-kennedy-speeches/day-of-affirmation-address-university-of-capetown-capetown-south-africa-june-6-1966
[3] Modisane, Bloke “Blame Me on History”. Touchstone Books, 1990 p. 122
[4] https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Pages/2017/october/High_Level_Panel/HLP_Report/HLP_report.pdf
[5] Dr Pali Lehohla
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
