Fixing SA 'will require time and effort'
Governance specialist and columnist Judith February says there are no quick fixes to the issues of race, economic inequality and corruption plaguing South Africa.
February was delivering the 9th annual Ahmed Kathrada lecture in Newtown on Saturday, alongside former Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Lindiwe Mazibuko.
“If we want to salvage our constitutional democracy which I would argue is bruised and battered but definitely still standing, then we do need to take the long view. This doesn’t come easy in a world of quick fixes where 24-hour social media demands immediate solutions. Yet that is where we are at the moment, in a world with neither obvious heroes or villains but mostly shades of grey, we have to stay focused on the long game.”
She believes President Cyril Ramaphosa inherited a mess which will require time and effort to resolve.
“He has inherited a hot mess. I won’t go into the details of all of it, but this is familiar to all of us, state-owned enterprises, state capture, SARS and one could go on. So, no matter how many times Ramaphosa summons the better angels of our nature and encourages us to say 'Thuma Mina', we all knew that it was going to be tough to rebuild our economy and a social compact which is dangerously fraying at the seams.”
February said while the constitution has many flaws, it provides South Africa with a framework to fix what is broken.
In response, Mazibuko said every South African needs to look at the role they are able to play.
“The central question then which flows from Ahmed Kathrada’s leadership and faces us today is how do we play our part in nurturing and supporting the next generation of ethical, transformational, people-centered leaders in politics and government in South Africa? For surely, we cannot hope to fix what ails our country without a relentless commitment to developing the leaders who will be the custodians and stewards of our rebuilding efforts."
She said South Africa cannot continue to rely on re-appointing retired officials and leaders back into public office, such as the former Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni, who was recently appointed finance minister.
“The key take-away from my response should not simply be that we need more young leaders in politics and government because youth leadership equals more ethical and better leadership. If the scandal surrounding the flagrant looting of the people’s hard-earned money from VBS Mutual Bank has taught anything, it’s that excellence may be distributed across generations and political organisations, but in today’s post state capture world so too is corruption and unethical leadership distributed across generations.”
Mazibuko said it’s not only about preparing for the future but changing the narrative and steering it away from leadership that only focuses on personal gain.