2009: The Year That Was
By Peter Kimemia
Domestic Political Shenanigans
Every New Year brings with it a host of positive expectations as well as a myriad of uncertainties. 2009 was no different, globally and in South Africa. There were a lot more uncertainties for us as a nation than great expectations. The in-fighting within the ruling party and the sustained assault on key institutions of governance, such as the Judiciary and the elite crime busting-outfit, the scorpions, as well as the reckless manner in which politicians were testing the fabric of national unity, reflected a society trapped in a Samsonic complex. Keen readers of the Bible would recall that as his last act of valour and vengeance, Samson, a captive of the Philistines, grabbed the pillars of the arena where he was supposed to be amusing his captors. He shook the structure to its foundations and set it tumbling down crushing him and his enemies. Arguably, he had the last laugh.
There is a sense that, in many cases, politicians toy with such complexes, especially when they are faced by the prospects of losing power. This is the reason they were not averse to pushing the country to the precipice as they sought to position themselves in readiness to either retain state power or keep opponents (both imaginary and real) from accessing it. The obtaining atmosphere was that of palpable improbability and intimidation. There are many who wanted the elections to come and go away quickly in order to relieve the pain of imagining the worst that was associated with an outcome not in sync with the interests of the more militant contestants. Mercifully, in spite of the sporadic acts of violence resulting in most unfortunate loss of life, the possibility of widespread conflicts proved overstated. It was, however, a great sigh of relief all round as we went to the polls and did so peacefully, and those who lost accepted the verdict without seeking to create unnecessary tensions through grandstanding contestations.
The Audacious Obama
Thankfully as well, the beginning of the year was not all morbid. There was excitement over the inauguration of President Barrack Obama who ascended to the US presidency in January following an inspirational campaign and electoral performance. This was not only because he was the first African-American to clinch the presidency of the most powerful country in the world, but also because of his unique story and his unprecedented audacity. At a time when there was gloom across the globe and more specifically in Africa regarding the worsening slide into an economic slump coupled with a growing fatigue with America’s divisive so-called ‘war on terror’, President Obama’s election appeared to stir hope that it was possible to turn things around.
Indeed, his rallying call of ‘Yes We Can’ resonated well with a global community in dire need of something to be hopeful about. His acceptability and the ease with which he attracted support across religious faiths and races were admirable, but of course it left the declining community of racial bigots seething in anger and paranoia. For looking beyond the colour of his skin and electing Barrack Obama as their President, American voters did the global community proud and helped ease off some of the resentment that the USA had brought upon itself in recent years over its arrogant practice of international politics.
The Global Economic Slump
The global economic crisis was one of the low lights of 2009. Although the slump had kicked in 2008, much of the effects of the recession started manifesting themselves during the year under review. Massive job losses as the export markets in the more developed countries shrunk, owing to the collapse of key financial institutions and industries, brought about untold suffering in many households in South Africa and in many other developing countries.
Countries with a substantial exposure to international financial markets through their stock markets suffered disproportionately more than those whose markets depend heavily on domestic investments. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) suffered massive losses and investors have remained wary in spite of indications that economies are making baby steps towards modest recovery.
The job losses coming at a time when President Zuma’s administration was promising to create hundreds of thousands of jobs only served to increase desperation, and although more people have been covered by social grants and other welfare transfers, it is quite evident that more still needs to be done.
To its credit, the state set aside a substantial amount of money to provide temporary jobs and help spur demand in line with the time-tested Keynesian approach. However, the effectiveness of the stimulus initiatives is hinged on the honesty and integrity of public officials and strict accountability monitoring mechanisms. Unfortunately, these virtues are increasingly becoming rare among a section of our civil service, and mechanisms for whipping them back in line appear weak and ineffective.
Possibilities of Mission Drift Among NGOs
An inescapable and most unfortunate effect of the global economic crisis has been the dwindling donor funds on which much of the civil society work depends. Most of the key external funders lost substantial amounts of money and have had to scale down their support for especially governance-related work.
There has also been the argument that since South Africa is not a resource-poor country, it is perhaps time that donors focused on poorer neighbours in the region and other parts of Africa. These changes have presented new challenges to civil society organisations at a time when communities were starting to consolidate their democratic gains and engage their municipal governments on issues of governance and service delivery. The sporadic, violent service-delivery protests—another low-light—are symptomatic of our governance deficiencies and specifically constraints in the spaces provided for formal public participation.
The downside to the drying-up of finances to sustain governance initiatives is the real likelihood of civil society organisations wallowing in mission drift as they compete for contract assignments to ensure sustainability. The ethoses of non-governmental organisations do not prepare them to cope well with the rat-race that is the world of consultancy work. Under the circumstances, 2009 may go down as the year when civil society-led governance initiatives and support for local democracy, inadvertently took a downward turn. Sadly, quite a few organisations might close shop.
Leftist Blues
Our April general elections ushered in a new ANC Administration headed by President Jacob Zuma. However, contrary to the Left’s lofty expectations that JZ would deal neo-liberalism a major knock out and lead us on a socialist path, the alliance partners, COSATU and SACP, were left nursing political blues.
The expectation had been that there would be a drastic transformation of public policy to reflect a leftist approach to addressing poverty, inequality and other social-economic ills associated with our dalliance with capitalist projects. Seemingly, the alliance partners had been reading too much into the Leftist rhetoric and failed to appreciate President Zuma’s propensity to pragmatism. To be fair, the President did not have too many options – yes, people all over the world were bemused at just how the greed associated with unbridled capitalism had left countries hanging precariously over an economic abyss.
However, no one expected nation states to radically change their economic systems overnight and certainly JZ was not going to be the first one to engage in the recklessness of walking bare feet where lepers wouldn’t dare. It is almost granted that with such a nervous market as we have endured over the past year, a misstep regarding economic policies would have been suicidal. There will, of course, be opportunities to regulate the markets further in the future, but progress on this path must be tempered with the purposeful need to keep the markets contributing positively to the expansion of the economy and the overall welfare of the vulnerable groups. It is crucial to keep the pressure up, but it would be downright irresponsible to agitate for an equitable distribution of poverty. So, the President was mostly spot on in crafting his new administration.
The Cool and The Nasty
Generally, in terms of governance, quite a few things were ‘cool’, while numerous others were totally ‘un-cool’. It was cool that in spite of the sporadic skirmishes, the elections were largely peaceful. However, the abhorrent acts of electoral violence including intimidation of political opponents were totally reprehensible. Hopefully, political parties will spare us such shenanigans in the run-up to the 2011 local government elections.
It was great that the government saw it fit to set up a department specifically dealing with issues of Rural Development, but the legislation that sought to strengthen the hand of Traditional Authorities was a low-light, especially with regard to women’s rights and our overall progression towards democratic local governance. The burden of being both a citizen and a subject at the same time is one issue that needs to be sorted out sooner rather than later. There should probably be a plebiscite preceded by the collation of the views of the communities that are directly affected by this scenario.
It was exciting to see Ms Caster Semenya dazzle the world athletics arena with her impressive dash. However, it was shameful and totally unacceptable for Athletics South Africa (ASA) to expose her to humiliation through injudicious decisions and misinformation regarding her gender tests. It was good that eventually appropriate heads rolled and IAAF ruled that she could keep her medal and prize money, but the state needs to consider compensating the young lady accordingly.
In terms of crime and punishment, it was totally ‘un-cool’ that the Department of Correctional Services purported to release a ‘critically ill’ Shabir Schaik. Few people believed the DCS’s version of the alleged truth, but hey, that is why there is such a word as ‘impunity’. It was also not funny to hear all the nasty evidence being adduced in a court of law regarding the felonious exploits of ex-Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi and his buddy, convict Glenn Agliotti. It brought home the realisation that we might have collectively been living in a fool’s paradise as far as our safety is concerned.
It was equally not so cool for the NPA to deny JZ his much-sought-after day in court by concocting some curious excuse and backing it to boot with an allegedly plagiarised ruling compiled for an unrelated matter somewhere in South-East Asia. Yes, in a sense, Mr Mpshe proved to be a prince of impunity for after ruining our collective reputation internationally, he suffered neither censure nor a customary slap on the wrist. The guy simply ignored the few ‘counter-revolutionaries’ who saw fault in his conduct.
For what its worth, the Amathole regional leadership of the ANC needs to give Mayor Zukisa Faku a break and let her concentrate on serving the BCM people. Her credit card indiscretions notwithstanding, she appears determined to meet communities, listen and respond to their legitimate grievances. It is possible that she could do better if she and the new Municipal Manager, Mandla Sithole, were not too distracted by political sideshows. The same goes for Mayor Nondumiso Maphazi of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan. Of course the stealth political machinations aimed at eventually ousting Premier Noxolo Kiviet are not so cool either. The ANC needs to give support to its women leaders and encourage them to perform better, instead of countenancing their ouster over-dubious political considerations. These key Eastern Cape women leaders have endured much in 2009. We need them to deliver and we will keep demanding that they do so in an ethical manner, but they also need space to be able to focus.
Perhaps the nastiest politicians in 2009 were the top youth leaders of the various political parties. Few of them uttered constructive things that made them stand out as responsible future leaders. Julius Malema was at his best, all over the place, commenting on everything and courting any media that cared to listen and broadcast his views on diverse issues ranging from the Semenya affair to Professor Jansen, and football to nationalisation of mines. In most cases, he uttered the wrong things—ever abrasive and incorrigibly disrespectful and divisive. His COPE counterpart, Ms Anele Mda faired no better. Her below the belt campaign jibe against JZ was in bad taste and equally nasty was her choice diatribe against her colleague, Ms Deidre Carter (she allegedly called her “a token white stupid bitch”), which was described as racist and sexist and promptly earned her a suspension from the party. These good people can do better, but they need help and have to be willing to listen to wise counsel.
Finally, it was not cool that COPE proved to be such a political flop. In fact, it was terribly disappointing that the party could not pull its act together and behave like a credible alternative to the ANC. Not that I have anything against the latter, only that I think some decent competition for power would make the grand old party an even better, more responsive and democratic movement. And yes, I think it would do our democracy a lot of good if there is some healthy political contest reflective of political maturity and devoid of violence and political intolerance during the forthcoming local government elections. We still have a year in between to nurture good political behaviour and toss out nasty methods of mobilising.
In between, I hope the soccer World Cup will be won by an African team. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - Won’t you?
Thankfully as well, the beginning of the year was not all morbid. There was excitement over the inauguration of President Barrack Obama who ascended to the US presidency in January following an inspirational campaign and electoral performance. This was not only because he was the first African-American to clinch the presidency of the most powerful country in the world, but also because of his unique story and his unprecedented audacity. At a time when there was gloom across the globe and more specifically in Africa regarding the worsening slide into an economic slump coupled with a growing fatigue with America’s divisive so-called ‘war on terror’, President Obama’s election appeared to stir hope that it was possible to turn things around.
Indeed, his rallying call of ‘Yes We Can’ resonated well with a global community in dire need of something to be hopeful about. His acceptability and the ease with which he attracted support across religious faiths and races were admirable, but of course it left the declining community of racial bigots seething in anger and paranoia. For looking beyond the colour of his skin and electing Barrack Obama as their President, American voters did the global community proud and helped ease off some of the resentment that the USA had brought upon itself in recent years over its arrogant practice of international politics.
The Global Economic Slump
The global economic crisis was one of the low lights of 2009. Although the slump had kicked in 2008, much of the effects of the recession started manifesting themselves during the year under review. Massive job losses as the export markets in the more developed countries shrunk, owing to the collapse of key financial institutions and industries, brought about untold suffering in many households in South Africa and in many other developing countries.
Countries with a substantial exposure to international financial markets through their stock markets suffered disproportionately more than those whose markets depend heavily on domestic investments. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) suffered massive losses and investors have remained wary in spite of indications that economies are making baby steps towards modest recovery.
The job losses coming at a time when President Zuma’s administration was promising to create hundreds of thousands of jobs only served to increase desperation, and although more people have been covered by social grants and other welfare transfers, it is quite evident that more still needs to be done.
To its credit, the state set aside a substantial amount of money to provide temporary jobs and help spur demand in line with the time-tested Keynesian approach. However, the effectiveness of the stimulus initiatives is hinged on the honesty and integrity of public officials and strict accountability monitoring mechanisms. Unfortunately, these virtues are increasingly becoming rare among a section of our civil service, and mechanisms for whipping them back in line appear weak and ineffective.
Possibilities of Mission Drift Among NGOs
An inescapable and most unfortunate effect of the global economic crisis has been the dwindling donor funds on which much of the civil society work depends. Most of the key external funders lost substantial amounts of money and have had to scale down their support for especially governance-related work.
There has also been the argument that since South Africa is not a resource-poor country, it is perhaps time that donors focused on poorer neighbours in the region and other parts of Africa. These changes have presented new challenges to civil society organisations at a time when communities were starting to consolidate their democratic gains and engage their municipal governments on issues of governance and service delivery. The sporadic, violent service-delivery protests—another low-light—are symptomatic of our governance deficiencies and specifically constraints in the spaces provided for formal public participation.
The downside to the drying-up of finances to sustain governance initiatives is the real likelihood of civil society organisations wallowing in mission drift as they compete for contract assignments to ensure sustainability. The ethoses of non-governmental organisations do not prepare them to cope well with the rat-race that is the world of consultancy work. Under the circumstances, 2009 may go down as the year when civil society-led governance initiatives and support for local democracy, inadvertently took a downward turn. Sadly, quite a few organisations might close shop.
Leftist Blues
Our April general elections ushered in a new ANC Administration headed by President Jacob Zuma. However, contrary to the Left’s lofty expectations that JZ would deal neo-liberalism a major knock out and lead us on a socialist path, the alliance partners, COSATU and SACP, were left nursing political blues.
The expectation had been that there would be a drastic transformation of public policy to reflect a leftist approach to addressing poverty, inequality and other social-economic ills associated with our dalliance with capitalist projects. Seemingly, the alliance partners had been reading too much into the Leftist rhetoric and failed to appreciate President Zuma’s propensity to pragmatism. To be fair, the President did not have too many options – yes, people all over the world were bemused at just how the greed associated with unbridled capitalism had left countries hanging precariously over an economic abyss.
However, no one expected nation states to radically change their economic systems overnight and certainly JZ was not going to be the first one to engage in the recklessness of walking bare feet where lepers wouldn’t dare. It is almost granted that with such a nervous market as we have endured over the past year, a misstep regarding economic policies would have been suicidal. There will, of course, be opportunities to regulate the markets further in the future, but progress on this path must be tempered with the purposeful need to keep the markets contributing positively to the expansion of the economy and the overall welfare of the vulnerable groups. It is crucial to keep the pressure up, but it would be downright irresponsible to agitate for an equitable distribution of poverty. So, the President was mostly spot on in crafting his new administration.
The Cool and The Nasty
Generally, in terms of governance, quite a few things were ‘cool’, while numerous others were totally ‘un-cool’. It was cool that in spite of the sporadic skirmishes, the elections were largely peaceful. However, the abhorrent acts of electoral violence including intimidation of political opponents were totally reprehensible. Hopefully, political parties will spare us such shenanigans in the run-up to the 2011 local government elections.
It was great that the government saw it fit to set up a department specifically dealing with issues of Rural Development, but the legislation that sought to strengthen the hand of Traditional Authorities was a low-light, especially with regard to women’s rights and our overall progression towards democratic local governance. The burden of being both a citizen and a subject at the same time is one issue that needs to be sorted out sooner rather than later. There should probably be a plebiscite preceded by the collation of the views of the communities that are directly affected by this scenario.
It was exciting to see Ms Caster Semenya dazzle the world athletics arena with her impressive dash. However, it was shameful and totally unacceptable for Athletics South Africa (ASA) to expose her to humiliation through injudicious decisions and misinformation regarding her gender tests. It was good that eventually appropriate heads rolled and IAAF ruled that she could keep her medal and prize money, but the state needs to consider compensating the young lady accordingly.
In terms of crime and punishment, it was totally ‘un-cool’ that the Department of Correctional Services purported to release a ‘critically ill’ Shabir Schaik. Few people believed the DCS’s version of the alleged truth, but hey, that is why there is such a word as ‘impunity’. It was also not funny to hear all the nasty evidence being adduced in a court of law regarding the felonious exploits of ex-Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi and his buddy, convict Glenn Agliotti. It brought home the realisation that we might have collectively been living in a fool’s paradise as far as our safety is concerned.
It was equally not so cool for the NPA to deny JZ his much-sought-after day in court by concocting some curious excuse and backing it to boot with an allegedly plagiarised ruling compiled for an unrelated matter somewhere in South-East Asia. Yes, in a sense, Mr Mpshe proved to be a prince of impunity for after ruining our collective reputation internationally, he suffered neither censure nor a customary slap on the wrist. The guy simply ignored the few ‘counter-revolutionaries’ who saw fault in his conduct.
For what its worth, the Amathole regional leadership of the ANC needs to give Mayor Zukisa Faku a break and let her concentrate on serving the BCM people. Her credit card indiscretions notwithstanding, she appears determined to meet communities, listen and respond to their legitimate grievances. It is possible that she could do better if she and the new Municipal Manager, Mandla Sithole, were not too distracted by political sideshows. The same goes for Mayor Nondumiso Maphazi of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan. Of course the stealth political machinations aimed at eventually ousting Premier Noxolo Kiviet are not so cool either. The ANC needs to give support to its women leaders and encourage them to perform better, instead of countenancing their ouster over-dubious political considerations. These key Eastern Cape women leaders have endured much in 2009. We need them to deliver and we will keep demanding that they do so in an ethical manner, but they also need space to be able to focus.
Perhaps the nastiest politicians in 2009 were the top youth leaders of the various political parties. Few of them uttered constructive things that made them stand out as responsible future leaders. Julius Malema was at his best, all over the place, commenting on everything and courting any media that cared to listen and broadcast his views on diverse issues ranging from the Semenya affair to Professor Jansen, and football to nationalisation of mines. In most cases, he uttered the wrong things—ever abrasive and incorrigibly disrespectful and divisive. His COPE counterpart, Ms Anele Mda faired no better. Her below the belt campaign jibe against JZ was in bad taste and equally nasty was her choice diatribe against her colleague, Ms Deidre Carter (she allegedly called her “a token white stupid bitch”), which was described as racist and sexist and promptly earned her a suspension from the party. These good people can do better, but they need help and have to be willing to listen to wise counsel.
Finally, it was not cool that COPE proved to be such a political flop. In fact, it was terribly disappointing that the party could not pull its act together and behave like a credible alternative to the ANC. Not that I have anything against the latter, only that I think some decent competition for power would make the grand old party an even better, more responsive and democratic movement. And yes, I think it would do our democracy a lot of good if there is some healthy political contest reflective of political maturity and devoid of violence and political intolerance during the forthcoming local government elections. We still have a year in between to nurture good political behaviour and toss out nasty methods of mobilising.
In between, I hope the soccer World Cup will be won by an African team. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - Won’t you?