by Bonginkosi Masiwa

For centuries humankind has grappled with the question of who has the right to rule and how they should do it. We have moved from an era when kings were thought to have the divine right to rule, to the French Revolution that saw the fall of the absolute monarchy and the rise of the ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality.

Democratic governance is predicated on the idea that supreme power is held completely by the people and made possible by, among other things, a free and fair electoral system. 

At a seminar on the post-Polokwane political developments in South Africa, it emerged that there are numerous perspectives on democracy, and it is somewhat difficult to separate development from economics, governance or politics.

Participants from all over the country grappled with the much-theorised issues of ideology and how these shape politics in South Africa. Professor Aminur Rahim of the University of Fort Hare alluded to the post-independence state as having many conflicting views.

The rational view of the state as expounded on by the Greek was inspired by the view that the state is a moral institution meant to enable human beings to live a good life. The state therefore has an obligation to exercise fairness towards every citizen. It must protect, but if need be also punish, all its subjects. It must be the most powerful, and perhaps indeed have the monopoly of violence – but in the same breath, it must be sanctioned with an effective system of checks and balances.

The state therefore must be used as an apparatus to deliver the good life, and the masses –especially the less educated – find this model of the state very appealing.

There have been suggestions in both print and electronic media that Jacob Zuma’s campaign for the country’s top position is based on populism (it promises a good life for all).

However, ANCYL speaker Lekale Mashego at the Afesis-corplan event denied that there was a shift or jump to the left under the new guard, stating that populist and socialist economic policies have not been adopted by the ANC.

The Growth, Employment and Redistribution macro-economic initiative (GEAR) remained an ANC policy, he said, although there may be differences regarding how it ought to be implemented. The general feeling in some quarters seems to be that the rise of Zuma will bring about more radicalism, state control and authoritarianism that will threaten free enterprise.

However, said Mashego, Zuma supporters argue that current middleclass-friendly policies that mainly benefit corporate South Africa will be maintained by the ANC.

Amathole region PAC Chief Whip Costa Gazi disagreed, however, saying: “Mr Zuma will most likely not change the direction of current ANC policies, but will intensify them. The fear of a populist authoritarian state seems to have gripped many people. The recent ANC’s attacks on the judiciary have not helped the situation at all and have created the impression that the party is on the warpath against key institutions of our democracy.”

According to Gazi and the PAC, the ANC will defend its position from those within its ranks who are not in power, and suppress other threats to its rule from outside its ranks. It will impose centralised oppressive rule in the name of defending freedom or the “revolution” against this or that threat, whatever it may be.

Recent attacks on the judiciary have been hailed by some as evidence that we are a functioning democracy and that people are no longer afraid to speak. However, in exercising our rights, we must not be guilty of threatening fellow citizens or undermining the rule of law.

Health and human rights activist Dr Trudy Thomas was clearly not convinced that Polokwane had achieved a lot of positives for the country. Gazi explained how Thomas had described the Polokwane conference as the forum that drove out what had been left of the soul of the ANC, “battered and bruised over the past decade”.

“With it went any hope of that better life for all – moral and material – which 1994 promised,” she said.

At Polokwane, she said, “hooliganism replaced respect, decibels debate, tribalism nation building, materialism poverty eradication and self-interest truth”.

As a result, said the past Eastern Cape Health MEC, we were all on the slippery slope into “tyranny, ungovernability and misery”.

When the architects of our democracy begin to question the decisions taken by institutions that are meant to be independent, then it is understandable why people worry.

It has been alleged that the struggle for the soul of the ANC has been lost to forces which are making a mockery of the Constitution and the democratic institutions. Although no constitution is a final document, changing it for whatever reason must be done through the right channels, with a stakeholder consensus on methods and possibilities.

Francis Fukuyama once suggested that the end of the cold war era and the resurgence of Western liberal democracy signalled the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution, and the final form of government’s struggle of capitalism vs socialism.

However it appears the end of history is not quite here. Populism and socialist tendencies still have a following, as is evidenced by the recent occurrences in South Africa.

Transformer Vol. 14 No. 5 Oct-Nov 2008