Politics have taken an extraordinary turn in South Africa. At the centre of an emerging dispute are two of the country's foremost liberal organisations - the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), the country's main opposition party.
They are in head-on disagreement over (a) the National Development Plan (NDP or "the Plan"), the most important policy document ever placed before parliament by the African National Congress government, and (b) Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE). Logically, more policies in dispute will follow in time.
Following the launch of the NDP in November 2011 DA leader Helen Zille welcomed the Plan stating that it "pointed to an emerging consensus at the non-racial, progressive centre of South African politics. The developing policy coherence on the fundamental issues facing South Africa is an exciting and significant development. The NDP is rooted in the same analytical framework that underpins the DA's own political philosophy - the ‘open, opportunity society for all'."
The SAIRR though has now rejected the NDP outright: "It is fundamentally flawed - riddled with ideological dyslexia, economic confusion and conflicting ideas - and will fail to achieve its social and economic goals. The NDP fails to commit to the deregulation of the labour market, abandon racial policy, and propose effective steps to improve the quality of the education system, making its investment, growth, and employment goals unattainable".
Piet le Roux (representing Solidarity Union, which supports the SAIRR's rejection of NDP), said at an Institute seminar about two weeks ago: "In early July, the SAIRR published its analysis of the NDP, becoming the first well-known non-ANC aligned organisation publicly to reject the NDP".
Le Roux explains: "The ANC supports the NDP to further the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). The NDR is the ANC's broad strategic orientation to gain control over all centres of power in South Africa, redistribute wealth and income and implement its idea of racial transformation. When the ANC adopted the NDP at its 53rd National Conference in Mangaung in December 2012, it resolved the following: 'Having considered the National Development Plan, (it is) agreed that it forms an important basis for the development of a long-term plan to build a national democratic society that...seeks to advance the National Democratic Revolution. Le Roux comments: "That the ANC at Mangaung could accept the NDP as furthering the NDR should sound a note of caution".
The thought of the SAIRR and DA feuding publicly like this may astound many anti-Zuma South Africans (mostly whites, although more and more Africans are turning against President Zuma). Until now the SAIRR and DA have been respected as the very rock of South African liberalism. Supporting the DA's position are many leaders of SA's corporate community, including former AngloGold CEO Bobby Godsell - who served on the National Planning Commission (and was nominated by the DA to do so.) The SAIRR view is widely supported in other circles (including the writer/historian Professor Hermann Giliomee).
Zille accepts that the dispute is dividing liberals, but believes she has set the DA on the right course. Some of her party members were upset by the "Africanisation" of their party - black leaders for black votes - and fear that approval of the NDP and BBBEE will be irrevocable steps in the same direction. This fear remains to unfold.
The ANC sits and watches. Le Roux, however, reminded his audience that organisations aligned to the ANC also rejected the NDP: Cosatu-affiliated trade unions, the SA Communist Party, etc. - for very different motives.
Indeed Irvin Jim of the massive NUMSA union has repeatedly complained that the NDP represents a cut-and-paste of many DA policies. He was quoted by Le Roux as saying: "The NDP is very dangerous because it wants to roll back the role of the state in the economy." Le Roux commented that what Jim actually wants is for the state to be rolled out - not rolled back - to bring it within the grasp of hungry unions and others.
The SAIRR annual meeting was described by a member as "quite an event...The Institute has made a distinct shift in its activities. Increasingly important is the Unit for Risk Analysis, headed by Dr Frans Cronjê. Drawing on the Institute's wealth of data, the Unit advises corporate clients on the prospects for growth to business. It argues that some of the policies accepted by government in recent years represent grave impediments to growth.
"The Institute is warning that the NDP will lead increasingly to greater state intervention, which will lessen the state's capacity to continue to provide the social welfare its electorate has become accustomed to. Also, it will greatly constrain opportunities for minorities. After the Unit's presentation at the meeting, John Kane-Berman (CEO), in a formal speech, declared that the battle for political liberalism has been won, and the real battle now is for economic liberalism. The meeting was informed that the Institute declined to support the NDP.
"The Institute has changed," the member continued. "It is now challenging liberals to make liberty and truth their highest virtue. Such a shift may well be crucial for the economy and the country's ability to grow out of its problems."
The debate on liberalism clearly is just gathering momentum. The DA stands firm and so does DA leader, Helen Zille. With both sides sticking to their positions, the debate can only escalate, even if unpleasantly.
As noted previously, the SAIRR believes that in important areas the policy positions of the DA and ANC have become "virtually indistinguishable," and that the DA's contention that it will examine BBBEE situations case by case - accepting some, rejecting others - is insupportable.
John Kane-Berman writes: "The DA is part of an honourable history. The more it succeeds in claiming its rightful place in that history the less vulnerable it will be to accusations in the election next year that it will bring back apartheid. But it must beware lest in pursuit of power it betray that history - and in particular the principled opposition to race classification and racial discrimination that was its single most important component."
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