Julius Malema is a rebel with a cause, but what he lacks is a credible, practical or even realistic roadmap to get where he wants to go. There is no doubt that a generation after political liberation, the people have been largely left behind by the elite in the ruling party and by the, mainly White wealthy section of our population who have benefited from the fruits of democracy disproportionately.
While Malema's analysis of South Africa is rooted in the emotional rather than the intellectual, it doesn't make his points about the failures of land reform, the continuing disempowerment and poverty of the majority or the scourge of racism any less true. These resonate with the vast majority of South Africans because it is their daily, lived experience.
EVEN A BROKEN CLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY
For all his faults, his finely tuned but cynical, well managed but brutal, stage-crafted but often buffoon-like, superbly performed demagoguery, Julius Malema is correct in his analysis that political freedom means nothing without economic liberation. This goal, together with the improvement of prospects for the working class through access to quality education, holds the key to South Africa's future prosperity.
Malema has latched on to an international zeitgeist that questions ruthless global corporatism. There is rising concern among youth of all races at the expansion and dominance of company-states and continued legal protection for corporations that pillage Africa and its resources for exorbitant profit, their costs externalized by a systematic attack on basic human rights.
The problem with the hyper-capitalist monster we face now is that it feeds off a paradigm that demands infinite growth in a world where resources are finite. This is unsustainable, and it results in corporations having to expand into ever-dimishing new territories to satisfy the elite commune of wealthy stakeholders.
The status quo has to change somehow, and make no mistake, all of us are in the midst of an ideological scuffle that reflects the real economic struggle, out of which there are only two possible outcomes - barbarism, or some semblance of a better civilisation.
The warning shots against trying to even slightly shift the paradigm away from an unsustainable and exploitative system have been fired by economists, who argue that nationalization is not possible, agrarian reform needs to be conducted on terms that mean no change at all, and in this context, investors are getting nervous about the future prospects of South Africa.
These alarmists would point to the worst failures of history, but would conveniently ignore or refuse to acknowledge instances where corporate state protected greed has ravaged the planet and its people. These apologists are the same people who have intellectually presided over booms and busts that have benefited the elite, and only the elite, while screwing the poor.
These are people who have benefited from the same system that has seen junk bonds sold as solid investments, only to leave millions of families homeless and broke when the bubble burst. In capitalism, anything is possible and everything is for sale, including favourable ratings by credit rating agencies. Using a confidence trick of derivatives, externalized costs, fiat currency and fractional lending, the accepted establishment has brought almost every man, woman and child in the world to its knees. The accepted establishment is immoral and unsustainable. How many more bubbles can the creaking world economy endure?
All youth are rightly concerned about environmental sustainability. For example, in the capital of capitalism, the USA, it is illegal for private citizens in the states of Utah and Colorado to collect or divert the flow of rainwater, even on their own property. The thinking behind this is that rainwater belongs to someone else, namely the corporations who control the water supplies in these states, at a government-backed profit, of course.
Closer to home, in Princess Vlei on the Cape Flats, a local government-backed initiative to build a shopping mall on a protected wetland, and cultural heritage site of the Khoi-San people, may well eventually happen, at least that is the commercial intention should the community let its collective guard down. In Gauteng, the former Minister of Water Affairs sat on reports of acid mine drainage, did nothing, and then commissioned more reports. Her successor has been reactive instead of proactive.
The very substance of our humanity is bought and paid for. According to the US patent and trademark office, over 20 percent of the human genetic code is owned by various universities and corporations. "Your" body technically does not even legally belong to you entirely. A twisted version of capitalism, in which ordinary people have no stake or say in, and derive no benefit from, has bequeathed us a generous 80% cut of our bodies. This is immoral, but it's the kind of perversion that can only result from the unchecked greed that is built into the capitalist system.
The net sum is that only an elite benefit from capitalism, while the majority of human beings are merely regarded as cattle in a corporate ‘CAFO', or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.
THE STRUCTURAL WEAKNESSES IN MALEMA'S CRITIQUE
A weakness in Malema's analysis and critique of our unjust economic and limited political system is that it is based largely on race and a simplistic view of the modern, global economy. It suffers from a common general tendency, but one prevalent among youth, that of voluntarism, where we are predisposed to believe that just because we want something we will get it.
This, along with the tendency to label is his modus operandi. It is far easier and politically convenient to create an enemy by tarring all White South Africans with the brush of former oppressors than it is to rally the masses against a faceless, impersonal, ruthless and exploitative system that is reproduced, these days, in part by the ANC government.
Simply put, our reality is one in which a minority White ruling elite has been substituted by a bloc made up of the new Black ruling political elite, who now benefit from the continued economic exploitation of the mainly the Black working class and poor, together with the former, mainly White, wealthy beneficiaries of apartheid. But included in those who are exploited that Malema does not even pretend to speak on behalf of, or even acknowledge, are women, youth, people who are differently-abled and White, Coloured and Indian workers. Similarly, the White elite are actually a fraction of the White population.
THE FAILURE OF THE HISTORICAL "LEFT" IN THE PERSUIT OF SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, the contribution of members of ANC alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) extends only to the obligation to wear red t-shirts on 1 May every year (t-shirts sourced by tender from largely Chinese companies that ingratiate themselves to leaders of such organizations with regular trips to drink copious amounts of rice wine and see the Great Wall again and again), and keeping quiet about the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of those at the top. What has Minister Nzimande done to improve access to education for the working class? We have evidence that initiatives to create access to education for the poorest of the poor have been shut down, its initiators threatened with legal action! What kind of communist leader wilfully blocks free access to education for the poorest of the poor?
With the neutralisation of the trade union movement and the so-called left of South Africa by means of patronage, what hope is there for these organizations to be the defenders of the working class? With the so-called "Left" neutered and compromised, neither the SACP nor COSATU under its current leadership and pervasive "talk left, walk right" organizational philosophy, are in any position to counter social, environmental and economic injustices.
TOWARDS 21st CENTURY SOLUTIONS FOR 20th CENTURY INJUSTICES
Whatever the problems, the answer is NOT to replicate the perverse model of socialism that was practiced in the Eastern Bloc and South East Asia, where a ruling elite benefited from depriving the working class and middle class masses of any real hope, empowerment and financial security, and who governed their lives by a combined use of state terror and crushing, bureaucratic boredom. This system failed spectacularly all through the 20th century. Every day on the way to work, those in the city can be reminded of that reality when they walk past a piece of the Berlin Wall that now stands on display in St George's Mall, Cape Town.
It is possible for South African citizens to derive direct benefits from the mineral wealth of this nation without crude nationalization. If we can create a pool of funding from a contribution of the mining tax revenues from government, matched by contributions from corporate mine operators, this fund can be ringfenced, transparently managed and made relevant to the people's needs. An initial 10 year contribution from business and government can seed the financing of the creation of a citizens bank, for example, a fully transparent operation designed to operate on a corporate level, as a vehicle for the creation of wealth for the people.
We must also collectively stand up against a creeping rot that already taken hold in our agrarian practices with regard to genetically modified crops. What kind of government allows potentially unsafe, and inadequately tested crops to be planted in our soil by multi-national corporations? There are no long term scientific studies for the effects of genetically modified crops on the human body, and the shorter term studies on mice are disturbing to say the least.
Corporations that potentially endanger the well-being of the human race, through their assault of our land and soil with their genetically modified crops, and the subsequent economic dependence that is created in our farming sector on their monopoly, is less corporate colonialism than it is international gangsterism. These agrarian drug dealers must not be allowed to take hold in South Africa to a further extent.
This government has not effected any sort of sustainable or viable programme of agrarian reform, sustainable energy policy on the scale that the energy crisis demands, or economic policies that can address the exploitative nature of the very worst that capitalism has to offer. The corporate element of such a shift would not be pleased with having to make such legislative concessions, so there has to be a process of engagement. We owe it to ourselves as a generation, and our successors to complete the negotiations of CODESA by negotiating our economic future. That means holding honest talks about what shaped the economic injustices that we are currently bearing the brunt of.
Unfair ownership of the patents and copyrights that corporations claim to hold over organic material leverage their continued crimes against our people and our environment. There can be no such thing as "classified" in the information age, especially not when the benefits of such information can benefit, or harm, the majority of the people.
To operate in an economically transparent, accountable and responsible manner, there must be no restriction on the flow of information. Government, our elected officials, and all government departments must be transparent to the point of nakedness. No politician must be allowed to hide their dealings behind the veil of secrecy.
While these may not be perfect solutions, and require debate about their practicalities, legality and its sustainability, it is one of the offerings that takes its place for comparison to Julius Malema's "nationalise-it-all" populism. There are no winners if crass populism sets the terms for negotiating this terrain.
Malema's solution will probably not be able to create enough wealth to dramatically alter the course of poverty alleviation. For instance, even if the mines were to be nationalised, government would spend R180 billion to operate the mines in order to make a profit of R20 billion. When you consider that each year, treasury gets in excess of R200 billion from the taxpayer, profit on mining would not significantly boost its coffers. The impact of mining contributions to our GDP is not as high as is the popular romantic myth. In fact, South Africa's tourism industry contributes more to GDP than mining does.
"ISMISM"
Urban dictionary defines "ismism" as "The condition which stems from the attribution of an ‘ism' to every concept. ‘Ismism' is commonly seen in academia, where terms such as realism, impressionism, romanticism, formalism, libertarianism, anarchism, naturalism, modernism, postmodernism etc are incessantly created and applied to every new situation. Ismists are too focussed on labelling everything to appreciate anything. Academia today is rampant with ismism, with too many isms to count."
While urbandictionary.com is the 21st century internet equivalent of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", it is true that many politicians and academics define policies along the constraints of "ismism" and become stuck in the dialectic mud of debating the merits, applications and propagation of various "isms".
Either way, when you nail your colours exclusively to the mast of any "ism", be it capitalism, communism, liberalism, progressivism, or whatever ideology you care to mention, including religion, you immediately expose yourself for having to excuse, apologise for, or ignore the flaws and contradictions of stagnant intellectual references that simply do not take into account the increasingly fluid nature of geopolitics and economics. There is no "ism" in Justice, be it social, economic or environmental.
We must do away with the "isms" of the 20th century and move forward with radical reform that offers opportunities to all, that rewards excellence and truly frees our citizens from the slavery of anachronistic paradigms. This revolution will come anyway, whether we want it or not. But the global "change management process" needs to be sensibly navigated for the benefit of all. The youth and the young minded will lead this process, and all citizens who want to truly change the way the world works are welcome to join, regardless of race, language, culture, political associations, gender or anything that has divided and conquered us in the past.
Already on trains, on buses, over neighbour's fences and in unemployment queues, there is talk of revolution and uprising, and one does not need to be a sangoma to see into a bleak future if issues of political and economic disenfranchisement are not addressed.
Julius Malema has not opened a window of opportunity - he has kicked the doors right off the hinges. It is now up to the future leaders of South Africa to contribute to shaping the future of this country for the benefit of all its people. Unless we are all activists for social, environmental and economic justice and open our eyes to see the bigger picture, the opportunity that will be presented will last for a very brief period of time. The only lesson that we will then learn is that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the American declaration of independence, rightly wrote that "every generation needs a new revolution". He was not referring to muskets and conflict. He was calling for radical minds to constantly question the status quo so that it may be contemporary, just and responsive to the needs of the people. We are overdue for such a revolution by hundreds of years, and should it not arrive as an intellectual and philosophical paradigm shift, it will be announced by gunfire and bloodshed on the news.
Phillip Dexter MP is COPE's Head of Communications. Roscoe Palm is COPE's Parliamentary Media Liaison and COPE Youth Movement Media Relations Officer. They write in their personal capacities.
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