Understanding Khoza's Twisted Logic On leadership in South Africa.
On Friday, 30 March 2012, the NedBank Group released its Annual Report to the public. In a section of the report entitled the Chairman's Report. Dr. Reuel Khoza makes several assertions about the current government. Amongst them are the following:
a) Job Creation: "One of the major socioeconomic and political challenges facing our country is addressing unemployment and creating jobs.
In January, 2009, in preparations for the elections campaign, the African National Congress released its elections Manifesto. In that document the ANC highlighted five key priorities for the current term of its government. The first amongst the five is the issue of job creation. In the 2009 Manifesto we said, "...unemployment, poverty and inequality remain serious challenges. Decent work is a foundation of the fight against poverty and inequality" in this instance we agree with Dr. Khoza.
Prominent by their omission in Khoza's assessment of challenges are the issues of racialised poverty and inequality, a legacy of imperialist plunder, slave wages and racialist capitalist development. Understandably, the good Doctor would not want to touch on these issues, lest he offends his paymasters, whom I should assume, are predominantly the beneficiaries of centuries of racist economic and political dispensations.
And now for solutions from Dr Khoza, "We believe government and the private sector should collaborate to create a programme to deploy these unemployed graduates and recently qualified people to local authorities for a few years." In short, government should be used as a nursery school for business. No, we must hand it to Khoza, he has learnt all the tricks of the game. No Dr, we all have a responsibility to do our very best to absorb the unemployed into productive activity. b) Government should create an enabling environment with minimal regulation to enable entrepreneurs to flourish".
The current financial crisis which started in 2008, refutes this assertion by the good Doctor. It is minimal or total absence of regulations that has resulted in this crisis. Comparatively South Africa came better off in this crisis because we have regulated the financial sector. Most scholars applaud the ANC government for that.
Further, our history has created concentration of wealth in the hands of the few monopolies therefore render trite the vainglorious declaration that national oppression and its social consequences can be resolved by formal democracy underpinned by market forces to which all should kneel in the prayer. "everyone for himself and the devil takes the hindmost". The experience of humanity throughout history demonstrates that markets on their own are unable to deal with the challenges such as ours.
c) Upholding our Constitution: Makes the following remarks, "SA is widely recognised for its liberal and enlightened constitution, yet we observe the emergence of a strange breed of leaders who are determined to undermine the rule of law and override the constitution. Our political leadership's moral quotient is degenerating and we are fast losing the checks and balances that are necessary to prevent a recurrence of the past".
The Constitution we have did not come like manna from heaven. It came as a result of selfless struggle and sacrifices of many South Africans and the members of the international progressive humanity.
The Constitution of the Republic as adopted in 1996, through Chapter nine establishes institutions that support Constitutional Democracy. They are Public Protector, Electoral Commission, South African Human Rights Commission, The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, The Commission for Gender Equality and Auditor General. These institutions are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law.
In the past sixteen years since the adoption of the Constitution, sixteen amendments have been made but none indicated that the ANC led government wanted to shut down or suppress these important organs of Constitutional Democracy. In the eighteen years that we have been in government we have not uttered any word, or commit any act that may suggest that we want to encroach in the rights of our citizens in anyway. If Dr. Khoza has information to the contrary, he must produce it.
The assertion that our Constitution is "liberal and enlightened" is questionable. The Constitution is a living document enshrining amongst others socio-economic rights which liberal Constitution do not make. For us, this document is bases to advance the social transformation agenda that society wants.
The good Doctor further makes statement that says "we have a duty to build and develop this nation and to call to book the putative leaders who, due to sheer incapacity to deal with the complexity of 21st century governance and leadership, cannot lead". Dr. Reuel Khoza says that the multi millions that voted this government into power are stupid. He and him alone possess wisdom that should determine who should lead our country.
Ethics and morals of business have to speak to the issue of redistribution to ensure that the challenges of poverty and unemployment are addressed.
The assertions made by Dr. Reuel Khoza are reckless call by somebody who should know better that such statements would hurt South Africa's standing in the economic front. It will further have negative implications on investors with dire consequences on the economic growth and job creation.
In carrying out these tasks, the democratic state relies on the formal instruments available to it; but, above all, on the active involvement of members of society in changing their lives for the better. Both as individuals, and organised in political formations, business associations and various structures of civil society, the citizens are the bedrock of fundamental change.
The ANC is a product of a given historical period, formed to unite the African people in the struggle for equality. Over the years, it developed to embrace non-racialism both as a principle and as a guide to its composition and day-to-day practice.
Our founders further understood that, a fundamental condition for liberation is democracy and an abiding culture of human rights. All citizens should be guaranteed the right to elect a government of their choice, freedom of expression, freedom from discrimination, and other rights entrenched in the constitution. They should have a government not only formally based on their will, but one that is open and transparent, and one that consults and continually involves the people in policy formulation and implementation. This was the vision of the ANC`s founders and it has gained rather than lost credibility in the years that followed.
This vision was confirmed by series of documents that were produced and adopted by the African National Congress over the last hundred years of its existence. Amongst those documents we will take three to demonstrate the point we are making. These are;
1. The African Claims:
This document was drafted in 1943, in the middle of the Second World War. This document contains the vision of the African National Congress, it speaks to the issues of great concern to the African masses. Amongst others the document demand the right to equal justice in courts of law, including nomination to juries and appointed as judges, magistrates and court officials.
It goes on to say that Africans demand the right to be appointed to and hold office in the civil service and in all branches of public employment on the same terms and conditions as Europeans.
2. The Freedom Charter:
It is sounded in the Preamble`s call for the building of a democratic state `without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief. An identical note is struck in the clauses on government proclaiming equality of rights for all persons `regardless of race, colour or sex`. The principle is extended to national groups.
In the liberated South Africa:
· All people shall have equal rights to use their own language and to develop their own folk culture;
· All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or belief shall be repealed; while
In its affirmation of equality the Charter is consistent with the mainstream of world opinion reflected in the Charter of Human Rights, the conventions and resolutions of the United Nations that reject discrimination, the principles of the African Union and other international institutions.
3. The Constitutional Guidelines:
This document amongst others states the following; The constitution shall include a Bill of Rights based on the Freedom Charter. Such a Bill of Rights shall guarantee the fundamental human rights of all citizens irrespective of race, colour, sex or creed, and shall provide appropriate mechanisms for their enforcement. The state and all social institutions shall be under a constitutional duty to eradicate race discrimination in all its forms; to take active steps to eradicate, speedily, the economic and social inequalities produced by racial discrimination. Finally the democratic state shall guarantee the basic rights and freedoms, such as freedom of association, expression, thought, worship and the press. Furthermore, the state shall have the duty to protect the right to work, and guarantee education and social security.
To be where we are today, we have been guided by these documents amongst others.
A month ago, the African National Congress released its Policy Discussion Documents in preparations for the 53 National Conference in Mangaung. Amongst these is the one on Strategy and Tactics which raises sharply the fundamentals of the Second Transition being three resilient fault lines of deep poverty, growth of inequality and unemployment.
It traces the origins of such fault lines historically as founded by colonialism and apartheid. The document further charges that the role of the middle strata in our society (which Dr. Khoza belong) is to inter alia:
1. Use their skills in sectoral locations where they are to advance socio-economic transformation.
2. Foster progressive intellectual discourse on the values, culture and challenges of our society.
3. Contribute towards equality, human rights and social justice.
This, questions the good Doctor Khoza's understanding of leadership in society. Is it not that the leadership in any nation is located in different branches of society? Perhaps we need to remind him that, in less than twenty years ago, he would not have dreamt of being a Chairman of the fourth largest commercial bank in South Africa. His age allows him to remember this.
If it was not the relentless struggle of the South African people led by the African National Congress leadership that he despises so much today.
The task that still remains for the South African patriots to accomplish is to overcome the legacy of a social system that was based on the oppression of the black majority.
Nathi Mthethwa is a Member of the NEC and NWC of the ANC and Minister of Police.
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