South Africa: a choice between two visions, and two futures

Note to editors: This is an extract of the speech that was delivered by DA Parliamentary Leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, today at the opening ceremony of the Liberal International Congress in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

His Excellency, President Alassane Ouattara;

His Excellency, President Macky Sall;

His Excellency, President, Dr Thomas Yayi Boni,

Ministers of the Government;

Members of the Diplomatic Corps;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Fellow liberals:

It is a great honour to address the 58th Congress of Liberal International. It is especially gratifying to be speaking in a great country led by the liberal government of President Ouattara. Mr President, thank you for hosting us with such magnificent hospitality. 

Je suis ravie de m'adresser à vous aujourd'hui en tant que fière représentante d'un parti libéral au pouvoir. Mon parti, l'alliance démocratique (DA) est le parti gouvernant la province du Western Cape et l'une des plus grandes villes-carrefour, Le Cap.

(I am delighted to stand before you today as a proud representative of a liberal party of government in South Africa. My party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is the party of government of the province of the Western Cape, and of one the world's leading gateway cities, Cape Town).

I am the leader of the official opposition in parliament, and I am joined here by my colleague Tim Harris, our shadow minister of finance. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Mr Stevens Mokgalapa, who serves as the DA International Officer of Liberal International, and in parliament as the shadow minister of human settlements.

It is wonderful to be here in Côte d'Ivoire: A country in a continent that is, day by day, writing a new story of hope and change. And it is not all about politics.

The reach of the ‘soft power' of Francophone Africa's arts and culture scene is magnificent; from the gorgeous Angelique Kidjo of Benin, to Youssou N'Dour of Senegal - named, a few years back by Time as one of the world's most influential people - to the hip-hop artist, Emmanuel Jal, a former child solider of Sudan. 

Mais ceci n'est pas étonnant. Les Africains francophones savent depuis toujours, dieu merci, qu'il y a autre chose dans la vie que la politique et l'économie.

Cependant, la politique et l'économie sont des sujets importants. Et l'Afrique montre l'exemple. Où en sommes nous aujourd'hui?

(This should be of no surprise. French-speaking Africans have always known, thank goodness, that there is more to life than politics and economics. 

Still, politics and economics are important. And Africa is blazing a trail. Where do we stand today?) 

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which has just released its annual report, indicates that, since 2006, the strongest performances across Africa have been in the categories of sustainable economic opportunity and human development. And this finding will form the focal point of my address about Africa's economic development, and South Africa's place within it. 

Même si nous ne sous-estimons pas l'ampleur des problèmes auxquels l'Afrique fait face, depuis la pauvreté des enfants, aux génocides dans la région des Grands Lacs, aux maladies, et à la violence envers les femmes, l'Afrique est en marche. 

(While we do not underestimate the scale of the problems Africa faces from children poverty, to genocide in the Great Lakes region, to disease, and to violence against women, Africa is on the march). 

Considérez ceci. Aujourd'hui, 60 millions d'Africains, équivalent à la population de la Grande Bretagne, ont des salaires supérieurs à 3000$ par an. Ceci était simplement impensable il y a dix ans. Une nouvelle classe moyenne Africaine est en train d'émerger, et nous devons nous rappeler de ce qui nous a permis d'en arriver là.

(Consider this. Today 60 million Africans, equal to the population of Great Britain, have incomes over $3000 per annum. This was unthinkable only a decade ago. A new African middle class is emerging, and we need to remind ourselves of what helped bring this about). 

The past few decades have witnessed a seminal shift in the form and direction of the global economy. As many prosperous and developed countries struggle to return to growth in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, many countries in the developing world surged ahead. 

Wealth has been created, and poverty reduced, on an unprecedented scale in the history of humanity. 

South Africa, until recently, was included in this compelling narrative. Together with Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRICs), as well as Indonesia and Turkey, we were viewed as part of the re-orientation of the global economy towards the East and South. 

This analysis, it now appears, might have been overdrawn; China's economy is slowing down, and the global economic indicators are fluctuating wildly. The verdict is open on how the post-financial crisis economic global order might take shape.

Mais aujourd'hui, je peux présenter deux histoires d'Afrique du Sud pertinent au niveau du continent: l'une est une histoire d'inaction et de peur. L'autre est une histoire d'action et d'espoir ; et elle a le pouvoir de dissiper l'autre.

(But today, I can present to you two stories in South Africa that have continental relevance: one story is of inaction and fear. The other is one of action and hope; and it contains the power to dispel the former). 

C'est une réalité incontestable que l'Afrique du Sud, la plus importante économie d'Afrique, n'est pas suffisamment performante. Ceci ralentit la croissance de l'Afrique car le continent est le principal marché potentiel d'exportation de l'Afrique du Sud.

(It is an unmistakable reality that South Africa, Africa's largest economy, is underperforming. This is dragging Africa's growth because the continent is South Africa's largest potential export and import market for goods and services).

Avec une faible croissance et un faible niveau de confiance des investisseurs, l'économie continue de perdre des emplois. Dans le pays le plus riche d'Afrique, près de la moitié des Sud Africains sont en proie à la pauvreté. L'inégalité des revenus est la plus importante au monde.

With poor growth and lower investor confidence, the economy continues to lose jobs. In Africa's wealthiest country, up to half of all South Africans are mired in poverty. 

We are a nation divided between "insiders" and "outsiders": those who have access to opportunities, and the dignity of a decent day's work; and those who are locked outside to fend for themselves. Inequality is usually measured by disparity in incomes. In South Africa, the DA measures it as the heartrending disparity between those in employment, and the millions who are jobless.

As today's cover of the Economist shows, South Africa, famously depicted by one of Africa's greatest liberal sons, the late Alan Paton, as the Beloved Country, is coming apart. The centre is not holding. The shocking massacre at Marikana in August was not a random act. It was the manifestation of a broken society; one riddled by social exclusion, and which has lost its way under a leaderless government.  

Like many policy-makers in the corridors of power across the world, you will be asking: what happened to the Rainbow Nation?

The answers are complex. Many of you will recognise similar features in your own country's journey.

While the party of liberation did many things right in the first decade, it seems that, for most, wealth and power has just been exchanged by one group for another. I know we are not unique in this regard in the developing world.

The DA is responding to this crisis in the knowledge that there is little merit in endlessly asking ‘what went wrong?' There are enough academics and sociologists doing that. The question is where do we go from here?

Drawing on liberal values of freedom and self-reliance, the DA is developing a new vision of, what has been described, as the ‘servant state'.

You cannot promote inclusive institutions and individual liberty, the mainstays of liberalism, without changing the economic rules of the game; one in which presently most South Africans feel that the rules are cruelly rigged against them.

South Africans, by disposition, are enterprising and ingenious. We are a nation of strong individuals and communities. We have overcome so many difficult times together, and we will get through this present crisis, together. Most importantly, we need to get South Africa working again.

The DA has developed an economic strategy to turn South Africa's economy into one that can grow at 8% per year. Currently we are only managing annual GDP growth of around 2%. The way to unlock our growth potential is to boost "inclusion" in our economy: to bridge the gap between the outsiders and the insiders. 

We seek to broaden economic access so that everyone has the opportunity to achive their full economic potential. Liberals do not seek equality of outcomes, but equality of opportunities. This requires intervening early, and, in a society scarred like ours, on a case by case basis.

The answers to how to do this are actually well known. Our history is unique. Our problems are not. Good governance is the means, and good economics is the method. And many African governments have stolen a march on us.

The solutions, contained in our plan, prioritise promoting private-sector investment, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. As the rest of the world has done, we must introduce greater flexibility in the labour market to give many people the opportunity to work. 

We need to stimulate productivity in South Africa's labour-intensive sectors such as mining, manufacturing and agriculture by eradicating policy uncertainty. We have one of the richest endowments of minerals and energy, and yet, since 2009, we have not received any major direct investment in mining to speak of.

We want to bringing to life ‘dead capital' through enhanced black economic empowerment programmes, so that millions more people can becomes shareholders in companies.

We need just and fair land reform and title deed reform, because land ownership is one of the best ways to access capital.

And we need to create a social security system that gives people a hand up, not a hand out. Liberals know that society has a responsibility to take care of its most vulnerable, but not to lock people into a cycle of dependency.

Our plan will cut the tax and regulatory burdens inhibiting new business growth, and contains bold reforms to clamp down on corruption.

And it will conduct impact assessments of all new laws and regulations with a view to prioritising growth.

It can, and must be done. 

Seven of the ten fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, and South Africa is in pole position to engage the continent as a strategic economic partner and market. Rates of investment return in Africa are greater than in any other region.

This is why we need to speed up regional economic integration, and increase South Africa's engagement with Africa and the world through public and trade diplomacy. 

It is in everyone's interest that South Africa at the forefront of continental growth.
Et ici, nous, libéraux Sud Africains, et nos homologues Africains, avons une opportunité d'impulser non seulement un nouvel ordre économique, mais également un nouvel ordre politique.

En tant que libéraux sociaux, notre vision de la société est une vision basée sur l'équité et la compassion. Cette vision est une vision plus grande, et plus durable que celle présentée, d'une part, par les bénéficiaires passifs de l'état, et d'autre part, par un individualisme farouche.

(And here, we South African liberals, and our fellow African counterparts, have an opportunity to not only influence the new economic order, but recast the political order too. 

As social liberals, our vision of society is one based on fairness and compassion. It is greater, and more durable, than the one that is presented, on the one hand, between passive recipients of the state, and of ‘rugged' individualism, on the other).

When the DA came into office in the Western Cape province in 2009, we knew that we needed systemic change management to make the provincial government perform better for every citizen. 

We chose the right people who had the conceptual analysis tools to determine delivery targets. 

For our government, and politics, to succeed, we also needed to attract the best talent from the private and the public sector. 

It is beginning to pay off. Today, we have the country's best school exam results amongst the provinces, and we have made targeted investments in the health and transport services in the poorest communities. We are literally breaking down the spatial barriers that formerly separated our communities, so that "outsiders" become "insiders". 

Not that we are satisfied. Without a constantly expanding educated middle-class, there is a ceiling to growth.  

So we are working to attract high-quality investment every day. Our premier and leader of the DA, Helen Zille, alongside our provincial Finance Minister, Alan Winde, drums up investment for the Western Cape and South Africa when and wherever they can. Investment does not trickle down from heaven. Governments have to seek it out. It requires leadership.

We knew, in 2009, that the world had changed, and that we had to adapt to it. Most profoundly, in the midst of global uncertainty, we saw that people were returning to the liberal belief that our strength is not derived from going it alone. But that it was drawn from the diversity of our communities and institutions which, together, we call society. 

We, of course, can only implement this vision and programme at a national level by winning new votes. An entire new generation; the ‘born free generation' of young people who were born after April 1994, will be casting their votes for the first time.

We seek to win their "hearts and minds", as well as their votes. We can only propose a programme of action, and provide the right conditions for people to receive opportunities. It takes people themselves to take them up, and make their hopes and dreams a reality.

Our new politics has provided an opportunity for the DA to use new technologies, especially the social media, to attract new young voters. Our social media campaign is always positive, and enables us to speak to people in a way that is not mediated by the traditional press.

Most importantly, we are challenging traditional voting patterns through our record of competence and delivery in government, and by steadily building electoral credibility.

This task has been sharpened by a clear choice in South Africa today: it between the "populists" and the "constitutionalists".

We are working to build a new majority of "constitutionalists"; one that complements our promotion of human rights, the market economy, and the constitution's push for non-racialism and reconciliation.

We are working to smash the old identity politics of ‘race', ‘ethnicity', and ‘class' which, up to now, defined party allegiance. We are doing so by crafting policies that are based on social solidarity and dignified engagement. 

We are therefore engaged in a permanent campaign based on the platform that we are better, together.

We have set the goal to capture 30% of the vote in the 2014 election, and to win a working majority, either alone or in a DA-led coalition, in 2019. Simply put, we aspire to join the ranks of African liberal governments within a decade.

An African vision that combines our tried and tested centuries old belief in the power of the community, extended families, and dignity, with the universal liberal values of freedom, justice and prosperity for all.

The only constraints to solving all of our problems are fear, and a deficit of imagination. With liberal leaders of the calibre gathered here today these will surely not stand in our way.

I thank you. Merci.

Issued by the DA, October 20 2012

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