After my recent tweet against radical transformation, some people objected to my membership on the Council of the University of Stellenbosch. The objections have various implications which can only be determined if we ask: What is transformation?
Nowadays, every new law starts with transformation. Every political speech implores it, and every race quota or target is grounded therein. Yes, a handful of billionaires party on the front lawn, but in the backyard taps run dry and hospitals overflow; the value of the rand falls and prices rise; and everyone grows more race conscious and less charitable. Not only does this word not appear in the Constitution, but it isn’t defined officially anywhere else. Sometimes it appears as if it is transformation which is defining the Constitution. Alexander Johnston in South Africa – Inventing the Nation calls the concept “surprisingly elusive”.
Although a healthy skepticism is now coming about, well-intentioned people have been supporting transformation across a wide spectrum for the last 20 years. People were eager to move away from Apartheid to a new, better future.
But just what this new future would entail was seldom investigated. Except in ANC circles; transformation has been thoroughly considered there.
Joel Netshitenzhe, then-ANC policy chief, wrote in 1998 that transformation entails that all levers of power must be brought under the control of the National Liberation Movement, including the civil service, courts and semi-state institutions. “They should reflect in their composition the demographics of the country; and they should owe allegiance to the new order,” he said.
One observes the same points throughout. The golden thread is racial representation and submission to the state. With Black Economic Empowerment, Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry, advocates that in the economy “control, ownership and leadership” should reflect the demographics of the country, “in the same way the political space does”. Jimmy Manyi is known for his insistence that the “over-concentration of coloreds in the Western Cape” needs to end. This all in the name of transformation.