Dialogue: Reasons for optimism still evident in South Africa

Annoying as the Government of post-apartheid South Africa can be, its achievements ensure that hope still burns brightly, writes JOHN YELD*.

John Minto, the leader of Hart during the 1981 Springbok tour, painted an unduly bleak picture of what has become of South Africa in a recent Dialogue article headed "Post-apartheid hope lost for South Africa's poor."

I am not an apologist for, or card-carrying member of, the African National Congress, although I voted for that party in both post-apartheid elections in 1994 and 1999.

As a white South African frequently consumed with guilt during the previous apartheid decades, I felt supporting the ANC was a minor act of contrition, a signal of my commitment to our new democracy.

With millions of my fellow countrymen and women, I rejoiced when President Nelson Mandela was inaugurated on that momentous day in May 1994 and uttered the words that seemed to promise so much for our shared future: "We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination."

But, probably again like millions of South Africans, there have been moments during the past seven years when I've ranged between despair, irritation and outright anger at the ANC-led Government's occasional bouts of ineptitude, arrogance and bloody-mindedness, or when the ANC itself has closed ranks and put party loyalty ahead of the national interest to protect those accused of incompetence and dishonesty.

I'm appalled that President Thabo Mbeki's Government is spending 43 billion rand ($13 billion) on arms procurement, although there is a strong case for some new defence spending - notably acquiring vessels and aircraft suitable for long-range fisheries patrols.

I'm annoyed that the cabinet has agreed to spend several hundred million rand - enough to build several thousand houses - on a new personal aircraft for President Mbeki.

I'm saddened when political leaders like Tony Yengeni, the ANC's chief whip in Parliament, and his family and friends are exposed as having acquired luxury vehicles in dubious circumstances.

There are, indeed, sectors of our society where the "waBenzi" syndrome - a derogatory expression, derived from Mercedes-Benz cars, for the ostentatious display of newly acquired wealth - is rampant.

But it would have been rare in apartheid South Africa to find a civil servant of high, or even middle, ranking without a Mercedes-Benz or BMW in their garage.

There's no denying Mr Minto's central thesis: that seven years after achieving political emancipation, many South Africans are still trapped in poverty and are frustrated by the slow pace of delivery.

But does he really have evidence that such impatience is causing "rapidly waning hope" that positive change will ever take place?

Any impatience at the ANC Government's record from 1994-99 was not reflected in the second general election just over two years ago, when it increased its support from 62.65 per cent to 66.36 per cent of the overall vote and its seats in the National Assembly from 252 to 266.

Mr Minto claims that, since 1994, most black South Africans are now worse off than they were under the apartheid regime.

It's a claim indirectly refuted by the Bureau of Market Research of UNISA (University of South Africa), which reports that between 1995 and 2000, real personal disposable income of Indians increased annually by 2.8 per cent, by 2.7 per cent for Africans, 2.1 per cent for coloureds and 1.1 per cent for whites.

Mr Minto claims infant mortality rates in many rural areas are "worse than ever" - but when was "ever"?

According to the Department of Health, under-five mortality declined until the early 1990s, although since then, the mortality rate of the infant section of this group has shown an upward trend.

But it also offers a plausible explanation: "It is likely that this upward trend is associated with the HIV/Aids epidemic that is under way in South Africa."

The HIV/Aids pandemic is hardly a phenomenon that can be blamed on the Government.

More importantly, although the infant mortality rate is rising, it is still well below that of 1986 when the apartheid health departments were the responsible authorities. And last year alone, the Government built 127 health clinics, most in rural areas.

Mr Minto's claim that "increasingly even the water one drinks is privately owned and available only at a price" flies in the face of the facts.

The figure for the supply of clean water provided through the Government's community supply programme has increased a hundred-fold from 62,249 in 1995 to 6,495,205 by November 2000.

And this year, the cabinet approved a plan for 6000 litres of free water for each household each month with an implementation date of July 1, although, admittedly, many of the water supply authorities have not met this target.

The essence of Mr Minto's argument is that South Africa's new leaders have been seduced by the captains of industry to embrace a free-market economy and the new global economic order, at the cost of the deep socialist philosophy expounded in documents such as the Freedom Charter.

But the charter was adopted nearly half a century ago, in 1955.

"The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people;

"The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole ... "

While some elements of the charter are still embraced - for example, a new minerals act that will radically change the predominantly white ownership of South Africa's rich mineral resources is in draft form - there are only a handful of South Africans who still argue with any real conviction that nationalising banks, for example, would promote the national interest.

South Africa has modernised its economy and moved to adopt the free-market system with the full approval of the democratically elected Parliament. And to suggest that ANC leaders have all been "persuaded, cajoled, coerced and convinced" by "powerful forces" to accept the private-enterprise model smacks of conspiracy theory.

Has the opportunity to restructure South Africa's economy really been lost, as Mr Minto avers? Or is President Mbeki's assessment more accurate?

Pointing out that South Africa's foreign trade surplus as at December last year was a record R9 billion, that last year's consumer inflation rate was 5.3 per cent compared to 15.3 per cent in 1991, and that a leading bank's register of capital projects of more than R20 million showed an increase from R22 billion in 1999 to R48 billion last year, he said: "There is a general consensus that we have established the necessary macro-economic balance and stability, away from the very precarious position we were in, in 1994, and despite a very volatile international environment.

"Furthermore, the international competitiveness of the economy has fundamentally improved.

"The threat of de-industrialisation and economic collapse as a result of manufacturing sector inefficiency which we inherited has been addressed through tariff and industrial reforms."

I admire what Mr Minto and Hart achieved in 1981, and he is correct to raise concerns about continuing poverty levels in South Africa.

But he has been unreasonably harsh, unduly pessimistic and not entirely fair about the South Africa of today.

* John Yeld, a Cape Town-based journalist, is working on a fellowship at the Herald.