Four core values for a new South African opposition

Any party that aspires to govern South Africa must, at the very least, be trusted by people from different backgrounds and offer a credible, sustainable way of overcoming the socio-economic legacy of apartheid.  That is an entry level requirement.  Any party that cannot make such an offer has no prospect of governing South Africa successfully.

The truth is that none of our existing political parties, as currently constituted, can credibly offer this on its own.   It is time for political leaders to catch up with reality.

South Africa needs a convergence in the political centre, of everyone who is committed to four core values:

• Defending our constitution and securing its promise of equal rights and fair opportunities for all.
• Nurturing genuine non-racialism on the basis of reconciliation and redress.
• Growing an appropriately regulated, market-driven economy that can achieve the levels of sustainable growth needed to reduce unemployment significantly and lessen inequality.
• Building a state that puts competence above party loyalty, values service and punishes self-interest and corruption.

In South Africa, where our political affiliation tends to be ingrained in our psyche, it is especially difficult to take the leap required.  It is like asking people to give up part of their identity. It is easier to remain on the burning platform.

The political parties of the past (and present) are powerful brands, but today they serve to keep apart millions of people who really belong together.  The 23 thought leaders in South Africa who devised the National Development Plan to tackle unemployment, poverty and inequality have demonstrated this.  This plan shows remarkable similarities to the DA’s 8% growth and jobs plan.

We are seeing the beginnings of a political awakening. People of goodwill, from across the spectrum, are starting to converge around a vision and a plan for our country. The next step is to build a governing majority that can make the plan’s efficient implementation its highest priority.

If we fail to do this, and fast, we will face the inevitable rise of a brand of populism that promises paradise, but delivers purgatory. Populists start from the premise that the constitution is a barrier to progress; they mobilise on the basis of racial nationalism; and they seek state control of the economy.

They pose as champions of the poor to disguise self-interest and power hunger.   They abuse the institutions of state to pursue political agendas and to enrich their political allies.  And they use Marxist rhetoric to mask self-enrichment.

They are the political disaster without the economic windfall.

If we are to avoid the decades of decline that have derailed so many democratic transitions on our continent, this travelling circus must be unmasked for the charade that it is.

But how do we fight the simplistic yet beguiling promise of populists?

We cannot show them up by shouting them down.  This, perversely, adds to their appeal.

The biggest obstacle we face is that constitutionalists and populists find themselves incongruously tied together in the same political party – the so-called ‘broad church’.  The dividing line runs through the middle of the ANC, which is paralysed by ideological contradictions and confusion, and by interest groups vying for the spoils of office.

Any political party that is held hostage by warring factions is soon overtaken by those that are able to adopt clear policy positions, and follow through coherently and confidently.

That is why the debate in South Africa is increasingly a contest between the values of non-racialism, constitutionalism and a market-driven economy, on the one hand, and racial mobilisation, power abuse and state control on the other.

The ANC colossus stands inert in the middle, pulled in both directions, but unable to move either way without falling apart.

The cracks are widening.  Every crisis, from the failure to deliver textbooks in Limpopo to the massacre at Marikana, merely widens the gap.

The big question is:  Can a clean break happen in time so that the constitutionalists, wherever they currently find themselves, can build a new majority and implement a plan that defuses the time-bomb of youth unemployment?  A plan that offers young South Africans opportunities to learn, and to work; and the dignity of belonging through the contribution they make.  There are no more economic windfalls.  We have to make it happen.

Achieving this outcome must be the over-riding goal of our politics in the years ahead.

Zwelinzima Vavi is right that South Africa needs a “Lula moment”.  But I’m not sure it is what he thinks it is.

The former Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s success was rooted in his capacity to mobilise the unions and civil society to support a policy platform very similar to our own National Development Plan.  Lula liberalised Brazil’s markets by cutting spending, paying down debt, trimming the bureaucracy, introducing accountability (particularly in education), improving productivity, linking social grants with family responsibilities, rationalising inefficient state-owned enterprises and reforming business laws to incentivise investment.

That strategy enabled his administration to lift 40 million people out of poverty.  And that is precisely what South Africa needs.  It cannot be done from a position of ideological incoherence.  It requires a highly competent state and strong leadership.

The longer South Africa’s power incumbents use their positions to protect their widespread patronage networks, the more the chance of our own Lulu moment recedes.

We cannot miss the window of opportunity between now and 2014 to bring together all South Africans who want to build a stable, shared future based on the four core values I set out.

We must use the two years that lie ahead to bring together individuals, organisations and institutions, who understand the urgency of our situation.

The big risk is that the constitution succumbs first.

We have already experienced how a ruling party can undermine a constitution without changing a single word of it.  We have seen the strategy of deploying loyal cadres to institutions of state to advance the sectional interests of a dominant political faction.

We have seen it happening in the National Prosecuting Authority.

We have even seen it in the Judicial Service Commission.

We have seen it in the disbanding of the Scorpions and the emergence of the Secrecy Bill.

We are seeing it in the drive to establish a single public service.

And we must recall that at the ANC’s recent policy conference, those advocating the confiscation of property without compensation were only narrowly defeated.  The message was not lost on investors.  And so, the assault on our constitution undermines our capacity to grow our economy and create jobs.

People often say to me that while there are so many hungry, homeless, unemployed South Africans, it is a middle-class luxury to worry about a constitution.  This is probably the most tragic comment of all, because as we know, hunger, homelessness, unemployment and hopelessness will be irreversible without a constitution that guarantees people’s rights, expands their opportunities, and protects them from the abuse of state power,

So, how can we advance the political realignment that South Africa needs?

All of us – whatever our present and past political affiliations – need to decide where we stand now. The choice is between the populists, who will drive South Africa into the abyss of absolute poverty,  or the constitutionalists who must rise to the challenge of implementing a plan that gives everyone a chance of belonging, of working to improve their own lives, and contributing to society.

The risk of leaving our comfort zones to achieve this pales to insignificance when considering the alternative.

We cannot let demagogues win.  We need to come together in a single party committed to building a non-racial and prosperous South Africa.

We must join hands and walk this road together. If we remain divided we will be defeated. The dream of the rainbow nation will lie in ruins.

Giving up a small part of our political identities will be worth it if we can build a brand new political vehicle to put South Africa on course and stay the distance.
 

If we can transcend the political formations that keep us trapped in the past, future generations will look back and thank us. The time has come to leap from the burning platform and take the plunge into the unknown.  It offers far greater hope than staying where we are. There is no time to waste.

Helen Zille is the leader of the Democratic Alliance. This is an extract from a speech delivered to the Cape Town Press Club on September 27.