A Failed Revolution - Lessons from South Africa

international | anti-capitalism | feature

Thursday December 07, 2006 01:17

by Justin Moran - SF (Personal capacity)

Women of Kennedy Road, Durban

“For the white man, one man, one vote, would be the greatest solution. It would encourage competition among blacks…and…eliminate the most important ground for critique abroad of the present regime. But it would not change the economic oppression of blacks. That would remain the same.”

It is over thirty years since South African leader Steve Biko said those words in an interview with journalist Donald Woods. In a recent book by Australian journalist John Pilger, Freedom Next Time, he closes a chapter on South Africa with those words, pointing out their uncanny accuracy at predicting what has come to pass.

State of the Nation
Twelve years since the end of political apartheid and the election of the first ANC government life for the backbone of the liberation struggle, the black working class and dispossessed is no better for some, and worse for many. Economic power and control rests almost completely in the hands of the same white companies that backed the apartheid regime. According to the UN Development Programme, 30.9% of the population are affected by poverty. Unemployment is, at least officially, at 30% though many argue the real figure is much higher. In terms of income inequality, South Africa ranks 116th out of 124 nations.

Almost four million people joined the ranks of those in poverty between 1999 and 2002 according to a Universty of KwaZulu-Natal study. This is almost two thirds again as much as the population increased over those years. In 2003, the UN Development Progamme report for South Africa claimed that all indicators of poverty and unemployment have shown significant increases since 1995.

Average white household income has risen 15% since the end of apartheid. Average black household income has fallen by 19%. In 2004, the Landless People’s Movement accused the government of failing to deliver on its promise in the Freedom Charter to redistribute 30% of the country’s agricultural land from 60,000 white farmers to blacks. Since apartheid ended, approximately 2% has been transferred.

In September 2005 a comprehensive study was presented to the South African parliament. It found that in the last ten years of apartheid 737,000 people, mostly poor black farming families, were evicted from white-owned land. In the first decade of democracy, under ANC rule, 942,000 were evicted. While the ANC has brought in legislation to prevent evictions, it is neither resourced, nor enforced.

The reason for these failures lies in the decision by the ANC in 1996 to drop many of the economic policies they had campaigned on in 1994, and had promised in the Freedom Charter, one of the most important documents in the anti-apartheid struggle akin in some respects in an Irish context to the Democratic Programme.

Thatcherism Down South
Instead, Thabo Mbeki, since 1999 the President of South Africa, with the words ‘Just call me a Thatcherite’, introduced GEAR, Growth, Emploment and Residstibution, as the ANC’s new economic strategy. It is a blueprint that could have been written by the IMF or the World Bank.

Public services would be privatised, public private partnerships would be introduced wherever possible. Controls on capital flight were lifted, leading to major South African companies relocating to London, and foreign investment would receive tax-breaks. A quarter of the ANC’s budget would be devoted to paying off the debt of the apartheid regieme.

In effect, the neo-liberal policies of structural adjustment, which have devastated economics all over the world, particularly in South and Central America and parts of Africa, were now ANC policy. According to Pilger, “Two years later, the United Nations Development Programme would describe GEAR as basically ‘no different’ from the economic strategy of the apartheid regime.”

The other major ANC economic initiative is Black Economic Empowerment, which requires corporations to bring blacks into their decisionmaking structures. In reality however, it is described by Archbishop Tutu as ‘crony capitalism’, where what Pilger calls the ‘struggle aristocracy’ of the ANC receive appointments to the boards of major corporations. In return for creating a new, wealthy, but tiny, black middle class, these white owned corporations gain access to the highest reaches of government and economic policies that favour their businesses.

Mbeki also blocked the introduction of a specific, targeted Aids policy until 2001 and the supply of anti-retroviral drugs is minimal with only 55,000 South Africans having access to these drugs. By means of comparison, the UN estimates that 5.5 million South Africans, 12.4% of the population, are HIV positive. Among under-fives, the figure for HIV positive is 230,000. A report in the African journal of Aids Research predicted that deaths from Aids could reach as high as 487,320 in 2008.

The Strength of the ANC
One of the ANC’s counter-arguments to this is to point out that it will take time to bring about the changes they are working for. But to gauge their delivery, one must examine the power the ANC have had since 1994. Since the first elections, the ANC has had an unassailable overall majority in both houses of parliament and of course, the position of President. It controls the majority of regional parliaments and is a major player in those it does not run.

It has also governed as part of the ‘tripartite alliance’, along with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which led the liberation struggle. In the past, this helped to neutralise dissent and opposition from organised labour and the Communists, although not having been consulted about the economic proposals, there is increasing militancy and dissatisfaction with the ANC from those groups.

The ANC government had, therefore, massive overall majorities in parliament, substantial control of the regions, the support of the trade union movement and the SACP and an international reservoir of goodwill towards the Mandela government throughout the world. Arguably, no revolutionary movement has ever taken power in such benign circumstances.

Post-Apartheid Achievments
And there have been substantial accomplishments by the ANC. Civil liberties denied under the Apartheid era such as free and fair elections, a free press, freedom of speech and association now flourish, representing massive democratic accomplishments. The horrendous human rights abuses and torture of the apartheid era are a thing of history. There has been substantial investment, though flawed in practice, in tackling child poverty and expansion of electric and water schemes. It should not be lost that this was accomplished peacefully, when many predicted an all-out race war as inevitable in the early 90s.

The ANC also argues that its policies have been repeatedly endorsed at the ballot box. Though this is certainly true, how much of it is a legacy of gratitude to the ANC for the end of apartheid and how much support for anti-working class economic policies is another matter. Considering its size and political power, the ANC can also run election campaigns far behind the abilities of its opponents.

Nelson Mandela once said, “If the ANC does not deliver the goods, the people must do to it what they have done to the apartheid regime.” There is evidence that increasing numbers are listening. Political demonstrations, strikes, election boycotts and protests against privatisation and lack of basic social services are now commonplace.

Within the ANC, clashes between those wishing to move the party to the left, especially young people and women, and those committed to Mbeki’s reforms are more and more open. COSATU and the South African Communist Party are openly flirting with the idea of leaving the ‘tripartite alliance’ because of the policies the ANC is implementing.

The Lessons of Power
For republicans, the ANC’s experiences since 1994 have a lot to teach us. In looking to the South African struggle, there are many lessons to be learnt, many of which we have adopted. But there are also warning signs not to be ignored. About being too ready to make accommodation with political and economic opponents. About the need for internal democracy and honest debate when taking important decisions. And perhaps most importantly, the old lesson that political power, without economic power or control, cannot deliver.