Deep Reflections on Recovery

The unemployment figures in South Africa are grim.  The economic indicators suggest that the economy is slowing down – the past quarter had the slowest growth rate in 4 year (0.7%).

C4L itself has been running on empty for 6 months, imposing austerity measures and looking for ways to scale down.  This is typical of many nonprofits.

Eighty years ago, the world was in the grip of the Great Depression.  1933 was the deepest dip in a decade of hardship and deprivation for many.  A new president was inaugurated that year.  He spoke the following phrases in his Inaugural Address, which point the way for another constitutional Democracy, on another continent, in another century:

• We face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things

• Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence

• Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men

• They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision

• The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.  These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men

• Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit

• We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike

Oh, wow!  There has not been a dramatic stock market crash, no single moment of panic causing paranoia in our case.  But we do share the problem of unscrupulous profiteers and of a system that does not even out disparities fast enough.

Two great concerns are highlighted:

1. FDR summoned a moral fibre in these phrases that was embedded in his people, although it had been submerged below that “evanescent” post-war generation of tinsel-town self-gratification.

He made work the core determinant of success, not profiteering with other people’s money.

The old and precious moral values FDR mentions are based on the Golden Rule of doing to others what you would like them to do to you.  Or even better – sacrificially.

Can top leadership in South Africa credibly make such a call as this?  Yes there were moral leaders in the Struggle like Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo.  But are there now?  A recent article in the Times (“State gravy train unstoppable for now”) concludes that there are still not enough checks and balances in place.  Just as was the case in the Roaring Twenties, in the run-up to the stock market crash.

The out-going Auditor-General says that R28.7 billion was wasted by the State in the last fiscal year.  “It is a matter of the legislation being too loose” he says, “The offender has got the upper hand over government because the legislation is not watertight enough to hold people accountable.”

2. FDR called on national unity - that is on non-partisanship.

Whereas in South Africa there seems to be political fragmentation.  Mamphela Ramphele has started a political party espousing the values of the Black Consciousness Movement.  Malema has started a leftist party espousing more government intervention in the economy.  And NUMSA is mulling over departing from COSATU and the ruling alliance to form another party – probably led by Vavi.

Can anyone at this stage muster national unity at the depth that will be required to overcome “our common difficulties”?

We would like to see a “Non-regression Pact” signed by all opposition parties.  Yes they will each chip away at the ruling party’s huge majority.  But if the congress should ever slip below the 50% mark, it will still hold the biggest vote.  What will happen if it then selects but one party - like Malema’s - to form a coalition with?  In the absence of a united opposition, we need these smaller parties to assure voters that they will coalesce with one another in that eventuality.  Not just become a power broker that can charge the ANC whatever it demands for its rubber-stamp.

In another context, Archbishop Tutu and 80 other prominent South Africans recently signed a declaration warning of an “assault on democracy”.  But two relevant excerpts follow:

“Constructive engagement on the best way forward is possible and desirable, without resort to violence, and without fomenting hate or disrespect.” 
“The lack of serious leadership and authority in disciplining this form of anti-democratic behaviour carries serious risks and encourages a spirit of hate which, once unleashed, may take many years to overcome with drastic consequences for our economy.”
Moral leadership is at the core.  Disabled FDR embodied the fighting spirit of recovery.  Who can South Africa look to as its economy falters, bleeding from corruption and graft?