SOUTH AFRICA: CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY 14 YEARS AFTER LIBERATION
This speech was to be delivered by Sandra Botha to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean at the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats meeting held in Brussels on 16 April 2008.
Friends in liberty and democracy, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to open my address to you tonight by stating upfront and categorically that choosing democracy in 1994 was the best choice that the people of South Africa could have made then, for now and for all posterity.
Millions of South Africans, both those so-called “beneficiaries of apartheid” as well as those who were discriminated against by South Africa’s former system of government, today enjoy freedoms which they could only have dreamt of prior to Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as our country’s first democratically elected President.
South Africa is a nation of brave and resilient people who have shown great courage in the face of adversity – this undoubtedly bodes well for our future as a country and as a democracy.
With courage and optimism in hand, the people of South Africa:
-believe in the surmountability of the challenges that they face;
-refuse to be held hostage by a criminal minority; and,
-believe that they can win the fight against the crushing effects of poverty and corruption.
Economically speaking, South Africa has not been immune to what is popularly referred to as “the global credit crunch”. Yet, it is worthwhile to remember that a mere decade ago, South Africans had to make ends meet despite interest rates of 25% and more, while the prime lending rate during the current challenging round is but only 15%.
It was just twenty years ago, the South African government was unable to make its debt repayments, when the stock market was sent spiralling down and the rand had sunk to unknown lows.
Over the past seven years we have seen encouraging levels of growth in consumer confidence, in investor confidence, in important sectors such as tourism and manufacturing and in the economy as a whole. We have also seen billions of rands paid back to taxpayers annually since 2006.
While these positive developments and achievements are not to be disregarded or diminished for one minute, the fact that South Africa, fourteen years after liberation, faces grave challenges to its status as a democracy, should not escape us.
These tests to our democracy manifest specifically as:
-challenges to our Constitution which concerns the conflation of party and state;
-the growing, cancerous blight of corruption;
-the devastating effects of violent crime;
-an economy which does not have the necessary competitive momentum to accelerate its growth to levels to make sufficient progress to battle the problems of poverty and unemployment;
-the collapse of infrastructure in areas critical to overcoming the growth constraints that our economy faces at this critical juncture in its development; and,
-problems of service delivery in crucial areas such as public schooling, public health care, housing, justice and the quality and security of our water supply.
Of less direct concern to our average countrymen, but of dire consequence to our country, Africa and relations in and with the developing world in general, is the course which our foreign has taken in recent years.
In an unfortunate change of direction, South Africa has moved away from its status as the prime defender of human rights and has lost its status as a moral beacon on the global stage in favour of shielding a number of unjust regimes in international and regional forums.
Perhaps the most unfortunate development, given the rock from which our democracy was hewn, concerns the manner in which the racialisation and re-racialisation of debate and practise in South Africa has been allowed to re-emerge as an obstacle to building the moral fibre of our country.
It has retarded state capacity to deliver where the need is great by allowing racia
| Posted on 15/4/2008
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