Ian Fuhr has authored an important book: The Human Bridge – Racial Healing in South Africa. The book focuses on the major fault lines of our society – the legacy of colonial conquest and use of racism as justification for extracting the rich resources of our beautiful country for European use: land and its natural endowments, human and intellectual resources, and mineral resources.
The sorry state of our multigenerational wounded society begs the question: Can healing occur, and be sustained, without concomitant dismantling of the socio-economic structures and practices that continue to wound and humiliate the majority by a minority?
The book provides an interesting take on the intractable divides in the post-1994 democratic order. Despite the laudable world-renowned Constitution that mandates healing and the building of a just society free from racism, sexism, and any form of discrimination, our society is hurting. The compelling personal stories in this book help the reader to see the power of self-liberation through consciousness of the essence of being human as relational. There cannot be a Me without the We. The Central African philosophy of Ubuntu not only calls for self-liberation, but for actions to dismantle the structures that continue to traumatise so many for the benefit of a minority.
The book wrestles without success with the idea of sequencing healing the wounds of our ugly past versus dismantling of the socio-economic structures that continue to underpin extractive economy we have inherited. Racism, sexism, and injustices, are deeply embedded in our socio-economic system. Patterns of ownership of land, corporations and financial capital institutions, and leadership of key economic institutions, remain overwhelmingly white and male.
The 2019 South African Land Audit revealed that 72% of farms and agricultural holdings by individuals are in white hands; Coloured people own 15%; Indians 5%; indigenous Africans own only 4% of the land. Business ownership records confirm that white people own 61%, whilst inclusive black ownership stood at 39% in 2021. The latest figures show a drop in black ownership of business to below 30% in 2022. Land reform and Black Economic Empowerment instituted over the last 30 years have clearly not succeeded to significantly change ownership patterns.
The late Bishop David Russell used a poignant metaphor to challenge those focussing on the need to heal the divides in our society without being willing to take responsibility for contributing to restitution of the resources extracted by force from indigenous people by European settlers. He tells the story of a man who had taken a bicycle from another by force, returning years later to the original owner to apologise for the theft and to plead for forgiveness. He points to the irony of the forgiven man after shaking hands with the original owner of the bicycle, turning round and riding the bicycle into the distance. Where does this leave the original owner who continues to walk everywhere he needs to get to?
Post-colonial Africa has suffered from negotiated political settlements that deliberately excluded socio-economic transformation. Nelson Mandela recognised the danger of rushing into negotiations of our political settlement that would leave intact the structural underpinnings of our extractive economic system. Unfortunately, Mandela’s advice to his ANC colleagues to leverage the in-depth knowledge of our socio-economic system from home grown experts was turned down. At the ready were academics, researchers, and activists, who had been part of the struggle for liberation then were willing to contribute as citizens. External advisors who promoted conventional liberal economics were relied upon by the ANC, and the rest is history. We remain the poster child of inequality and inequity.
Successful transitions to democracy from iniquitous systems such as in the case of the re-unification of Germany, used non-conventional policy approaches to restructure their socio-economic systems. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a conservative, championed a unification program that included targeted taxes on high income earners over nearly two decades to fund the reconstruction of East Germany. In addition, preferential investments were directed to its physical and socio-economic infrastructure. Chancellor Kohl understood the importance of holistic healing of the divides between a people divided over decades by geopolitical power games. Kohl’s successful legacy endures to date.
In 1989 Prof Francis Wilson and I co-authored: Uprooting Poverty, The South African Challenge, in which we quoted French philosopher Raymond Aron that: “Too great a degree of inequality makes human community impossible.” Our country is the living hell it is today, as the most unequal society in the world with violent crime, insecurity, gender-based violence only seen in societies at war. We are at war with ourselves as a people due to our failure to heal the multigenerational wounds of our ugly past. Poor people, who are majority black, continue to be humiliated and excluded. Fear has once more become a determinant of relationships across society. Sustainable human community is impossible across such an angry divide.
Uprooting poverty requires a holistic approach. We must combine self-liberating healing conversations at the family, community, workplaces, education institutions, and health care service points of contact, with practical interventions to enable people to regain their dignity. We must also raise the consciousness of all citizens to understand the links between the levels of crime and insecurities, gender-based violence, on one hand, and the indignities suffered by those on the margins of society in our iniquitous country.
Both black and white citizens must accept that they need to liberate themselves from the imposition of inferiority and superiority complexes. Self-liberation in post-1994 cannot be framed by black consciousness as it was in the 1970-1980s, but about consciousness of what it means to be human – embracing Ubuntu - the essence of being members of one human family. Roses are roses, red, yellow, and white. Continuing to affirm categories imposed on indigenous people to justify racist Europeans exploitation, cannot, and has not, and will not end poverty, inequality, and social injustices.
Lessons from the last 30 years require us to change course. We cannot continue to use apartheid style racial classification to right the wrongs of colonial and apartheid eras. It should come as no surprise that Coloured people find themselves between a rock and a hard place in the category based Black Economic Empowerment – neither black enough nor white enough. The assertion of their “colouredness” makes sense only in a society obsessed with categorisation to dispense benefits, and they feeling once more left out.
The cruel irony is that it was the “colour blindness” of the indigenous Khoi and San people that enabled them to rescue the shipwrecked first Dutch sailors. They washed the sick, fed and nursed them, buried the dead, and after months saw off the recovered sailors with provisions of fresh water, vegetables and fruit, and cereals, back to the Netherlands. In the eyes of our indigenous ancestors, the Dutch were simply part of the single human family. This kindness was rewarded with brutality when Dutch sailors returned with the intent on capturing the Cape of Good Hope for their exclusive use as colonial masters. Martin Luther King’s wisdom that: “The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Toward Justice” is all we can hold on to as we work to restore our humanity.
Our country has an opportunity for a fresh start. With the arrogance of the ANC as the leader of society clearly rejected by citizens in the 2024 elections, we now have a government that represents a broader base of voices, and is readier to listen to citizen voices. The fundamental transformation of Education, Health, and Social Welfare, into high quality self-liberation platforms especially for citizens living in poverty. Everyone must have their dignity restored and be able to find the wings to fly into their desired futures.
Investments in physical and social infrastructure must become launching pads for skills development for the millions of unemployed young people. South Africa is not a poor country. There are more than enough resources if we phase out the middlemen in the SETAs. SETAs have over the last 30 years absorbed more than R20bn per annum with little to show for it. For example, in the 2024/25 national budget the combined total of just over R42bn is allocated for skills development and vocational education and training institutions.
The private sector toon has an opportunity to adopt a code of conduct that puts an end to self-serving short-termism, and commit to sustainable profitable businesses that advance to longer-term interests of society. The current strong partnerships that are developing between the corporate and government sectors, are solid foundations for transformation of business towards a new way of doing business.
André Hoffman of family-owned Roche in Switzerland, has recently published: The New Nature of Business that champions embedding sustainability, ethics, and purpose, in the mainstream of profitable institutions. It advocates a new leadership approach of peer groups work together to promote regenerative businesses that are profitable and sustainable. The B Team comprised of the leading progressive voices are a community leading the charge and collaborating with the UN, to promote SDGs and planetary sustainability. As a well-endowed African country we can do all the above and more as we prosper.
Mamphela Ramphele
Co-Founder of ReimagineSA and Chair of Archbishop Tutu IPTRUST
9/9/2024
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