Mbeki's legacy conference at Wits University exposes 'realities' in South Africa

The recent conference on Mbeki's legacy exposed the raw realities of the socio-economic, political and cultural experinces in South Africa. Central to this debate was a general theme related to political ideologies that have shaped political governance,accountability of political leadership and life experiences of citizens in South Africa from government policies that have emerged.

From the ideas of the left to classical marxism and economic determinism to market driven neo-liberal ideologies, privatisation versus protectionism and regulation of the economy, it was clearly a minefield of ideas.

Ofcourse, all this ideas were central to the discussion about Mbeki's legacy because Mbeki as a person did not box himself in one corner of ideological thinking, at least according to one panelist in the coference. His ideas were organic and dynamic and seemed to be diffused, such that it becomes difficult to pin him down on one particular school of thought.

But central to Mbeki's thinking has been the idea of a free market economy which attracted heavy critisisms from the left wing partner of the ANC (COSATU) and perhaps contributed to his unpopularity and defeat in the party leadership race in Polokwane.

Why do I say Mbeki could not be conered in a box concerning his ideological intellectualism? While he advocated for a pro-business rightist mentality to the economy, which critics argued only favoured the rich, he also adopted leftist ideas into policy such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)which led to the creation of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) that has since been critisised to favour those who are already privileged and acted as one of the bones of contention between ANC and COSATU.

The core values of the RDP are based on the fact that the centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid have plunged the South African society into a deep seated crisis. Every aspect of the country from political institutions, the economy, social life, the very moral fabric of communities has been deeply affected by the legacy of the arpatheid past.

According to the ANC website www.anc.org.za, the RDP thus anchors itself in meeting human needs. In other words, it is self-consciously people-centred. The RDP is not rooted, in the first place, in this or that political or economic ideology, it submits all such ideologies to the practical litmus test of meeting the fundamental human needs of the South African society.

The RDP asks to be judged in terms of its capacity to provide jobs, shelter, safe water, health-care, nutrition, relevant education, and safety and security to the people of South Africa. All other ideological considerations (for instance, socialism or the "free market"?), and all other technical considerations (for instance, optimal annual growth rates, or budget deficit reduction targets) are secondary to the overriding concern of meeting human needs, in a sustainable manner.

In taking its stand on a people-centred approach, the RDP is not underrating the importance of technical competence, or budgetary discipline, nor does it undervalue the great importance of ideological debate, and the potential opportunities and risks of choosing one or another perspective. But the RDP refuses to lock itself into either preconceived technical or ideological dogma.

The ANC has been basing its election campaigns and victories on the basis of a vision of "A Better Life for All" through the RDP which outlines the strategic path towards this better life. But, of course, one would question the idea of 'a better life for all' given the socio-economic, cultural and political ralities that are still challenging this vision.

Further, what would possibly happen if people loose their trust in the ANC's capabilities to better their life given the challenges that still face the RDP programme? Will they vote another party? Which one? Maybe Congress of the People (COPE) is banking on the days when public perceptions would shift againist the ANC based on whether the RDP and other policy programmes of the ANC like GEAR are succeeding or not.

There is no doubt that the Reconstruction and Development Programme as a government policy has uplifted the living standards of a number of poor South Africans in terms of the expansion of the economy over time and the provision of formal shelters and running water and electricity which has, in many ways, succeeded in the formalisation of shacks in major cities especialy in Gauteng province. But is this all? For instance, many poor South African are yet to see the benefits of the RDP houses, given the the backlogs in RDP house provision and massive unemployment rates, despite a record economic growth.

Andile Mngxitama's, one of the panelists in the conference, argued that the RDP houses are apparatuses that are still being used by the 'managers of a racist system' to continue marginalising the black people. He pointed out to the fact that only black poeople live in RDP houses.

He also mentioned other areas that the black people still lag behind, considering the ANC's vision of a better life as stated in the core values of the RDP given the major challenges still being faced in areas such as housing, education and health to jobs, economic growth, and safety and security. Can this factors influence the way we think about Mbeki and his legacy? Are these challenges as a result of Mbeki and his ideas as a person or the policies of the ANC as a party?

Another issue that emerged out of Mbeki's legacy is the idea of African reinnaisance, which recommended African solutions to African problems. Mbeki has been very instrumental in rejuvinating the African voice through African Union. Ofcourse the visibility of AU led to Africa being listened to even by the strong and mighty who form the G8 and it is not a surprise that South Africa represented the voice of Africa in this year's World Economic Forum.

Mbeki's involvement in Africa contributed to the inclusion of South Africa as a member of the United Nation Security Council, something which has now assisted the AU to gain more muscles to negotiate the African agenda especialy in the global free market. Ideas such as NEPAD and peer review mechanism which are related to fair trade, transparency, governance and accountability, although they are being frustated in some countries in Africa, can also be related to Mbeki's effort and vision to see a united African voice that can negotiate for solutions to its own problem.

His contribution to the continent can be seen through the involment of South Africa in finding peaceful solutions to troubled countries in Africa such as the DRC, Liberia, Burundi, Sudan, Zimbabwe and most recently Madagascar which has since been suspended from the AU due to a coup that ousted the former elected president Marc Ravalomanana. However, it is worth stating that neo-liberal democracy and a push to the New World Oder is a global ideological battle.

Recently, democracy has been shaken in many countries of the world, especialy in Africa, and there is no any other era that capitalism has been under extreme pressure than most recently. So, perhaps the questions can shift from the idea of 'a political figure and his legacy' to questions of societal political and economic power structures and whether or not they are capable of sustaining the growing resentment among people of diffrent gender,ethnic groups,religions, cultures, races and classes on the realities that neoliberal ideologies have constructed and made them experience.

As a result of global recession, and as the wallets are closing in the West, we are begining to see power (economic) shifting to the East. Investors are puting their hopes on the East and many western componies are now expanding eastwards. China's role as a major player is now beeing acknowledged in the global financial market. For example, China is to contribute 40 billion US dollars of the total 500 billion dollars proposed economic stimulus package while the EU and Japan are to contribute 100 billion both.

According to the Financial Times www.ft.com, future of Capitalism- Awider order comes into view, although the next 20-30 years will witness two global economic superpowers-China and the US, China still has got alot of work to do at home. Domestically, it has to create a local market for its products, which is a high political call, and stop the reliance on the export oriented market, especialy regarding trade with the US. The US, on the other hand, has to stop relying on China to support or fund its excessive reliance on credit.

It a delicate balance that requires harmonisation of global finance between major players under the auspices of global financial institutions like IMF and World Bank-the two have be sharply critisised by Mbeki for coming up with programmes that are unworkable for Africa like structural adjustment programmes which contributed to poverty and unemployment in countries like Zimabwbe in the early 1990's.

Generally as the capitalistic system continue to loose its reputation among global citizens through recent events like recession etc, perhaps some form of socialisation is neccessary to manipulate the consent of people from an early childhood through Personality Assessment Systems (PSA)-very much entrenched in different apparatuses of the US society- through dissociation and mind control by skillfully manipulating human emotion especialy fear through the manufacture of a problem, for instance recession, to cause public reaction and thereafter prescribing a solution (commonly known as problem-reaction-solution) and thus proponents of the systems emerging even more powerful in the aftermath. Even though I don't wish to delve into conspiracies, it seems something needs to be done to convince people about the 'benefits' of a global world.

These growing recentments are visible in the civil society and other quaters such as pressure groups such as Occupy Wall Street and others evidenced by the magnitude of demonstration that accomponied discussions by the G20 countries concerning the socio-economic and political state of the world. However, it is important to note that the civil society has also been plagued by the same divisions that characterise the ruling polity having emerged from the same ideological power structures.

Jane Duncan, one of the panelists, explained the need for the civil society to be rebuilt and developed and the need for them to stop operating from the ivory tower for them to support the needs of those they represent. Mark Heywood added that "some parts of the civil society is not a preety picture". The civil society's agenda has been vacuos, untheorised, fragmented and lacks proper approach and consesus.

The civil society has fallen in an undefined space and all this need to change if the civil society is to deliver. Heywood indicated that people have hope in the civil society, the fact that the civil society is diverse and plural is very important and perhaps it should look at what is it that is in this diversity and plurality that can be unified in order to make a claim of socio-economic rights for the benefit of the poor people in South Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Mngxitama however disagreed that the people of South Africa have placed their hopes in the civil society, he calimed that the civil society in south Africa has failed due to partisanship and with no options left, people have resorted to popularism in the name of Jacob Zuma, who they think will be a soulition to all their problem, because he is a man of the people and a true born African unlike Mbeki who was considerd aloof and an intellectual who asserted his Africanness by quoting other reknown scholars.

The other ideological structure, which has got nothing to do with Mbeki but perhaps has everything to do with the public image and construction of how Mbeki is seen today and consequently his legacy, is the media. Ferial Haffajee, Editor-in-Chief of the Mail & Guardian posed a question at the conference on Mbeki's leadership and what it said about 'us'. She later agreed that perhaps the question should have been who is responsible for the representations about Mbeki that we now use as the yardsticks or reference point when debating his legacy?

Haffaje accepted that the media plays a crucial role in myth making and perhaps the media should improve on its political reporting by ensuring they understand that they play a functional among other roles in shaping people's perception and their understanding on how they make sense of the world and people arround them, moreso politicians- it is understandable though that media ownership is a factor that influences media content and it actualy plays a big role in media represenation of socio-economic, political and cultural 'realities' in the world and South Africa is no exception.

As far as Mbeki himself is concerned, there was a general consesus at the conference that he has left behind powerful policies and institutions that will go a long way in deciding South African geopolitical positioning as an African economic powerhose and will go a long way in shaping her international relations, particlarly as the champion of the African voice and a model to admire depending on whether or not his successors will pursue this agendas with caution, dedication and determination.

SABC 1 sport discriminates againist sports

I am watching television after a very long and hard day of work only to be disappointing with what is meant to ignite my energies and make me relax in the name of Sports - Soccer

You might all be aware that African cup of nations qualifiers, which are also world cup qualifiers are underway and there were different matches palyed across the continent over the weekend between different groups for the cup's qulifier. For instance, there was a match palyed between Togo and Cameroun which Togo won 1-0, another match between Nigeria and Mozambique which ended in a draw 0-0, Ivory coast and Malawi, Rwanda and Aljeria and another match between Kenya and Tunisia which Tunisia won 2-1.

This were all important matches given that the teams are all competing for qualifications in the Africa Cup of Nations. Why is it that SABC sport prioritises all matches but the Kenya Vs Tunisia match? If they used the criteria of broadcasting the 'African giants' as a condition for coverage presumably because people would be interested in watching the "giants" ... the likes of Cameroun, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, then I think Tunisia also falls under the same category of 'giants' and whenever Tunisia is playing, it would be a match worth broadcasting. Or was it not broadcasted because it was playing another "underdog"-Kenya?

From my own exprience as a fun of African soccer, I have always known that underdogs fight their way up to the quarter, semis and even the finals to emerge one of the most respected teams on the African soil and some of them going as far as making Africa proud in the world cup-Senegal did- through impressive perfomances. Look at teams like Senegal, Togo, Angola and others. There is the need to encourage soccer through the media by making sure there is equal coverage of those teams that are struggling for recognition in the African cup of nations and eventualy the world cup irrespective of where they come from.

If Kenya manages to make it in the African cup of nations, does Walter Mokoena et al want to tell me that they will not cover their matches just because it's another underdog? We must stop this sports discrimination and encourage soccer all across the continent from Cape to Cairo. Furthermore, it is understandable if SABC 1 sport does not cover the whole match live due to the audience ratings and the technical expences, but it is totaly unforgivable, unacceptable and idiotic for the SABC 1 sport not to feature the game between Kenya and Tunisia, which was equaly very exciting, in the Coca Cola soccer Zone. Here the SABC 1 sport discriminated againist sports news.

Which Zone is this Coca-Cola soccer centred on then? SADC or West African Zones? What about the East African Zone? Does this mean there in no soccer in East Africa?  Why then does the SABC cover Kenyan runners in the Olympics live and even in news bulletins? is it because they have been undoubtedly the best African athletes in previous Olympics and therefore the SABC takes credit from them as Africans- only when they think it's necessary? You see, it's a puzzle.

As a matter of fact, we are tired of the old African soccer 'giants', it's time we promote new soccer future giants in Africa to encourage diversity and improove the quality of soccer in Africa and the media should play a leading role in promoting such talent. As a Kenyan living in South Africa, I get so dissapointed everytime Kenya is playing another team in the African cup/world cup qualifier, because I am sure I will not be able to see the match.