(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
In a new age of empire, great powers aimed to carve up the planet after World War II and nations pledged to create a more equal and law-abiding world.
Now Russia, China and the US are returning to an older model in which powerful countries impose their will.
Nearly five years since the Covid pandemic upended the global economy, growth is slow but stable, inflation has gradually declined in advanced economies and trade trends have turned positive. Despite this, there remain issues such as high public debt burdens, geo-economic tension and the potential effect of industrial policies on smaller countries.
This is supported by the fact that some African leaders are still being chosen by Western countries and the reasons for the assassination of genuine, revolutionary and selfless African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, Samora Machel, Steve Bantu Biko, Chris Hani and others.
The US and Western countries used their clandestine tactics and resources to topple these true leaders to hinder their countries’ economic progress from the ashes of colonial super-exploitation. They were removed from power so that underdevelopment could continue unfettered.
China has lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty since the late 1970s. This is the largest reduction in inequality in modern history and was achieved by focusing on six economic reforms: economic growth (an average annual growth rate of more than 9% after 1978); infrastructure investment (in roads, railways, water supply and electricity); education and health (improved education, healthcare and social security); targeted policies (the most stricken areas); data collection (to identify the poorest areas and their needs); and public support (mobilised the public to assess the status of each household).
China’s poverty reduction efforts have helped the world achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals.
Only 425 000 millionaires in South Africa, who cover about 50% of all assessed income tax paid in the 2024 tax year, demonstrate the country’s progressive tax regime is in full effect. Most of the income tax is paid by the country’s richest individuals at R2.2 trillion in gross tax revenue — R87 billion or 4.2% more than in the prior year.
Personal income tax (PIT) revenue remained the biggest contributor to the tax haul, accounting for 35.7% — R641 billion of the total tax collected. Just 1 660 182 individuals, a mere 2.6% of the country’s 64 million people contribute 76.2% of all personal income tax.
The situation is equally concerning in the corporate sector, where only 1 051 companies, representing 0.1% of the total, pay 72.3% of all company income tax.
More than 30% of the population, about 19.2 million people, rely on social grants, a figure projected to grow to 19.7 million by 2026-27.
This means that about 12% of South Africans who pay income tax are supporting a social safety net for nearly half the population.
Youth unemployment has been at catastrophic levels since the rioting in July 2021 at 74.9%. Four years later, it is still hovering at 60.2%, compared to Spain’s 26.6%; France’s 20.5%; Italy’s 17.7%; China’s 17.1%; Türkiye’s 15.8%; Canada’s 14.4%; the United Kingdom’s 14.4%; the United States’ 9%; Australia’s 8.8%; Netherlands’ 8.7%; Germany’s 6.5%; South Korea’s 5.5%; Japan’s 3.2% and Switzerland’s 2.7%.
It is Mosibudi Mangena who said, “Poverty and inequality are a menacing reality in South Africa. Unless the state and the citizens do something to share the fruits of the economy, things might unravel very soon. It is simply unsustainable to have wealth concentrated in the hands of a minority race while the vast majority wallow in abject poverty.”
Human rights are those basic and fundamental rights to which every person is entitled. These rights are inalienable. The natural rights of South Africans received no protection before the country became a constitutional democracy in 1994.
Fundamental human rights are entrenched in Chapter 2, sections 7 to 39, of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights is arguably the part of the Constitution that has had the greatest effect on life in this country.
As the first words of this chapter say: “This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.” It has also been the source of the majority of the groundbreaking rulings the constitutional court has handed down.
In an address to the South African Constitutional Assembly on 8 May 1996, the day of the adoption of the final Constitution, Nelson Mandela declared: “Now it is universally acknowledged that unity and reconciliation are written into the hearts of millions of South Africans. They are an indelible principle of our founding pledge — the glowing fire of our New Patriotism.”
At the same occasion, the then deputy president, Thabo Mbeki, asserted that the Constitution “constitutes an unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our Africanness shall be defined by our race, colour, gender or historical origins.”
The University of the Witwatersrand’s Elsa Huyssteen reminds us that, this is a patriotism of new South Africans who do not belong on the basis of race or ethnicity but on the basis of a shared loyalty to a constitutional state and a commitment to national unity, reconciliation and human rights.
The creation of such a “constitutional patriotism” is intended to establish the legitimacy of the outcome of the transition as well as to promote national unity and reconciliation, both seen as crucial to the consolidation of democracy in South Africa. Constitutional patriotism is seen as capable of meeting challenges to the consolidation of democracy because it ensures that the principles and values in the Constitution are perceived by citizens to be compatible with their own principles and values, and ensures a sense of belonging on the basis of a loyalty to the Constitution and not ethnicity.
The development of the New Patriotism will require both the legitimacy of the Constitution itself and the legitimacy of the powerful institution entrusted with its interpretation and enforcement, the constitutional court.
The umbilical cord that binds this organisation together is in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal. Hence, when Mandela cast his first vote on 27 April 1994, he voted at Inanda Missionary school in KwaZulu-Natal where Pixley Ka Isaka Seme and John Langalibalele Dube were born.
If we can co-govern with colonialists, oppressors and racists, surely we can negotiate and forgive our own.
Mental slavery is the worst form of slavery. It gives you the illusion of freedom, makes you trust, love and defend your oppressor while making an enemy of those who are trying to free you or open your eyes. You become your best self when you work on things people can’t take away from you like mindset, character, integrity, authenticity, discipline and kindness. Whenever there is unity and solidarity among the oppressed, the oppressor becomes the prey.
Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams reminds us that “governments have smart people working for them. But when you sum up the parts of government, you get less than the whole, thanks to bureaucratic inefficiency, political in-fighting and whatnot. Governments are dumb by design because any brilliance that slips into the system will be beaten down by the chorus of average minds and the distortions of political interests.”
We recall the words of Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, an associate of Bantu Steve Biko, who, even while he was being tortured by the security police, looked at his torturers and realised that these were human beings too and that they needed him “to help them recover the humanity they were losing”.
Contrition remains an ongoing process. You have to continue asking for forgiveness and remain grateful for the mercy shown. The NG Kerk provided the theological base for apartheid. This is how ideology works. If you can give it a religious sanction, it becomes even stronger. The church must continue to repent for its sins for as long as is necessary, knowing that its reconciliatory words, of late, must be followed by reconciliation, redress and action.
Gestures without measures to undo the injustices of apartheid would be empty. Atonement is always necessary. You keep on with repentance — until you make sure that everyone who has been part of the legacy of apartheid has heard you. It is not up to the church to decide that it has done enough.
Even the Voortrekker leaders, Louis Trichardt, Hans van Rensburg, Andries Potgieter, Gert Maritz, Piet Retief and Piet Uys used to fight but they focused on the common enemy — “die swart gevaar”. They left the Cape Colony as a protest against aspects of British rule, passing the 1828 Ordinance 50, which outlawed slavery (implemented after 1834) and British reluctance to take further land from amaXhosa for white settlement.
The only resilient solution is to build our own businesses and make our own money so that we can walk out of situations that we do not like.
Professor Bonang Mohale is the chancellor of the University of the Free State.
