Government and Justice
I wonder, not with cynicism but with discerning curiosity of interrogation, what lasting dividends might accrue to us as South Africans, with Brics euphoria now having quickly entrenched itself in the psyche of South Africans?
The event is much more akin to the euphoric excitement of the spirit of uhuru that gripped the country’s imagination at the onset of our democracy in 1994.
We were joined in our joyfulness as we celebrated the new democratic order ushered by the political ingenuity of leaders such as Nelson Mandela and his comrades. Many countries, as they do today, wished us well as we embarked on a journey to expunge from our statutes the vile apartheid laws that oppressed black people.
With joy and great expectations, we adorned our country with the new constitution and its much vaunted and revered Bill of Rights.
We committed ourselves to being a country on a path towards an egalitarian society – a form of government in which the state, working together with a network of other social groupings, including the private sector, would usher a new social and economic path that would lead to the well-being of all South Africans, especially those who were deliberately and cynically made poor by the creators of the apartheid state.
Today, Brics offers South Africa another new beginning, a commitment to find the wherewithal to fixing the collapsing infrastructure, and to make great strides towards economic prosperity – and to be seen as serving communities and not only themselves.
As the new constitutional democracy of 1994 promised a better way of doing things, Brics has the same effect, to solidify the country’s economic muscle – opening the economic opportunities for many South Africans, including women and youths through the widening of international markets.
The 30 years of our democracy have been a mixed bag of successes and failures, worsened by a massive scale of corruption that was sharply amplified by the outcome of the Zondo commission of inquiry – and by the governing party’s failure to map out for its citizens a path to prosperity, given the massive level of poverty and unemployment experienced by the citizens. Various local government’s entities such as municipalities and metros, with a few exceptions, have not covered themselves in glory, with instability and lack of service delivery becoming the order of the day.
But to make success of Brics, and what it promises, also requires cooperation by political parties, free of infantile rivalries that are perennially displayed in the municipal chambers of power. The often-warring councillors must look at the bigger picture – Brics is a place to focus on.
Brics, as a bloc, represents member states of the Global South countries bonded together by their common interests, solidified by the marginalisation the membership continues to suffer from the West.
The decision by the 54 member-states of the African Union to commit to the African solidarity, now expressed through the Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) agreement, is a tell-tale sign of how the African giant wishes to assert itself as a solid unit.
Small-time, and unending across the floor political bickering among our political parties should be discouraged. New economic paths are emerging, and we need to work cohesively, even as political opponents, to take advantage of opportunities Brics offers.
The posture to defocus by political parties is bound to cause regression. Also, bad governance, on all three tiers of government, is detrimental to economic growth.
The legislators at all three tiers of government must work together, and not against each other, to help small and big business in their constituencies to harness economic opportunities Brics offers.
The AfCTA’s agreement has opened new vistas to explore, and our political heads must help their constituencies to tap into these opportunities –“the largest free trade area in the world”.
South Africa is a country of possibilities. But it is also a country in which the metaphor of building the plane while flying it, applies.
Colonialism has for many centuries stunted Africa. But the shackles have been removed. Brics is on our side, so we continue to do business with Brics, while we fix our country.
Our leaders must develop an appetite to help enrich its citizens and collectively work together to move the country out of poverty. Brics and AfCTA provide such windows of opportunities.
- Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, ex-trade unionist and former editor of the SA Human Rights Commission journals
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa.
