Approaching an election year, South African government departments are again being asked why they have so grossly under-spent their budgets for infrastructure maintenance, communication and health. A fund established in 1999 to deliver telephony services to the poor sits currently with $35 million while 20 000 schools still lack connectivity. The situation seems a bit odd in a land with a 20-something% unemployment rate, foreign investment, a ground-level willingness to grow and a decent economy. I can’t help wondering for how many more years this budget will be available to under-spend. Any developed nation will tell you that ineptitude is a lot like like crime; it never pays in the long run.
At the heart, despite the fan fare, we don’t actually enjoy a democracy in South Africa.What would you call a political system of government that looks like a democracy but runs like a socialist tribe? I call it a Democranism. A democranism has pre-emptive democratic processes: voting as an individual right, legal floor crossing (or party switching) of elected representatives in parliament, striking for the work force, houses of parliament (with structures of accountability), public works initiatives, military defence, unions, etc. But a democranism has precious little redemptive democratic processes: referendum, boycott, true economic competition, voting as an individual choice, real accountability (not just accountability structures), infrastructure maintenance, freedom of the press, and independence of the judiciary.The pre-emptive processes without the redemptive processes can only have negative political results.The decisive referendum of the white voters in 1992 is a very glaring example; it was the last referendum South Africa had. In other words, in our formative years our adolescent democracy has not had a single referendum, and we are becoming more and more unlikely to have one. We are barely out of puberty and already settling down to married life! It looks and feels like the abuse of a young democracy to me.
The Intimidation of voters is a difficult concept to understand in a true democracy. How can anyone truly influence my secret ballot? But from within the tribal mind voting intimidation is a fundamental reality. Votes are produced, but not through any individual choice. Power is gained for those educated and born into the ruling tribe. Corruption is in power right at the outset of what looks like a very democratic process, and there is nothing in place to curb the further corruption of that power.At it’s very heart democracy is destroyed by democranism, but it never really dies. It remains quasi alive like a spider stung by a wasp. Her eggs are laid in the spider’s paralysed body and her larva feed off the live spider which is unable to defend itself but remains alive long enough to be consumed.No cause of death is asked for because the democracy it theoretically alive. It is even applauded as an example of third world progress. But over time all that is left is a nameless fascist dictatorship; which is far worse than a conventional fascist dictatorship because, as corruption thrives and wealth is bled out of the victim nation and social structure & economy starts to fail, there is no one man to accuse; not even a group or a party to accuse. They are hedged, protected by a democratic veneer, and those who are made wealthy off the ignorance of the majority are impossible to find.So then how are we to deal with tribal socialism? I have 7 ideas, which won’t fit into this article.
Firebrand 