The world recently celebrated Nelson Mandela, a man whose
life personalises the tireless struggle against and victorious defeat of racial
discrimination and inequality. Born 96 years ago, Madiba by his historic defeat
of oppression and hatred, and legendary institution of reconciliation and
unity, came to be the Father of a nation, a continent… of the world.
Albeit regretful of our inability to publish this piece
yesterday- the official Mandela day, no piece on him can come too late or early;
he is A Man for all Seasons.
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| Nelson Mandela |
In celebrating Mandela, the battle against Apartheid’s
socio-economic and political oppression- epitomized by his three decades in
detention -rightly dominates his legacy, but there is another component- the
economic policies of his presidency.
Nelson Mandela’s economic policy, though less-talked about,
was very crucial for the success of the Rainbow nation that South Africa has
become. Mandela’s economics, though not bereft of shortcomings, transformed
Apartheid-wrecked and isolated South Africa to a land greatly admired and
reckoned as an example of peaceful and progressive multi-racial African
democracy.
When Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa in
1994, alongside the walls of racial disaffection that needed to be pulled down
and bridges of national unity that had to be built were huge potholes of
economic inequality desperate for patch-ups, large pits of poverty crying to be
filled, and a gigantic mountain of national economic development that needed to
be climbed. And similar to how he faced the apartheid system that enslaved him
and his people, Mandela faced South Africa’s economic crises head-on with
courage, integrity and most importantly the interest of not just his fellow
blacks but the whole country.
While many black South Africans expected Nelson Mandela to,
with the new power he and his party now possessed, sieze and nationalize the
country’s lands, mines and financial institutions and redistribute them to
people of his long-suffering race, Mandela towed a different line. He did not
force the white entrepreneurs out, had he done that, South Africa may have
looked like the Zimbabwe of today. Bill Keller Wrote in the New yYork Times; ”
As President, from 1994 to 1999, he (Mandela) devoted much energy to moderating
the bitterness of his black electorate and to reassuring whites with fears of
vengeance. this is a rarity in Africa where most leaders stoke the fires ethnic
conflicts often for selfish political gains. Mandela’s move was not only one of
forgiveness, but economically savvy.
In 2013, John Cassidy wrote of Mandela’s government in the
New Yorker; “The new government took over an economy that had been hard hit by
foreign sanctions and an international disinvestment campaign. In embarking on
a moderate and gradualist path, Mandela and his economic advisers insured that
a multiracial and democratic South Africa would receive much-needed economic
aid from the World Bank and the I.M.F., as well as individual countries like
Britain and the United States. (It is now the ninth-biggest recipient of U.S.
aid, receiving about seven hundred and fifty million dollars a year.) In
leaving the existing economic structure largely intact, the new government was
also able to rely on steadily rising tax revenues, which financed spending on
new houses, schools, and electricity and water systems—most of them located in
non-white areas. Steady growth paid for a big expansion in welfare programs,
too”.
Mandela’s policies created what Mike Cohen in Bloomberg’s
Business Week described as the “longest period of growth in the country’s
history”. He added that “Mandela’s policies helped the economy, whose biggest
sectors are mining (it’s the top global producer of platinum), manufacturing,
banking, and telecommunications, to expand for 15 years. Rising tax receipts
enabled the government to extend welfare payments to about 16 million people
and give more than 85 percent of households access to electricity, up from 45
percent in 1996”.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Cohen’s piece is his
quote of Robert Schrire’s quip. Of Mandela, the South African Professor said;
“He recognized that for the poor to prosper, the rich had to feel they had a
future in the country”.
Mandela proved that capitalism and the white man are not curses
to Africa, instead that a proper and effective government oversight of and
participation with private sector investment could be a profound gift to the
equitable development of a country, especially the masses.
Mandela’s economic legacy turned around South Africa’s
Sanction-battered economy from a state of near bankruptcy becoming to a strong
economic growth that saw the Rainbow Nation invited in 2010 to join the BRIC
bloc, four powerful emerging countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
According to a December 2013 BBC report “South Africa’s economy has
“essentially doubled in real terms” since the fall of apartheid, growing at an
average of 3.2% a year since 1994, as opposed to only 1.6% per annum for the 18
years prior to the end of white minority rule”. South Africans living under $2
a day has, since 1996, fallen from 12% to 5% in 2010.
Mandela’s underlying principle was delivering, at least in
part, the promises of the ANC’s 1950 Freedom Charter. This saw not just the
extensive provision of basic amenities like roads, electricity, water, schools
et cetera, but also a framework where all South Africans have the right to
pursue their economic dreams. He did not just deliver rhetoric of liberation
and freedom, he knew the importance of economic empowerment in liberating his
people, and he focused on this.
Often African leaders make so much noise of serving and
defending their people but end up only ruling to enrich themselves, Mandela was
not such. It was the relatively corruption-clean and people-driven government
he led that saw South Africa blossom in its early years after apartheid. The
rise of corruption and cronyism to the centre-stage of South Africa’s
governance after Mandela’s departure from power has caused the country’s
development stutter.
Unemployment Rate in South Africa increased to 25.20 percent
in the first quarter of 2014, according to data from Trading Economics. The
inequality gap has soared too, with the United Nations regularly ranking South
Africa’s cities amongst the most unequal in the world. In 2013, Matthew Davies
of the BBC described inequality as greater, by some measures, than it was under
apartheid. “Under the commonly-used Gini coefficient for measuring inequality,
South Africa scored 0.63 in 2009. Under the coefficient, 0 is the most equal
and 1 is the least equal. Back in 1993, the country’s rating was 0.59, which
has led many to the conclusion that the gap between the rich and poor is
actually getting bigger”, his report said.
Economic problems have turned South Africa to a land of
strikes and protests, the most disastrous in 2012 at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum
mine in Rustenburg saw 34 miners shot dead. These economic problems lead some
to criticize Mandela’s negotiation with the white minority who control much of
South Africa’s business. But a look at the success (or lack of) of the ANC’s
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme fetters that criticism. The BEE
sought to give black South Africans a stake in the nation’s industries, and
although it helped create a fast growing black middle class, it largely did not
improve the lot of the majority, only succeeding in creating cronyism with the
benefactors being politically well-connected elite. Equitable wealth creation
is not guaranteed by “sharing the money”, this only festers corruption.
South Africa in recent years have seen unions fighting not
just the managements but each other too, a clear reflection of how
self-enriching much of their motives are. Corruption now pervades not just the
Government, but also the corporate sphere and even the organized labour. This
personal greed is fast replacing the revolutionary spirit that gave birth to
the Rainbow nation. Nothing is fast killing this spirit than the falling
standards of integrity and patriotism-driven leadership, attributes that
Mandela possessed in abundance, qualities that African leaders really need to
acquire.
The ANC, Mandela’s vehicle to transforming South Africa, is
fast losing the confidence of even its staunch black support base, because of
its ineffective creation of economic development. The booing of President Jacob
Zuma at Mandela’s funeral last year best portrays this growing disaffection.
South African Journalist R.W. Johnson’s scathing critique In South Africa, the
reality is debt and corruption highlights how tribalism is growing in
domination at the ANC. Part of his article reads;
“The country has become utterly corrupt under A.N.C. rule.
After all, Zuma’s palace at Nkandla tells one how the President behaves. Civil
servants, teachers, and the police are all massively corrupt. Community riots
against poor service delivery occur once every two days. Mandela may join the
A.N.C. up in heaven—but the party down below seems hell-bent”.
Nelson Mandela never had such grand allegations of
corruption levied against him or his presidency; perhaps his greatest criticism
in this regard is his silence, after he left power, to the problems of the
succeeding leaderships. Those leadership problems- prevalent across Africa
-also show that African leaders are in dearth of and desperately need to
practice Madiba’s politics, which made Bill Keller of the New York Times remark
him as a “capable statesman, comfortable with compromise and impatient with the
doctrinaire”.
Africa needs leaders with Mandela’s integrity, patriotic
focus, and most importantly his economic intelligence not built on personal
gains but service to the people- all of the people (majority and minority), not
some segments.
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