Moral regeneration. What moral regeneration when we seem to be regressing spectacularly as far as statistics on racism, gender-based violence and femicide, systemic poverty, structural inequality, joblessness, acts of criminality and graft and corruption are concerned?
The moral regeneration movement seems to be satisfied with only operating from provincial legislatures, opening meetings and indabas with prayer in plush hotels, closing such meetings and waiting for the next imbizos, lekgotlas, summits and conferences to deliver their messages.
I know well the originators of such a noble idea, the likes of uMam’uNokuzola Magida of the Isinamva Development Agency, may not be convinced their dream of pursuing “imvuselelo yezazela” through a moral regeneration project translated to what they had in mind when they conceived it in its formative stages.
The idea was about bringing together Thursday and Sunday sessions of women congregants from different denominations who would be led by churches such as the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and others.
Government agencies, NPOs and communities would follow the moral paths which the churches would carve in terms of dealing with moral decay, which was becoming a defining feature of a then-teenage SA democracy.
The social ills above contribute zero positives on human development but create an enabling and fertile environment for booming trades in substance abuse and flourishing human trafficking by international mafiosi, such as Radovan Krejcir, Paul le Roux or Michael Ifebuche. We have the likes of Vusumzi “Cat” Matlala, Kat Molefe and Thabo Bester modelling their businesses along the same line.
What do profit-driven sections of the SA media do? They create catchy labels such as “the big five” instead of investigating beyond veiled political and corporate walls which serve as shields for the rich and powerful ruling elites.
On the other end, political leaders seem to think commissions of inquiry are a panacea in which the capturing of state institutions and judicial services should be resolved.
Regrettably and embarrassingly, some parliamentarians do not seem capable of holding back from referring to suspected criminals as “grootman”, and wishing them all the best for making it in life through drug-trade, gruesome killings and state capture.
On the national question, dealing with racism, all government administrations since 1994 to date have systematically made it their political business to superficially manage a long shadow of stubborn racial tensions in SA.
They opted to employ politically cosmetic methods such as “being everything to everyone” in the name of reconciliation which has proven to be a one-sided affair in which only black people would be expected to entertain unjustified fears of the white sections of society.
In its wisdom, the democratic government saw it strategic to employ laissez-faire and apologetic approaches to eradicating racism. They saw it tactically good for them to let us vote every five years while knowing they have an “invisible hand” (capital) to whom they will account and that will be ruling the country, contrary to the Freedom Charter’s clause “The People Shall Govern”.
When people try to engage with them on the matter of the national question (racism), particularly on matters of economic dispossession, they are accused of, and talked away from, being “bitter”, “disgruntled”, “negative”, “oppositionalistic” or acting as “contrarians” to the status quo.
Neoliberalism is imposed on poor people by the very representatives who they voted into power while white capital is given all the attention it does not deserve. Frankly, the latter is seen as an apologetic or defeatist approach in many circles of the disenfranchised communities.
The white intelligentsia and corporate technocracy are making a killing from a government that treats their black counterparts as lesser developmentalists in the economic transformation spaces.
Unfortunately, laissez-faire and apologetic approaches by a democratic government when dealing with racial tensions and structural inequality perpetuates further stratification of the nation they claim to be building.
White supremacists are incrementally feeling emboldened by the weaknesses displayed by a government that seeks to disenfranchise the poor and marginalised majority while facilitating massive economic development projects for its white partners.
Even university students are finding it difficult to compete with their white counterparts who are well funded to conduct their research projects. I listened to emotional pleas from Fort Cox Agricultural College graduates at a graduation celebration held at Xhukwane village, Amathole district municipality.
They were decrying the racist attitudes of some white farm owners towards them when they ask for opportunities to conduct farm research or do practical work on animal husbandry and crop farming in their farms.
They were pleading for the government to intervene as facilitators for access into the farms. A government that claims to be a “developmental state” should know and follow the spirit and letter of the seven fundamental principles of such an arrangement - a developmental state. Those graduates’ pleas will never escape my memory.
Mlulami Mike Ntutela writes in his personal capacity
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