Having tracked developments in the country, particularly after the press briefing held by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, I concluded that post-apartheid SA is like a clan whose gods and ancestors never desert them.
SA’s story is strewn with critical moments providing opportunities to renew.
The liberation movement’s leadership “conjured up” the internationally acclaimed miracle resulting in the democratic elections.
This continues to be marvelled at as a feat that could have left Harry Houdini envious — the first instance where the universe gifted us wisdom to salvage from the brink a country whose founding ideals earned world-wide acclaim.
From this, careful political manoeuvres by the liberation movement set the foundation for the entire 1994 breakthrough.
The work put into developing a mutually agreeable blueprint for a democratic SA by leaders such as late former ANC president, Oliver Tambo, and his colleagues, produced the Harare declaration.
From this, the constitutional guidelines document was produced, which became the foundation for the 1996 constitution.
From this, the nation averted what was expected to end in a bloody conflict and created solid checks and balances to safeguard democracy.
These saved the country during what was post-apartheid SA’s darkest moment, the period notorious for state capture.
These solid foundations enabled the democratic government elected in 1994 to set about with the reconstruction and development from which the legislative architecture was redesigned to contribute to building an inclusive society.
Transformative legislation was promulgated to realise the ideals of the new dawn.
The LRA [Labour Relations Act] of 1995 laid the foundation for the democratisation of the workplace across the economy and gave the workers rights, such as the right to protected strikes, to belong to unions, and participate in union activities.
These ameliorate the inherent power imbalance between employers and the workers.
Flowing from the same spirit, the workers got to be participants in multilateral decision-making platforms such as Nedlac [National Economic Development and Labour Council].
With the Bill of Rights in the 1996 constitution prohibiting unfair discrimination, the Employment Equity Act of 1998 protects against unfair discrimination and regulates affirmative action measures and affirmative plans by employers.
These equity principles protect against abuses such as sexual harassment and other forms of violence.
It is through these transformative instruments that the period from 1994 to 2007 saw the country returning positive human development indicators.
Data from Stats SA shows that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio dropped from 46% before 1994 to about 24% in 2008.
A sustained economic growth span, last seen in 1945, was experienced between 1994 and 2006, reaching an average of 5%.
This period was, however, blemished by stubborn levels of unemployment and income inequality.
The country had an opportunity to build on the listed positives but, to everyone’s horror, we were to discover, it did not.
If anything, the period from 2009 was later shown to have been where some among the country’s leadership appeared determined to undo many, if not all, of the building blocks inherited from the post 1994 leadership.
From 2009 to 2019, including a worldwide 1.5% contraction due to the global crisis of 2009, SA’s human development indicators fell on the negative side of the divide.
Unemployment increased from 23.5% in 2009 to above 25% by 2014.
During 2021, the level had risen to 34%. The expanded definition of unemployment reached levels ranging above 40%.
With economic growth languishing at under 2% and lowly 0.5% by 2024, the government had to embark on excessive borrowing due to revenue shortfalls, which affected the provision of public services.
While the 2009 global economic contraction could be categorised as “subjective conditions” that the country faced, the same cannot be said of the period after 2009.
Revelations coming out of the Zondo commission exposed systematic repurposing of state institutions, and intemperate looting of state resources.
Sars [SA Revenue Service], the epitome of excellence for years, battled to meet its revenue targets.
Later investigations revealed what the Nugent Commission referred to as a “catastrophe” of governance failures and maladministration.
Other state-owned entities also fell victim to systematic looting through contracts signed with entities whose existence were shown to serve private interests rather the wellbeing of the entities.
Having contrived to undo the foundations set up from 1994, the “ancestors” and “the gods” of “clan SA” intervened and woke us up from the false beliefs that we were cruising nicely en route to realising the ideals bequeathed to us by our progenitors.
The revelations of the Zondo commission gave the clan a rude awakening, challenging all to reclaim the heritage.
The country got re-energised into adopting powerful, hope-inducing concepts such as “renewal”, political leaders rebranded themselves as “servants”.
The clan was gifted a second opportunity to adjust sails and steer out of the proverbial stormy waters.
The high courts, one of the institutions set up to strengthen democracy, mounted a rearguard in defence of the last post of the democratic project.
Seminal judgments like Nkandla restored the nation’s hopes.
Anti-corruption work was boosted with the Special Investigations Unit recovering ill-begotten assets from some individuals and entities, saving the government more than R8bn.
Most of the recoveries were in relation to the NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme], Transnet, and Eskom that were exposed as the feeding troughs for the corruption-riddled period from 2009.
Sars also showed notable improvement in performance following the Nugent commission’s recommendations as revenue collection began to rise since 2019.
The 2024 figures exceeded initial estimates by R8.9bn, a record according to the entity.
The Zondo commission findings, the second opportunity for the clan to reset and fix its ways, were published in 2022.
In response to these, the government undertook to tackle the blatant failings exposed by the commission by enforcing accountability for state capture and implementing “reforms to prevent future occurrence of state capture.
In its July update on the implementation of responses to the Zondo commission findings, the presidency’s report indicated that only 18% of the commitments made were fulfilled, while 32% of the work was either delayed or needed attention.
Only 4% of the 218 prosecutions initiated were finalised.
The most glaring sore point around the government’s response to the Zondo commission findings must be that in the period between 2022 and July 2025, no notable action had been taken by the president against members of the executive flagged in the report.
This is despite a commitment to act against the flagged individuals in line with the president’s prerogative on the appointment of members of the executive.
Considering there were members of the executive who were exposed as having been central to the corrupt activities of the state capture period, the absence of identifiable action against that level of leadership undermines any verbalised stance of zero tolerance for corruption.
This non-action only serves to strengthen the perception that members of the executive are not always compelled to follow the same rules as other citizens.
Recent revelations of some members of the executive raking up bills of a quarter of a million rand per night for hotel accommodation, and overseas trips costing more than R3m, show that not all them internalised the reset message from the Zondo commission findings.
The excesses by some executive members were not a horror story from the past but an ever-present threat to ethical conduct.
The clan was, potentially, sliding back towards yet another period of self-destruction.
As it became apparent that the reset message had not registered among some, the “gods”, the “ancestors” appeared determined to throw another lifeline.
Mkhwanazi made explosive public allegations about an intricate network of politicians, law enforcement officers, members of the executive and judicial officers with the criminal underworld.
Backed by pejorative evidence of collusion involving at least one serving member of the executive, a former member and unsavoury characters, the revelations shook the country as much as the Zondo revelations, if not more.
True to form, the political leadership has not acted in a confidence-boosting manner in dealing with the exposed member(s) of the executive.
Clearly, the clan requires more than mere deferral to the chosen members, those assigned the responsibility of managing the affairs of the clan in the interests of the clan rather than private considerations.
Already, there exist glimpses of hope for resurrection with calls for a national dialogue growing louder, with appeal to a cross-section of the population.
Even with this likely lifeline, political contamination continues to loom large.
As the country must dig deep in its reserves of resilience, heeding the latest call to reset, the spirit of the forebears of the democratic SA spur all on to strive even more in pursuit of the noble ideal of a prosperous future.
The clan can borrow from the emotive entreaty of Scotland’s unofficial anthem, the Flower of Scotland, beseeching the forebears, the clan can adapt it thus:
“O forefathers of our land,
When will we see
Your like again,
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud apartheid’s army,
And sent him homeward
Tae think again.”
As a result of an abundant demonstration that the ideals of the project may have been betrayed, the clan must concede that:
“The hills are bare now
And autumn leaves lie thick and still
O’er land that is lost now
Which those so dearly held”
The spirit of resilience that gave birth to the foundations of post-1994 SA, must cause the clan to vow and commit that:
“But we can still rise now
And be the nation again
That stood against him
Proud apartheid’s army
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.”
Posterity expects no less from the clan.
Melikaya Rubushe is an independent columnist. He taught industrial sociology at Rhodes University’s former East London campus
