*FRANK CHIKANE’S BOOK: FROM THE BOOKSHELVES TO OUR DUSBINS*
With its dramatic subject matter, comrade Frank Chikane’s book which centers around the emotions of a former head of state and his ilk when he was shown the door was destined to dominate headlines and our gossip columns. But will its momentary popularity carry it into the future? I doubt. As a society emerging out of the ruins of apartheid, South Africa is not just fluid but volatile and requires sharp minds to point it to the promised-land. The transformation process in our country remains one of the most complex transitions in contemporary society, vexing even the most dynamic intellectual minds. The reason for this is that there is little historical reference to learn from about how to successfully steer a negotiated transition which contained major compromises on the economic front versus the aspirations of the great majority of the oppressed, on the back of whose votes the movement was elected. On occasion our young state literally has to learn from itself. Such a complex situation necessitates us to develop a milieu of a robust and lively public discourse: one that draws the necessary lessons from our immediate past and on the back of which builds for the future. Contributions to the public discourse by homegrown intellectuals of various hues have to be weighed from the standpoint of drawing necessary lessons while mapping the way forward. Those that are bound to make their mark and register their contribution to the march of history are only those that will use their intellectual acumen to fulfill this necessary requirement. Heaps of scrap metal from our past that Chikane piles on our public discourse, however mouthwatering, provide very little for us going forward, and that remains the major lacuna of in his book. Of course, any society worth its salt will always use historical lessons as a compass on how to measure the steepness of the hills to climb ahead. And this I do not discourage. However, the temptation, encouraged in his book, to assess historical questions emotionally demobilizes any probing intellectual mind and calls on us only to emote, sit in the corner and sulk, rather than appreciate the difficulties as we march forward. History must be approached critically, from all angles, with an intention of moving forward. Another major weakness in it is that it tells us the wrong story. With all its faults, our country is not a dictatorship. The principal problem we face as a country, thus, is not one of a degenerating capitalist democracy sliding towards tyranny, but one of a failing economic system that has left millions, economically, in dire straits. Thus, we are faced with a failing bourgeois society, primarily its economic edifice. In the past decade our country enjoyed between 4-7% GDP growth but achieved such high levels of unemployment estimated to be well above 30%. This is coupled with the fact that since 1996 – that magical year – Higher Education’s share of the total budget has decreased by a whopping 20% in real terms. It is not surprising then that the majority of young people loiter the streets; some sit at home, watching the sun-rise and set, without any prospects of attracting employment, however exploitative. We are one of the most unequal societies in the world: a country where the rich rake billions while millions live below the bread-price. We are well aware that the perennial problem of capitalist economies is their perpetual reproduction of combined and uneven development: poverty and opulence, side by side, but what we do not have, is an insider account of why the government – since 1996 – ineptly discarded the notion of growth through redistribution for growth before redistribution through fiscal austerity such that we find ourselves with jobless growth. Having been located where he was, Chikane could have been well-placed to provide answers on this front. But he did not. Thus, as we probe what caused a country with the most progressive labor laws managed to allow one of the most exploitative capitalists such as labor brokers to operate right underneath its noses with impunity, without so much as doing something about it, “Eight days in September” will clearly not be our reference book. We will have to look elsewhere. Taken from the standpoint of what matters, it will remain but a footnote in the wider book about the problems and solutions of what besets us as a nation struggling to define its development path. Despite flying off the shelves of bookstores, this book offers nothing in the study of the causes of the myriad of problems faced by South Africans on the economic front and thus donates itself only to the harsh gnawing criticism of mice in dusty shelves of our cupboards in the long term. Sumptuous tales, such as those it provides, are most likely to capture the feelings of South Africans for a while, but are not going to last the mile when hard questions need to be answered that should take our society forward. All it does is act as a diversion. Rather than a peripheral issue that focuses on the feelings of a former head of state, our public discourse must be firmly focused on helping us reach our economic crown. * * *Lazola Ndamase is a member of the ANC* -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
