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The duped intelligentsia don't want to talk about the inequality and the demonisation of the poor. But now is a very different point in time. The July riots and the anger demonstrated was a wakeup call, writes Oscar van Heerden.
To be sure, our system is broken and failing us. And in wanting to understand this crisis, we must ask where do we begin?
Some would like to conveniently place the blame in front of the governing party door, meaning the ANC created this crisis by not implementing corrective measures to undo the legacy of apartheid.
Others will immediately retreat into their ideological space and blame capitalism. And still, others will analyse the past holistically and come to the conclusion that our colonial, imperial and racist apartheid past plus the contemporary pitfalls over the last 28 years cumulatively resulted in the inequality and poverty levels we contend with today.
I put it to you that I subscribe to the latter grouping. Pointing convenient fingers in order to obfuscate responsibility is simply not helpful if we want to declare war on poverty in South Africa.
Impact of colonialism and apartheid
It goes without saying that colonialism and apartheid were not good for our country in more ways than one.
There was no quality education, quality housing, quality healthcare, quality jobs for the majority, and no living wage to mention but a few. These are the facts, and they are undisputed.
Similarly, capitalism is not working for the poor and destitute. It's not even working for the middle class in South Africa, in fact, the world over, but that's not my concentration today.
The new poor are the former middle class. The ANC contributed its fair share to the misery of the poor even though this governing party have made some attempts to alleviate such poverty.
You would agree that over time measures such as the school feeding schemes, free primary healthcare, continuous roll out of basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity provision (with all its concomitant challenges), the various social grants and lately, the much appreciated and needed R350 Covid relief grant to millions of citizens. But indulgences such as state capture, rampant corruption and rent-seeking practices continue to bedevil us all, and the poor are the most directly at the receiving end.
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The active contribution of the private sector and big businesses equally cannot be overstated. Their rent-seeking practices have reached new heights in our democratic era. Engaging in or manipulating public policy or economic conditions as a strategy for increasing profits has been their modus operandi for some time already. All at the expense of the poor masses, I might add.
We've seen collusionary practices with regards to wheat and flour, thus the bread prices are now sky-high, collusion between our banks with regards to bank charges, oil and petrol price hikes resulting in food prices being exorbitant and simply unaffordable to the poor people. The system is imploding, and all the private sector thinks of doing is increasing prices and maximising profits.
It begs the question, where is the compassion for working people and for the poor people?
Unemployment levels remain staggering and when the government states the obvious, which is job creation remains the domain of the private sector, there is astonishingly pushback from the private sector.
Government is not an employment agency
Surely the government cannot be seen as an employment agency? The extractive practices of our mines and manufacturing sectors must stop. We need to do what other countries are doing in this time of peril, look inwards, and ask what we must do to preserve our way of life in South Africa?
The plight of the poor is real. We need a broader conversation. There has always been a connection between poverty and crime, and hence we collectively feel unsafe in Mzansi, but now it's clear that to be poor is a crime. For government not to be seen doing more with regards to increasing company taxes, extending social grants, creating a wealth tax, and harsher consequence management for collusionary practices beyond just hefty fines. We already do very little to none of these, all on the backs of ordinary poor folk.
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We have got to talk about poverty. Poverty is the new norm in South Africa. The humanity and dignity of our people lie in ruin. The homeless are increasing more and more in our city slums. It seems we have forgotten the working class. Why?
Cornel West tells us that "it's because there was an idealising of unfettered markets and much if not most of the intelligentsia were duped. Everybody was saying we are followers of Milton Freidman. Everybody was saying Friedrich Hayek got it right. Everybody was saying marketise, commodify, commercialise, and some of us were still reading Robert Lucas. Leftist thinkers of a medieval era, they were called."
"Lucas was saying commodification is not simply an asymmetrical relationship of power. Workers are being more and more marginalised, profits are being produced at the top, no fair distribution downwards for workers. The poor are being demonised because they are viewed as those people that are irresponsible, who will not work, who are always looking for welfare, i.e failures in the society of success, and we reached a brink and the chickens came home to roost. And a few years ago (2008/09) the unfettered market lead us off the cliff and over the brink and all of a sudden very few intellectuals wanted to be honest and agreed to which they were duped," West said.
Someone must take responsibility
The duped intelligentsia don't want to talk about the inequality that went along with it. They don't want to talk about the demonisation of the poor that went along with it. They don't want to talk about the politics of fear that went along with it. They don't want to talk about greed being desirable and good. Now is a very different point in time. The July riots and the anger demonstrated was a wakeup call.
It's not just about pointing fingers, but somebody has got to take responsibility.
Unemployment is a problem. Our political system is broken. The poor feel more and more that they are invisible.
The mendacity of the ruling class must end. Oligarchs, plutocrats and the ruling elite must come together and ensure in the very least:
- Quality education
- Quality housing,
- Quality healthcare
- Quality jobs with a living wage
These are rights enshrined in our Constitution. A multi-pronged fight back is needed to ensure decency and dignity and to restore hope and confidence. This is not a skill problem, it's a will problem and it seems we simply don't have the will.
All of these interventions were needed yesterday or as someone used to say, sooner than at once and quicker than right now.
Eradicating poverty must be a call to conscience! Less we experience the full wrath of the invisible people.
- Dr Oscar van Heerden is a scholar of International Relations (IR), where he focuses on International Political Economy, with an emphasis on Africa, and SADC in particular. He is currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Fort Hare.
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