Dale T. McKinley, Johannesburg
In his introductory remarks to the ANC's recently released election manifesto, President Thabo Mbeki confidently asserts that the ANC, as a political party and as government, has made much progress since 1994 in "building a caring society".
Mbeki claims that such a society is one in which, "the country's wealth ... and other opportunities are more equitably shared [so as to] build an economy that benefits all". Mbeki goes on to say that South Africans can achieve this "caring society, by working together ... as a united nation". It's the same message from the ANC that we've heard many times before and it continues to ring hollow.
Just as it has done throughout its 10 years in power, the ANC is once again trying to sell an illusion. Mbeki and the ANC want us to believe that their "shosholoza" version of a classless capitalism can deliver everything to everybody, that the interests of capitalists (old and new) and working-class poor are essentially the same, and that a vote for the ANC is a vote for unity, progress, equality and justice. If ever there was an unrealistic and dishonest election ploy, then here it is.
More of the same
When the ANC government contested South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, it promised the South African working class that it would, through the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), embark on a systematic redistribution of wealth and resources, ensure that basic needs were met and essential social services were available and affordable to the majority of the poor and listen to the demands and desires of the people who voted for them.
The working class voted overwhelmingly for the ANC but none of these promises were kept — instead, the ANC ditched the RDP and unilaterally introduced the neoliberal capitalist Growth, Employment And Redistribution macro-economic framework in 1996.
For the next five years, the ANC tried to sell the idea that GEAR would "deliver a better life for all". All GEAR delivered was hundreds of thousands of lost jobs for workers, hundreds of thousands of people (mostly poor) dying of HIV-AIDs, privatisation of public assets, millions of poor thrown into even deeper poverty and new and old capitalist elites getting filthy rich.
Despite this, in the next election, in 1999, the ANC again promised the South African working class that they needed to be patient, that shosholoza capitalism would eventually work for everyone. When it became clear that large numbers of organised workers and poor communities were not buying the ANC's sales job, the ANC reverted to disingenuous propaganda about how they were going to do the same things they had promised in 1994. And again, millions of working class South Africans voted for the ANC.
Another five years have passed, and the ANC is at it again. Against all empirical evidence and the realities of daily life for South Africa's burgeoning poor, the ANC continues to repeat the sales mantra.
Their election manifesto spews out all sorts of dubious statistics and arguments to show that the ANC government is succeeding in: Providing accessible and affordable basic needs and services to the poor; redistributing wealth and resources to the poor black majority; creating millions of new jobs; dealing effectively with the scourge of crime and the socio-economic conditions within which it flourishes; transforming the legal system so that everyone is "equal before the law"; doing away with corruption in the public and private sectors; deepening democracy by listening to, and working hand-in-hand with, poor communities; and, helping to bring peace, economic justice and political equality to the African continent and across the globe.
Ten years on though, with the "traditional left" firmly in its pocket, the ANC has become even more arrogant and confident that the majority of the working class will buy the "line".
The ANC knows that it will, once again, win the election if it can make the working class believe in what it says instead of paying attention to what it does (or doesn't do!). Like the main capitalist parties in the West, the ANC has become an expert purveyor of false expectations and stolen dreams.
The real 'delivery dividend'
The ANC's election manifesto is just a slicker and more sophisticated version of its predecessors.
If we peel away the electioneering layers that distort and obscure the truth of present-day South African society, then the realities of 10 years of ANC "delivery" are exposed:
* Nearly half of South Africa's population have no formal job and the casualisation/outsourcing of work has turned millions of workers into virtual beggars — meanwhile, corporations make record profits and capitalist bosses enjoy unprecedented wealth.
* Two-thirds of South Africans now live on the verge of, or in, poverty, struggling to put enough food in their stomachs and enjoy even the most basic necessities of life; meanwhile, a small minority of old white capitalists and their new black brethren get richer and fatter by the day.
* Millions still have no access to basic services like water, electricity, housing and healthcare. Millions more cannot access those services that have been "delivered" because of privatisation and corporatisation has driven the prices up; meanwhile, the mining corporations, capitalist farmers, private medical schemes and property developers make super-profits and consume record amounts of publicly subsidised basic services.
Apartheid-era land ownership patterns remain virtually unchanged and farm-workers and rural dwellers continue to live under oppressive, near feudal relations. Meanwhile, rich foreigners and an emergent domestic black bourgeoisie buy-up, and speculate on, prime agricultural, industrial and residential land.
The ANC's manifesto says that the ANC wants to enter into a "people's contract" with all South Africans in order to "create work and roll back poverty". Such a "contract" will supposedly be achieved by everyone embracing a "spirit of responsibility and volunteerism". If the majority buy into this "contract" and vote for the ANC, then the ANC says it will fulfil all the election promises (and more) it has failed to in 10 years.
A genuine people's contract can never be pursued, not to mention achieved, unless the vast majority of South African workers begin to take collective economic ownership and political control of societal wealth, resources and institutions. The ANC's so-called "people's contract" offers the exact opposite — a South Africa built on continued capitalist alienation, elite accumulation and class exploitation. The illusion continues.
From Green Left Weekly, March 31, 2004.
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