Don't blame the constitution for slow pace of change: Manuel
Image by: Kopano Tlape
The Constitution cannot be blamed for the slow pace of change in South Africa, said Planning Minister Trevor Manuel.
"The Constitution empowers and enables, but beyond that, actual change requires human actions," he said on Monday evening.
Manuel was addressing the opening session of a conference entitled "Strategies to Overcome Poverty and Inequality -- Towards Carnegie III" at the University of Cape Town.
He said the Constitution provided South Africans with the values that bound them and enabled them.
Policy could also not be blamed for hampering transformation.
"Policy should guide and provide a framework for evaluating the progress of actions by people. Policy documents do not suddenly assume the ability to walk, talk and act -- they only guide."
Manuel said it was important to realise how different elements of policy intersected and mutually reinforced each other.
"Too often the economic policy discussion ends with slogans about macro-economics, and all this does is to warn the listener that we have not matured sufficiently to understand that transformation is only possible in an environment of stability created by sound macro-economic policies.
"And that change comes from advancing the implementation of rational, progressive social- and micro-economic policies."
The government was not solely responsible for the transformation of South Africa.
"Whilst government should never be allowed to devolve its responsibility, the process is actually a bit more complex," Manuel said.
The National Planning Commission was of the view that transformation occurred when a number of agencies interact.
"The first, and perhaps the most important of these is an active citizenry -- a nation whose conscience is vested in the ordinary women and men who comprise and who act in their own and in the national interest -- they cannot outsource this responsibility to government."
Manuel said the second agency was leadership.
"When we speak of leadership, we counter the notion of the 'big man'. Our model of leadership is one that involves tens of thousands of active citizens who take initiative, in the common interest."
The third agency for change is an effective government at local, provincial and national levels.
"An effective government is responsive to the needs of its people, in its listening, policy priorities and allocation of resources."
Manuel said transformation would not be possible without the close interaction of these three agencies.
The University of Cape Town, with the support of the National Planning Commission, is holding a conference to stimulate deeper thinking about strategies to overcome poverty and inequality in South Africa.
This is seen as the first stage of the third Carnegie inquiry in this country. Manuel said 304 papers had already been submitted for discussion.
The first Carnegie inquiry into poverty in South Africa was published in 1932 and focused on the "poor white" problem "and, as a consequence, entrenched the poor black problem", Manuel said.
The second Carnegie Report on poverty in South Africa was produced in 1984 by Francis Wilson and Mamphela Ramphele.
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Posted 259 days agoMike123
Posted 259 days agoPOST94
Posted 259 days agoTrevor Manuel: Darling, with the New National Plan we hope to create over 500000 jobs by year 2030 and.....
Maria Ramos: Goodluck, I have just shed 1500 jobs at ABSA. And that was just a warm-up..
KafreeMoneykey
Posted 259 days agoLet us get cracking...
MicaParis
Posted 259 days agoUnder their co-determination laws, countries such as the Netherlands and Germany impose a duty on corporations over a certain size or asset value, to give workers a voice in the governing structure. Studies demonstrate that there is less industrial and social strife in these countries and less worker alienation. Nor do they have the economic disparities we experience which I suggest might be a good initiative to our inequality realities.
The media do a good job reporting on the string of government scandals, corruption and ineptitude pulsing through the country. One of the revolutionary writers, Jefferson wrote that democracy would be undermined if one group had large amounts of property (ANC Cadres) whereas others (General Public) had very little.
Since 1994, economic choices have been made where things have been rigged in favour of a few (ANC Cadres, ie, Motsepe & Ramaphosa), while the majority continue to reside in poverty. Beginning with the Mbeki and Manuel leadership, the government embraced the rabid free trade.
These leaders took us into the GATT agreements, succeeded by the Worled Trade Organisation, whereby SA undertook ''First World'' free trade commitments as a developed country, which we are not. This resulted in severe damage to sectors such as textiles.
The agreements mean SA is legally circumscribed in subsidising businesses even within the historically disadvantaged population because this would invite charges of unfair trade practices which is a fatal mistake by Mbeki and Manual in a strictly poverty stricken society.
The Mbeki-Manuel policies were neither informed, nuanced nor reflective of our unique realities. No other country with the level of unemployment and abject poverty of SA has assumed developed world obligations, a fatal mistake that Mbeki and Manuel had done.
The abject failure of the education system is scandalous, which is a vocal point in general development of the public at large and can serve as a quick way of alleviation of poverty.
The decision to allow major corporations to move their headquarters to foreign lands defies reason. If one could find a description of economic treason that would be it another mistake by Mbeki and Manuel which completely raped our tax base and future savings of funds.
The ANC and its allies, the SACP and Cosatu, cannot continue using the playbook of patronising the downtrodden while using the levers of power to do little for them. South Africans need to mobilise and make up for the lost ground.
The irrationality of government choices, the problematic way in which private power is exercised , the tremendously high cost of living and other economic anomalies need to be confronted.
Unless we upend the economic and social order, infuse it with a different ethos that eliminates corruption and ineptitude, and invest in education, we are fast approaching an existential crisis.
Stirrer
Posted 259 days ago"...until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all; until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained; And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will; Until all stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the world will not know peace. We will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil..."
Jah Rastafari - ever living, ever faithful, ever sure!
Mercenary
Posted 259 days agombongmugabe
Posted 259 days ago