What happens after a great and devastating war? You can rebuild. You can gather the broken parts, you can put them together, you can heal what has been broken. You can take things back to “normal”.
That is the straight path. You also have the chance to reimagine your world, to not just rebuild, but to make things better, to avoid the mistakes and unintended consequences of your first structure. It is a chance not just to put things right. It is also a chance to make things better than they were before.
Very few generations get a chance to correct their mistakes. We are fortunate that, at least for many of us, we can rebuild and reimagine SA. We had a chance to do this in 1994, of course. You would not know it if you listened to much of the current wave of nostalgia on social media, but by 1994 the apartheid state was in deep crisis.
Its international allies wanted nothing to do with such a vile system. The economy was on its knees. Unemployment was high. Inequality between races and within different race groups was huge. Poverty was endemic. Sanctions had bitten and internal protest was unstoppable and uncontrollable. Of course, the apartheid government could have gone rogue and tried to rule by dictatorship. But the inevitable, whether in 20 years or in a 100 years, would have happened: majority rule would have come.
So the end of apartheid in 1994 was an opportunity to take advantage of the crisis and turn it into something new and powerful. The 1994 moment was a challenge and opportunity: do the things that would turn a country many regarded as a zero into a hero.
Then president Nelson Mandela and many of his colleagues knew this. The government introduced what it called a Reconstruction & Development Programme (RDP). Jay Naidoo was given a special ministry to implement it. Details were lacking, but the intent was clear: a new, caring, social democratic system that put the poorest of the poor at its heart.
It was an attempt to reimagine the country. It didn’t last. Just two years after the 1994 democratic breakthrough the RDP was abandoned and the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) policy was introduced. The much-derided Gear actually did far more for the reimagination of SA than many give it credit. Economic growth, inclusion and transformation were far more rapid and widespread in the Gear years under then president Thabo Mbeki than at any other period in the previous 30 years.
The future does not have to look like the past. The ‘new normal’ does not have to be like the old one.
Then the change-over of leadership (and not political party) happened in 2009 and the years of “radical economic transformation” were ushered in. It was certainly radical: billions were funnelled into the pockets of politically connected individuals and their associates. There was no policy, no defining theme, no central thought except to line the pockets of cronies. Populist policies and actions, such as throwing money at the civil service in unsustainable above-inflation annual increases, reigned supreme.
We are paying for all of that now. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has devastated us. It has kicked the wind out of our economy. Unemployment, inequality and poverty are rampant. As we emerge from this devastating year and prepare for the still-numerous challenges ahead, we need to recognise that this is also an opportunity. Instead of bemoaning what we have gone through — and there is much to bemoan and mourn, including many precious lives lost — we can also begin to reimagine who we are and what we want to be in the future.
Many of us talk about “going back to normal”. This would be a mistake for us. This is our chance to reimagine our future. Covid-19 has shown us that our health-care system is broken. Let’s reimagine: what does a future where poor people don’t have to die on a cold concrete floor in the Eastern Cape look like? This is the time to start building that future.
What does a future where all children, not just those of the rich, can learn remotely and thrive look like? When another pandemic sweeps through the world we must have reimagined this and attained to a solution, otherwise we will have failed to use this moment.
The future does not have to look like the past. The “new normal” does not have to be like the old one. It can be new — and better. It can be new — and inclusive. It can be new and all sorts of other things. It can be better.
In some parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration (the prosecutorial service and the SA Revenue Service, for example) you can see this reimagination happening. There is a recognition there that this is an opportunity for renewal. Can the rest of the administration join in?
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.