An interesting, informative and necessary debate is occurring in the leadership of the DA on the relationship or juxtaposing of white privilege and black poverty.
This should be seen as an important discourse on the issue of race that is opportune and necessary at this juncture of our political and constitutional pilgrimage.
What is required is a constructive discourse. Although whites should certainly not be demonised, it is submitted they must be involved in addressing the fundamental problem of black poverty in the interests of both socio-economic justice and political stability.
It is, however, the primary responsibility of the ANC government, which has been in power since 1994, to reduce poverty, create employment and effect far greater economic equality in South Africa than exists at present.
The responsibility does not only rely on the government of the day. Inter alia, opposition parties, the faith-based organisations and civil society must be involved.
The white community in South Africa is affluent, skilled and has great resources, and can play an important role in the rehabilitation of African communities in a constructive manner.
It is essential that we understand the extent of the poverty that exists in South Africa. An unconscionable 14 million people go to bed hungry in South Africa every day, according to a report of the SA Food Sovereignty Campaign (Daily News, “Fourteen million go hungry in SA daily” - May 29, 2017).
According to Stats SA, 15% of pupils go hungry each day, according its survey for 2016.
The UN Children’s fund (Unicef) has stated that 15% of children in Gauteng are hungry every day, and that 12% go to bed without a meal.
According to the South African Survey 2016, about 36% of people live in relative poverty in South Africa. This constitutes about 19 million people, of whom about 17.5 million are black.
These statistics are mind-
boggling and present both the government and the South African community with an inordinate moral and political challenge.
Twenty-four years after the inception of a democratic dispensation, we still have poverty on such a vast scale that is morally debilitating and threatens political stability as a constitutional democracy.
Although there are no instantaneous solutions, both government and civil society should be doing so much more to alleviate poverty.
It is reported that Mmusi Maimane’s comments at the Freedom Day rally last week (Times Live, May 7) have led to disagreements in the DA, with some like Nqanga Bhanga, Eastern Cape leader of this party, supporting him, declaring that the matter was simple.
In contrast, others such as Ghaleb Cachalia MP, who was quoted in City Press (May 6) as saying the matter was complex and required ongoing engagement, and expressed his concern over the juxtaposition of white privilege and black poverty.
It is submitted that the debate and contrasting political views expressed cogently in the DA on this crucial issue is to its advantage and should most certainly not at any cost be deterred by some leaders “fearing they could alienate white voters”.
Furthermore, it is reported that President Ramaphosa, in answering questions in Parliament on May 8, backed Maimane in his apparent dispute with some members of the DA (The Mercury, May 9).
This is indeed a test for the maturity of the DA and its leadership, and Maimane, it is submitted, should be congratulated on being prepared to raise a courageous and controversial issue of seminal importance in a public meeting.
Although there are no magical or instantaneous solutions, there are other related matters that need to be debated openly and courageously discussed publicly, such as the inordinate, unequal distribution of resources, such as land, between essentially affluent whites and very poor blacks, and the contentious issue of “expropriation of land” without compensation.
Although there are likely to be strongly differing views, this should contribute to a healthy and meaningful debate, even if feathers are ruffled within the DA and its supporters.
What is required is a wide-ranging debate on economic policy. It is submitted that if the DA is to be a serious contender for political power at a provincial and national level, its economic policy would have to be one of social democratic nature, involving, inter alia, a basic income grant, a national health insurance plan and meaningful poverty alleviation programmes on a national scale.
The Swedish model involving a welfare state could provide some guidance. In this regard a pure socialist model involving a centralised controlled economy is not being suggested at all.
A resource-driven economy is essential for the rehabilitation of our economy after the huge
destruction that occurred during the Zuma presidency.
Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference between a model involving principles of social democracy operating within a resource-driven economy and a socialist system as applied in the erstwhile Soviet Union and former Eastern European countries, which ultimately failed and were replaced.
In this debate political education needs to take place. Many uniformed whites are immediately put off by the word “social” as it occurs in “social-democratic” and equate it with Marxist/socialism, which it is not the case at all.
This debate should involve more than just slogans such as “radical economic transformation and unqualified expropriation without compensation”.
The corrupt Zuma administration pursued an economic policy of so-called “chrony-capitalism”, although it used the terminology of the left such as “radical economic transformation”.
Ramaphosa has embarked on ambitious policies to change the discredited and corrupt Zuma economic strategy and facilitate a resource-driven economy involving large-scale foreign investment.
This is, however, only half of the economic equation. The other half must involve addressing poverty and inequality in South Africa in a meaningful way.
This will involve debate and discourse on economic policies involving social democracy. It is hoped that Maimane’s comments on “white privilege and black poverty” can precipitate such a public discourse and debate not only within the DA but in the body politic as a whole.
In this regard the white community, with its skills, resources and great wealth, has a fundamentally important role to play.
What must be avoided is playing the blame game by demonising or endeavouring to punish the white community for the injustices of imperialism and apartheid, which cannot be condoned.
Their constructive co-operation in searching for, contributing and realising a South African nation where social justice and political stability exists is in the interest of the nation as a whole.
South Africa is a country of inordinate potential and vast human and material resources.
It requires competent, non-corrupt and wise government to bring about social and economic justice for all our people by embracing economic policies that are designed to bring about such transformation. In this regard the white community has an indispensable role to
play.
* Devenish is an emeritus professor at UKZN and one of the scholars who assisted in drafting the interim constitution in 1993.