THE MORAL RENEWAL OF THE NATION

When President Nelson Mandela asked to meet the religious leaders of South Africa in June 1997, he spoke of his concern for the spiritual health and vitality of our people. In our striving for political and economic development, the ANC recognises that social transformation cannot be separated from spiritual transformation.

Most people are moral. They are not criminals advocating unethical behaviour. They wish to bring up their children to be honest, with the desire to build a prosperous and peaceful South Africa for all who live in it.

The cultures brought together in our nation also had high ethical standards. Traditional African cultures were modelled on morals. Afrikanerdom was prompted by strict adherence to spiritual values. Those who trace their origins to other countries also recognise high concepts of personal and social responsibility.

Many of our people are religious. Whether we follow traditional religion, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, the call to personal and communal ethical behaviour is similar. Humanists who are unbelievers accept the same universal moral goals. People prefer to be good.

Since it began nearly a century ago, and at every stage of the struggle for liberation, the ANC has been motivated by strong ethical convictions, especially the moral value of justice for all, and respect and care for other people. In contrast, the systems imposed by colonial rule departed from morality. As apartheid began to develop its systems of social engineering, it was revealed as fundamentally unjust and unethical.

The democratic changes of 1994 introduced a major change. The apartheid system was consigned to history. All countries which have passed through a major social change to establish new objectives, structures and modes of behaviour have found this a time of tension. Some seek to inhibit the development, others use it for party political purposes, and blatantly immoral elements come to the surface.

Corruption, criminality, tax evasion, fraud, rape, the abuse of women and children, drunkenness, extortion, and family breakdown, much of it touched by violence, are the outward forms of a diseased social climate which affects all of us. The whole country is passing through a period of transition in which we are seeking to establish a new and successful modern society. The problems we experience are not different from those in other societies - but at this formative stage we intend to do something to ensure that South Africa becomes a truly moral society.

The ANC welcomes the Moral Summit process as an opportunity to analyse this situation, and seek a national commitment to overcome it.

The ANC position

Dr Pixley Seme opened the first ANC Conference on 8 January 1912 with prayer and the singing of 'Nkosi Sikelele'. The movement was based on a culture of high social and personal values, rooted in ubuntu, which were articulated repeatedly through the years of its growth.

The battle to overcome oppression had a long history and encompassed many strategies of non-violent and armed struggle. The deep ethical content and spirit of the Freedom Charter, signed at Kliptown in 1955, made it not only a rallying cry for our own struggle, but a guide to many throughout the world. ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli received the Nobel Peace Prize for that same commitment.

The ANC has consistently struggled for a culture of human rights which would accord respect and equality to all people irrespective of race, age, sex, colour or creed. 'No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion', wrote Nelson Mandela. 'People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

The changes the ANC sought were not based upon racial, religious or economic prejudice or preference but upon a concern for the common good of all the people of South Africa. In its work at home, and throughout its years underground and in exile, it has sought to overcome apartheid which the international community declared was a crime against humanity. The ANC welcomed the rejection of apartheid by most religious communities, and the declaration of the international Reformed Church community that apartheid was a sin, and its theological and moral justification was heresy.

The ANC has recognised with regret that, at times, some of it's members deviated from its principles, but through good and bad times the moral integrity of its purpose and direction remained clear.

The ANC endorses the repeated statements of its leadership that corruption will not be tolerated in its ranks. Cheating, stealing, dishonesty, nepotism, careerism, opportunism, and the manipulation of money or patronage are not acceptable. Such activity undermines the principles of the party which cannot allow its cadres to practice them.

Those who were involved in the struggle against apartheid, in the field, in prison, or in exile, experienced a comradeship of very high order. It inspired a high moral tone, and enacted an equality which embraced all South Africans irrespective of race, age, sex, colour or creed. People committed themselves and everything they had to the struggle for a new just and moral community. Self-sacrifice of personal enjoyment, time and money was real: they shared resources and dangers, hopes and fears. Far from being helpless victims of terror, they had an integrity and sense of commitment which brought out the best of humanity within them. They built a self-questioning corporate approach to decision making which gave them a 'hands on' experience of the principles and policies they professed.

That is why the ANC believes that a transformed society with a revolutionay morality can be built in South Africa today.

The Apartheid heritage

In contrast to this is our heritage of apartheid, a culture of social injustice, dehumanisation, and public immorality, rooted in the injustices of colonialism, and justified by the ideology of apartheid. Black people were dispossessed of their land and denied basic respect as human beings. The lie of white superiority was promoted.

Attempts to implement the ideology of enforced segregation and white supremacy were imposed on land and property, and upon all political, commercial, educational, religious, and sporting sectors of society. This was done with the acquiescence of sections of the religious, business and academic communities, and with the support of many politicians and investors overseas.

This inhuman and immoral system was imposed by force upon the people. They suffered arbitrary arrest, detention without trail, banning, torture, poisoning, persecution, extra-legal executions, enforced removals of whole communities, and indoctrination by unending propaganda. The family life of millions of South Africans was damaged or destroyed. Many still bear the wounds.

The merciless story unravelled by testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has horrified the world, not merely in the viciousness of the suffering which apartheid caused, but in the commitment to an immoral cause which prompted it.

The enforcement was carried out by an army of police, soldiers, and civil servants, with the connivance of many in civil society. They learnt the inhuman practices of violence - as did their victims. Sections of the population condoned the use of methods which they knew were unacceptable. In supporting the measures to impose apartheid people's moral integrity became corrupted.

The very meaning of morality was debased. Ethics is concerned with a way of life which promotes the common good. Under apartheid ethics was reduced to private morality. The ethics of social responsibility was considered a matter of politics reserved for the government. Knowledge, theology, and social behaviour were confined to politically approved forms. Individuals, religions, academia and cultural leaders were specifically told not to interfere. To oppose government policy became immoral. To attempt to liberate the people from its systems became criminal. Social injustice reigned supreme.

By perpetuating a system they knew to be a lie, respectable people were indoctrinated by their own propaganda, and became incapable of recognising truth. When lies were proclaimed as truth, honesty was devalued. When statesmen were allowed to practice deception with impunity, national integrity was corrupted. Innumerable lives were thrown away by waging unwarranted wars on false premises.

The State itself became corrupt. A State is expected to be the organ through which any society mediates its moral values to establish an accepted social morality which members of the society collectively regard as desirable. The State is expected to act as the moral arbiter of that society, and is entrusted with the supreme power to maintain the agreed norms of that society. When a State pursues policies that negate the social morality and values it is supposed to uphold it loses its position as the arbiter of society. That is precisely what happened to the apartheid regime, and why the whole world. found the State itself guilty of the ultimate crime of inhumanity.

Individuals were left to act on their own with no moral laws to guide them, no sense of responsibility, no awareness of guilt. The State set no moral standards but advocated an unethical position. Everyone was stained with corruption.
When wrong was made right, and the law was used for inhuman purposes, respect for the law collapsed. By becoming a law unto themselves, the law enforcement agencies killed their conscience and engaged in unlawful acts. The attitude of contempt for the rule of law spread to the wider population. The whole justice system was corrupted.
Many of the victims of apartheid immorality found themselves in a situation in which they could only exist by breaking the law, by telling lies about their belief and actions, or stealing in order to survive oppression. Those who were victims of State immorality rebelled against it, and developed a culture of disrespect for the law.

African family life was broken into fragments by migrant labour, poverty, ill-health, and a total lack of consideration. Whole generations of children have been reared without proper parenting, nurtured in inhuman situations, denied the experience of respect and morality in the home.

The same period saw the proliferation of a system of unbridled racial capitalism. The economy was ruled by profit and greed. Blacks were de-personalised and considered not as people, but as 'labour' to be exploited in the worship of profit and possession. Racism discounted them because they were black. There was no sense of social or personal responsibility for those who were casualties of the capitalist system, or those considered unnecessary burdens on society.

The worship and manipulation of personal profit led to the accumulation of most of the country's wealth in a few white hands, and the condemnation of millions of blacks to poverty. There was no sense of national wealth, or of economic responsibility for everyone in society. Personal profit was accepted as the end which justified any means. This intense growth of self-centredness, combined with the belief that affluence was a rightful perquisite of being white, led to a further deterioration of moral values throughout society.

Political weight supported this economic manipulation with draconian measures. Exploited migrant labour, the reservation of categories of jobs for whites, and compulsory removals became common. Strikes were illegal. Repression to retain white privilege became rampant.

The civil service lost its sense of independent integrity, and many of its personnel became arrogant and insensitive, cogs in the repressive apartheid machinery. Many blacks were coopted into the 'Homeland' Governments - the Bantustans - which were frequently schools for corruption.

As world wide opposition grew against the apartheid regime, both state and business grew more immoral. They bribed their way to political, technological and financial support, and justified it as self-defence against the 'total onslaught' of 'godless communism' and 'black terrorism'. Venality and deception were accepted as legitimate ways to maintain political and economic systems by both government and the private sector. Trust, honesty and reliability which were the hall mark of good business were cast aside. The only essential value was to make profits, even if society risked destruction.

Fatalistic, unethical behaviour seeped into every sector from the civil service to sport, from obtaining a residence permit to publishing a newspaper. The architects of this State knew it was based on deceit. They knew they were living a life of fraud and South Africa became fundamentally corrupt.

This resulted in dangerously low levels of morality, with little respect for the value of life. It permitted rampant corruption and fraud in public and private spheres. Many respectable people became deeply immoral but, cocooned in comfort, did not recognise their depravity. Everyone in society was influenced, including the victims. None of the institutions installed to protect society remained untouched: police, prosecutors, magistrates, judges, and prisons were affected.

Most of South Africa's religious communities condemned the policy and practice of apartheid as immoral, unjust, sinful and heretical. But others disagreed. Some argued in favour of apartheid; some insisted they could separate faith and politics; some just shut their eyes. Most white congregations and many black ones were never mobilised in the cause of liberation. Immorality and violence ruled South Africa - in the name of protecting Christian civilisation. Religion became a site of struggle.

Freedom came - but the society in which we were free to live and move was a distorted and corrupt society. Many still do not admit how utterly decadent it was.

The Transition to a new Society

The democratic election of 1994 marked a profound, fundamental change, a complex and tumultuous process of transition from one society to another. The diverse riches of all humanity have emerged to replace the subordination of society to a white, male, 'christian' elite. Respect for every person has ousted disrespect for other groups.

Transition in any society is inevitably a time of great upheaval for organisations and persons. It has happened throughout history. Change brings hope, but it also brings tension, confusion and fear. The old has gone, but the new is not yet established. Adjustments are required by everyone. Plans are disrupted by unexpected events. Those newly come to power have distractions and diversions thrust upon them by practical demands, and by the intransigence of those who wish to retain the old system, or manipulate the new one. Issues which lay hidden under the assumptions of racism, sexism, or the 'red peril', emerged into the open.

The objectives of the struggle must be turned into achievements. Policies for reconstruction and development require laws, procedures and skills to enact them. Changes need new structures to implement them and new attitudes to apply them. The commitment to nation building needs training and experience to fulfil it. We learnt that some take time to find their feet in freedom.

As democracy dawned, a new moral attitude began to emerge. A euphoric sense of clean healthy social relationships swept through the country as the first free elections were held. But the ethical blindness and immoral life experience of the apartheid era continued to influence many. Racist restrictions have been outlawed, but racist attitudes remain. The deceit, lies and hypocrisy of the past cannot be legislated out: they have to be educated out by forming new communities.

Rapid moves since 1994 have removed the barriers behind which a minority of the population possessed wealth and privilege and were white, whilst the majority were poor and black. Many blacks have found better jobs - but they are only the vanguard. Frustration and cynicism move in when expectations are not speedily met. Citizens without the means to survive are targeted for manipulation by the corrupt and criminal. And the greedy motivations have persisted.

Transition is fired by those who have a vision of the life of free people. It does not mean freedom to be part of an oppressive system whose objective is to accumulate many possessions yourself: enough is enough. They are not claim they are entitled to benefits without working for them. They advocate a work ethic which includes them as a constructive partner in the new society. They recognise that justice requires redistribution of responsibility, wealth, and property. They aspire to be citizens who bear a harvest, not parasites. They are truly liberated.
The Freedom Charter still outlines the principles of transformed society, but the process of implementation is delayed. Those who control the capital, land and financial resources needed for the fulfilment of freedom, resist it - whilst those who now wield political power are committed to peaceful change. Transition is thus an ethical conflict. The possessors deny the dispossessed the opportunity to transform their lives. A moral barrier delays the practical solutions.

Transition takes time, even with the best will in the world. As the process of providing housing and health, education and jobs, moves from vision to policy to programme, it involves money, people and budgets. It makes moral demands on those whose experience of distrust and immoral attitudes in the previous era remains. It requires training and skills in technical areas, management, and social relationships.

The question of commitment is relevant as the transformation process becomes more fluid. In some sectors salaries soar. Some professional people charge a premium for their services or threaten to withdraw. Some skilled people see their jobs under threat as more people enter the market. Some who spent their earlier lives in the struggle but have no other training feel lost and discarded. Some who had a voluntary commitment to the liberation struggle become vulnerable to those who would tempt them into more selfish attitudes. Some support business against crime, others practice crime in business. They are all ethical matters, demanding moral choices.

Such personal choice and responsibility is the crucial driving force of transition to a new era. The dictatorial apartheid regime was driven by the idea that 'The State will do it'. Many spent years opposing oppression by saying: 'The State must not do it.' Now some have carried the same notion into the quest for transformation by saying: 'The State must do it.' Our tradition is that the people shall govern. The responsibility - including the responsibility for the State - is ours.

The role of the State is also subject to the transformation process. A State is the organ through which society mediates its values and objectives. It regulates the legal framework, and is entrusted with power to maintain the structures and ends of that society. A transition to reinstate the acceptance and credibility of the State is inevitably a period of uncertainty and readjustment, exploited both by those who wish to excuse themselves from responsibility for the past, and those who wish to profit from the period of change.

Rebuilding a respect for the law requires a change of attitude amongst the general public which can only be won by a change of application by those in the law enforcement sector.

Civil servants are also in a period of change, seeking a new vision focussed o on being those who have the privilege of applying the wealth and authority of the people's government to the people themselves. In the apartheid era many looked to the State to provide them with a living as a duty to protect the white population. The sense of civic responsibility, the integrity of working in the service of the country, was largely lost. Absenteeism, laziness, corruption, nepotism and the politics of patronage were commonly practiced. Corruption became firmly established as the way of life, especially in the Homeland Governments. Eradicating such attitudes is a major challenge in the transitional period which the ANC is tackling with energy.

In the transition from an inhuman and cruel era to a humane and compassionate society the new government needed clear moral principles for the encouragement of responsible living. It believed the State should not kill people. Its first life-affirming act was to provide food and health care for expectant mothers and infants. It sough an equitable welfare policy for all sections of the population, and to rebuild family values. It was committed to building a culture of human rights and respect for life.

The transition is from a dictatorial command society, to a responsible society which empowers people to make their own choices. It produces a tension between those who see morality as something to be imposed, and those who see morality as something which must be enabled to arise from within a people. It is an ethical matter.
Political opposition is a vital aspect of democracy, but transition is damaged by those who use opposition not to support the quest for national transformation, but solely to promote themselves. Those who consider their civic duty is fulfilled by deliberately obstructing transition are playing corrupt games with the nation. Opposition, like ruling parties, has a responsible role to play.

Liberation has brought much freedom to the media, and during the process of transition it is also learning to handle this freedom. Subservience to the State has gone, but the pressures of financiers and advertisers are amongst the influences that still vie for power. There is considerable concern that our children are being reared under the influence of the corrupt morality frequently portrayed in some TV programmes. Some newspapers appear to find it easier to play a destructive role in the transition process. Can all the media have a constructive role in nation building?

Transition has already opened many doors which were formerly closed to women, but the process requires constant attention. A society that understands and respects the role of women in every sector is moving towards true liberation, but will only achieve that distinction by including an element of constant struggle in the transition process. If nations are built of neighbourhoods, are built of families, and the emancipation of women within the family is a key issue.

Youth have a unique contribution to make to the process of moral renewal which is at the heart of transition. Their imagination is not bound by the past, and their commitment is less restricted by the responsibilities of parenting. Education is being turned upside down by the transition process, and the input of young people is vital in this as in other fields. Those in control of religious and political processes have the opportunity to open new fields of development to those who are young.

Religion has an important role to play in the transition from an immoral society to a just society with basic moral values. Some religious people are deeply committed to the new community, and are trying to overcome the resistance of those who still limit their faith to personal morality, and those who relish their role as critics but not co-workers in nation building. Rediscovering the positive role of religion in transforming society has also taken time. Transition to an era in which there is no religious discrimination opens vistas which are full of promise for some, and of horror for others. Both religious and political attitudes in South Africa are being reassessed in ways which promise a critical and constructive relationship for the nation.

Transition is thus, by its nature, a situation of flux. Hope and anticipation walk side by side with uncertainty, insecurity, and fear. Some seek to manipulate it for their own immoral purposes. The process of changing from an immoral to a moral society presents many opportunities for exploitation by those who are confused, those who wish to manipulate the situation for their own advantage, and those who are wilfully corrupt, criminal and violent.

It throws up people of great vision and commitment, women and men infused by the spirit of ubuntu, who put their energies and enthusiasms into the collective good of the nation. Others, still dominated by the self centred individuality of the past, will practice violence and conflict, corruption and immorality, hypocrisy and selfishness. They are victims of the struggle to build a moral climate, and the sooner we drive the nation through the storm to the other side, the better.

So transition demands a continuous search for ways and means of promoting the common good. In the Masakhane Campaign and other state programmes, through NGOs, the religious concern for spiritual answers to crime, in tackling poverty, through initiatives to cleanse business, in programmes pursuing peace and justice, in thousands of small meetings where black and white and rich and poor are meeting as never before, a new community is emerging.

The way forward - the process of moral renewal

The ANC thus welcomes the joint support for Moral Summit One to inaugurate a new way forward. It supports the renewal process in which all the institutions and members of our society are encouraged to examine the causes of moral failure, and methods to recover our moral strength. The ANC will make a strong contribution to that process. We are considering these matters in detail in our own organisation, and trust the recommendations to be presented to Moral Summit Two in 1999 will aid the long term and sustainable transformation.

This commitment is not a new agenda, but an inseparable continuation of the liberation struggle. The political barriers have gone, the first steps to transform both state and society have been taken, and it is evident to all that the vast task of reconciliation and reconstruction which confronts South Africans demands the highest ethical commitment. No single group or section of our society can appoint itself the guardian of the nation's morals: we all have a role to play. The ANC is committed to play its role with all other players in the transformation.

The next stage in transforming South Africa requires contributions from everyone, like the original Freedom Charter. We set four questions before our own members and all concerned citizens.

1. How can nation building be strengthened today?

The vision of a united transformed nation must be constantly before us. It is done by accepting responsibility for ourselves, not by blaming others. It requires a commitment by every sector of society to build a nation with a sound ethical base. Good people make good nations.

Cynicism, fear and frustration are driven out by rediscovering faith in our selves and nurturing the spirit of ubuntu in our nation. How can we do that together?

The process towards Moral Summit Two will benefit from the many current enquiries, conferences, and initiatives into corruption, crime, transparency, and justice enforcement.

2. How can people in all sectors be won to own the process?

Nations grow on the cultural roots of the people. They are not built from the top down, but arise from the experience of the citizens. What is the contribution to the national consciousness from our different ethnic, language, religious, historical and class backgrounds? How can every sector feel at home?

Society is transformed by citizens with social awareness and social skills. The people must take the initiative to press their local leaders into united action. Municipal government can enable it, but not control it. Encouraging many local initiatives and organisations will involve people in institutional infra-structures which speedily produce skilled citizens. They also crowd out corrupt and criminal elements.

Nations are built in neighbourhoods. High level proposals can set the scene but not the action. When people become neighbours we shall stop preying on one another, and start caring for one another.

3. How can the nation's wealth be best employed?

We need a national obsession to banish poverty instead of merely to accumulate wealth. We must all accept responsibility for changing an economic system that makes so many of our population poor. Greed and corruption have no place in nation building.

Because much of our country's resources are in private hands, business must accept a moral responsibility to the country as well as to their shareholders. The collective effort to find an answer to poverty will itself spread a commitment to honesty, truth and generosity.

4. How can each sector of society find its role?

We have many specialised sectors each of which must play it's part in building a just and powerful nation: State, politicians, religion, business and labour, education, the media, culture, sport and many others.

We encourage every part to engage in their own analysis of causes and solutions to the ethical challenge, particularly within their own field of responsibility. Each one can mount a campaign for a positive commitment to the transition of South Africa.

This will include building positive relationships and joint ventures to achieve specific objectives on the ground between the organs of civil society, and between civil society and the State.

In conclusion

Our people are moral! Our cultural backgrounds are strong! Much of this transition is happening already! The next step of our national transformation lies before us!

Issued as a contribution to the process of moral renewal by the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress