Umrabulo Number 27, November 2006

Umrabulo was a word used to inspire political discussion and debate on Robben Island. This concept was revived in 1996 when the ANC published the first edition of Umrabulo. The journal's mission is to encourage debate and rigorous discussions at all levels of the movement.

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Editorial Collective
Joel Netshitenzhe, Pallo Jordan, Fébé Potgieter, Naph Manana, Mandla Nkomfe, Mduduzi Mbada, Michael Sachs, Donovan Cloete, Spongy Moodley, Steyn Speed

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The contents and views expressed in Umrabulo do not necessarily reflect the policies of the ANC or the views of the editorial collective.

Editorial

Infusing the values of ubuntu

When President Thabo Mbeki delivered the 4th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture on 29 July this year, he began with the statement: "I believe I know this as a matter of fact, that the great masses of our country everyday pray that the new South Africa that is being born will be a good, a moral, a humane and a caring South Africa which as it matures will progressively guarantee the happiness of all its citizens."

The lecture was widely welcomed as a valuable contribution to the development of our national discourse as we begin the Second Decade of our Freedom. Yet the lecture also poses a number of challenges, both to the democratic movement and broader South African society, not least of which is the challenge of forging a caring society in an environment where "personal pursuit of material gain, as the beginning and end of our life purpose, is already beginning to corrode our social and national cohesion".

In this edition of Umrabulo, a number of writers have sought to respond to some of the questions posed by the President. Some have answered Mbeki's challenge directly, others more obliquely. They have taken different approaches and emphasised different elements in the unfolding debate. Is a caring society most appropriately pursued in the terrain of economics, through the social policies of government, or by forging a new approach to matters of the soul?

As the democratic movement, we have historically identified a good, moral, humane and caring society as the antithesis of white minority domination.

Through the defeat of colonialism, the achievement of democracy and the eradication of the material legacy of apartheid, we would forge a new society that would uphold the rights and promote the well-being of all its people.

Yet, though we have defeated apartheid and made significant progress in addressing the social and economic devastation that it caused, we have inherited an economic system and a complementary set of values that give rise, in the words of Mbeki, to the "deification of personal wealth as the defining feature of the new citizen".

Some have seen this analysis as primarily intended as a challenge to the process of black economic empowerment. Certainly it says something about the tendency for people to use conspicuous displays of wealth to signal personal 'fulfilment'. But the deracialisation of the economy and the effort to redress the systematic denial of economic opportunities to black South Africans cannot, in itself, stand in the way of building a caring society.

Rather it is the unbridled pursuit of profit, regardless of the consequences -reinforcing the cry, "everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost" - which needs to be challenged. Any society held hostage to rampant market forces, to borrow the terminology of the ANC's Strategy and Tactics, would find it difficult, if not impossible, to adequately tend to the well-being of all its people. It would certainly be impossible for a society, like ours, that is struggling to overcome such severe inequalities.

The challenge to the democratic movement, and to all South Africans, is how then to order economic and social relations in a manner that builds a caring society. This question, on which we merely touch in this edition of Umrabulo, will undoubtedly feature prominently in the discussion that will accompany the review of Strategy and Tactics as the ANC prepares for its next National Conference.

In engaging in these discussions, it would be important to remember President Mbeki's assertion that "because of the infancy of our brand new society, we have the possibility to act in ways that would for the foreseeable future, infuse the values of ubuntu into our very being as a people".

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Editorial

Infusing the values of ubuntu