4 October 1995
As we approach our eighteen month of democracy, the architects of our atrocious past would have us forget that past, and instead focus on the alleged failures of the new government. In four decades of governance, they delivered only misery to our people; and now they fault us for allegedly failing to perform a succession of miracles.
In fact, however, while miracles are generally hard to come by, we have indeed achieved a few. Chief among these is the deep roots that democracy has forged in this country in so short a space. An independent and respected constitutional court has replaced the Kangoroo justice of the past. Political violence has largely disappeared, with the significant exception of agitators who remain active in limited parts of the country. Our new, democratic, parliament is among the world leaders in terms of gender representivity. We have transformed a leper nation into the world's darling. All sixteen short months.
We in South Africa are widely looked upon as the vanguard of an African Renaissance. Despite the disgruntled prattlings of our opponents, South Africans - of all shades and political persuasions have never had it so good.
the authoritarian elements in our society, divided and marginalised, have begun to beat a familiar drum: the "misdaad gevaar", the wagons are circling in the suburbs and hysteria has rendered facts irrelevant. The cold fact of the matter - a fact that has only received a fleeting attention in the media - is that, in historically disadvantaged areas of the country, the clear perception is that recent months have brought less violence, not more. Certainly, this is no reason for complacency. Any violence at all is too much. But still, some balance in assessing the crime statistics in recent months would be welcome.
When we turn to business, again things are booming, in its short tenure the new government has done more to introduce genuine competitiveness and to end the cosiness of protectionism than did any past regime. Inflation is down, capital investment is up and international investor interest is at a frenzied pitch. Confidence in the new policies has triggered a whole new global financial sector: rand dominated Eurobonds.
In the area of delivering tangibles - like land and water - to South Africa's newly enfranchised citizens, the government has also excelled. Our land reform and redistribution legislation is the most far reaching that the world has ever seen short of self-defeating situations of civil war.
With funds so far allocated we have already started projects to address the needs of 25% of those who now lack clean water.
Within three years all those projects will have been completed and new ones started to address the rural backlog. And despite the impression that has been created in some quarters, these are not isolated achievements: across the board, the new democratic government is delivering. Eskom continues to meet electrification targets. In the area of education policy, months of scepticism and ill-informed criticism have suddenly lifted, as if by epiphany, to reveal unparalleled levels of primary level educational achievement.
Similarly, there were hysterical fears that allegedly unruly unions would run amok in the new South Africa because the new government is sensitive to labour's legitimate concerns. In fact, the country has successfully implemented an entirely new labour relations system, the kind of comprehensive overhaul that nations generally achieve only once a century.
While there are high profile problems in the public sector, labour has been a notably responsible partner in governnance, hours lost to industrial action have plummeted dramatically, particularly in the private sector.
It is significant that the major problems that have occurred are in areas on the public sector which are in transition and in which management's ability to maintain good labour relations is limited. And we should not forget that the administrative nightmare we have inherited was not of our making. The fact that we have to create effective provincial and local government out of the abortions of the past, is our inheritance, not our fault.
An integrated transportation policy, undoing the subsidies, inefficiencies and other absurdities of apartheid is solidly underway.
Similar activity is evident in the area of telecommunications. Our swiftly designed housing policy, based the double-wheeled chariot of private-public cooperation is being slowed by a wobbly private sector wheel: the cost of a South African house is almost double what would be expected from international experience. The private sector housing industry, bloated by luxury mansion hyper profits, lacks both the inclination and the efficiency to serve the low-cost housing sector where margins are thinner and need greatest.
Ironically, ignoring such facts, those who most loudly criticise government are the first to romanticise the inept and bureaucratic practices of our flabby and monopolistic private sector. Here also, we are moving to introduce greater efficiency and competitiveness.
One could go on at length in this vein, but the point is simple: The vast majority of government departments are delivering. And that delivery is poised to accelerate in the coming months. This is in marked contrast to the hot air and reactionary politics of our opponents.
Issued by the Department of Information and Publicity
P O Box 61884
Marshalltown
2107
4 October 1995