Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Online Letter
My dear friends and fellow South Africans,
Next week President Jacob Zuma will stand before the nation and deliver his State of the Nation address for 2010. For the first time in our history, the celebratory spirit of this occasion will go beyond the gates and walls of Parliament, as the President has chosen to move the event to the evening and televise it live for all South Africans to witness.
This is in keeping with the mood of public participation and unity which the World Cup is lending us this year. And so we are all looking forward to hearing what the President has to say. I, in particular, wait in bated anticipation.
To the surprise of some, "the people’s President" has set the right tone and forged the right climate in our country. But he has been in office for nine months and, symbolically speaking, delivery is now due. While his leadership has ushered in a seemingly more hands-on administration, concerned with performance monitoring and evaluation, the question beyond the rhetoric remains the same: what has he actually done?
Following close on its heels is the question: what needs to be done? These are the questions the President will need to answer for us next Thursday. We expect him to highlight the challenges facing our country and show us the roadmap of where he started, where he is, and where he is going with our nation.
The first stop on this roadmap should undoubtedly be the economy. The impression I have gained from the President’s words and actions is that he believes our economy and our people will weather the current financial storm, and that the crisis will be short and sweet. This impression is born out by the fact that no dramatic action has been taken to meet the crisis head-on.
The sweet promise of 500,000 jobs by the end of last year is still ringing in our ears, but the reality is that thousands of jobs were actually shed while Government neglected the unemployment crisis. Indeed, one might expect the President to feel rather uncomfortable, knowing that this year he will not be able to tout a litany of fulfilled promises and met deadlines from last year.
But our President is not known for looking uncomfortable. He is, after all, highly adaptable in tricky situations. This trait should prove valuable as he navigates the intense local political competition, populist mobilization and factionalism within his own Party. If he does not deal decisively and take a firm stand, party politics is likely to hinder the executive function.
We need to know where the President stands on such crucial issues as the nationalisation of the South African Reserve Bank. This is but one of the pegs which could stabilise the tent of our economy. Another is redressing the corruption, ineptitude and ineffectiveness of parastatals, most notably Eskom and the South African Broadcasting Commission.
It remains an issue of deep concern to me that Parliament’s oversight committee was not afforded the actual figures of Eskom’s intended price hikes, when Eskom came seeking Government’s approval to delve deeper into the pockets of every South African.
The approval Eskom received to plunder the poor was indeed blindly given, and we still have a right to know why Eskom is being allowed to fund a capital investment program directly from our pockets instead of going the usual route of seeking a portion of the fiscal budget. That would have seen the rich paying more than the poor, which is vastly preferable to the way it is now where, proportionally, the poor will end up paying more than the rich.
Everywhere I go I hear people talking about the cost of living; how everything is more expensive, how debt is rising and lifestyles are being downgraded. A downgrade in lifestyle is painful for the rich, but devastating for the majority poor. We will be less interested, next Thursday, in hearing about how the World Cup is stirring optimism, and more interested in hearing how President Zuma’s administration intends putting bread on the table, educating our children and creating opportunities for work.
I mentioned that the President needs to show us a roadmap next week, because South Africans need to see more than the starting point and the destination.
We need to be able to see the route we will be taking and anticipate where we will be stopping along the way.
The challenge for the President is to refrain from painting a beautiful destination and waving us all aboard, as though Government could teleport us past the various stages on the way. Accountability and transparency in Government must enable us to see what is being done right now and how it is going to help or hinder our progress.
There are many challenges before our nation. Problems with the economy loom large, but they should not overshadow the crises in education, healthcare, service delivery or security. I sincerely hope that the President will tell us what he has done about crime in the past 9 months; what he has done about HIV/Aids; and about poverty alleviation; and about corruption.
Less than knowing what South Africa might look like by the time of the President’s address in 2011, we need to know what the President has done and is doing right now. It is a sad fact that promises are not promises in South African politics. Instead promises have become tools to drown the public voice of dissatisfaction.
I look forward expectantly to the President’s address, in the hope that this year will be truly different.
Yours in the Service of Our Nation,
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP
