We may have lost the battle for the soul of our rainbow nation, but we have not, yet, lost the war. The option to go to war was always available during the debates after 1990 and during the Codesa (Convention for a Democratic South Africa) negotiations. This option was never exercised. We did not choose war, for good reasons.
The choices we have in 2023 are not too different. However, the differences at this juncture involve outbreaks of civil strife, low intensity economic, structural and politically motivated sabotage and the undermining of the state and the rule of law involving disparate groups and individuals.
These negative forces, some of which advance an anti-democratic backlash, have grown to such an extent that the forces of law and order are outnumbered and outgunned and have been compromised and corrupted in almost every sector. We live in desperate times, with old, outworn and failed solutions.
Before we can renew debates about the best socioeconomic programme for the country and consult the works of academics and ideologues, we must try to stop our slide and start the slow claw-back up the cliff to get back to where it may be possible to restart reconstruction and redevelopment.
Whatever options people choose, be it a national dialogue, a national indaba or convention or similar, the imperative is that all stakeholders, especially those holding the jaws of death around the neck of our choked country, should be involved so that we may breathe again. The leaders of the “good” stakeholders — including opposition parties, labour unions, religious groups, academic structures, health-care organisations, law societies, housing experts and representatives of sporting disciplines — must be there. All this is axiomatic.
However, what might not be recognised is the necessity of involving the powerful mafia-styled elements with their giant tentacles in every conceivable corner — from the government and political parties to business and the judiciary — where they breed theft, corruption and looting,
The battle to properly launch our tender constitutional democracy of barely 30 years, rooted in the rule of law and dreamlike visions of the Freedom Charter, has failed due to the fast-growing and almost omnipotent minority of gangsters, corrupters and corruptees and counter-revolutionaries of every type.
All the forces of crime, corruption and prejudice must be identified and offered a chance to sit at the table of reconstruction and redevelopment
All the forces of corruption, crime and prejudice — from the gangsters, warlords, drug lords and human traffickers to the blatant racists, gender chauvinists and dubious religious groups — must be identified and offered a chance to sit at the table of reconstruction and redevelopment (reconciliation). Many will not accept this invitation; those who don’t can be identified, isolated and even arrested where justified.
Recapturing the constitutional democratic project from the clutches of these dark forces will be impossible without a super efficient military, intelligence, police and prosecutorial force of committed and skilled personnel. This we do not have.
We do have great minds in all fields — the economy, environmental science, energy, politics — who can offer possible solutions for our multitude of national and local crises.
The question is how to bring their ideas and solutions to a forum for debate and implementation in a country that is enveloped in a climate of fear, victimisation and cataclysmic despair.
Do we give ourselves another chance, a second chance, a last chance to correct?
“Sufficient consensus” was the mechanism used at Codesa to ensure the national democratic transition remained on track and the country avoided a national democratic revolution. “Revolution” presupposes a total overhaul and a radical change, socially and economically, which could not happen when two or more opposing forces negotiated a settlement towards essentially a bourgeoise democratic transition. It was a misleading narrative or cliché that was abused for simple political ends by smart leaders who held sway over a gullible mass of supporters.
Nevertheless, there is enough goodwill, hope and societal achievements to allow for “substantial” rather than “sufficient” consensus in charting a new way forward. The conflicting forces, even those prone to resorting to violence, today enjoy the benefits of our young constitutional order.
At Codesa, conflicting forces first had to establish the foundations on which a system of peace, justice and law and order could be built. This has left a legacy of goodwill and achievement. And now there is a deep sense of desperation among all sectors of society, searching for a solution to the morass in which we are trapped.
Not every counter-revolutionary or negative force or group will come to the negotiation table as this may not serve their criminal profiteering enterprise. However, there will be a number of underworld or seditious parties who would be prepared to negotiate an amnesty and contribute to saving South Africa from destruction.
To get back on its feet, the country might have to endure decades of turmoil and civil war; or we could take a “sho’t left” and try a dynamic and different route for the future of our children and grandchildren.
Even old rogues and gangsters love their grandchildren.
• Govender is a former co-chair of the Law Society of South Africa and a former Commissioner in the Judicial Service Commission.”
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