Over the last 30 years, South Africa’s transformation policies have centred on the provision of public services, welfare, education, healthcare, employment, housing, and land reform.
These themes are crucial for ensuring that black South Africans gain the dignity of life that was denied them during South Africa’s long and painful history of apartheid and, its equally cruel precursor, colonialism.
When we appraise the South African landscape, we should be proud of the strides that have been made in growing the black middle class which now contributes billions to this economy, it is also encouraging to see the many attempts of developing black businesses and tackling the key issues of ownership and control, even though many challenges still beset us. We should be proud of the number of talented black leaders who now sit on the boards of some of the country’s most powerful organizations, and by the number of black people who have escaped their impoverishment and now live in decent housing, having jobs that pay a minimum wage, are educated and have the means to educate their children, and can access public services, but the disparities between black and white, rich and poor, urban and rural remain too stark and, therefore, we are too far from restructuring and redefining our society.
We black people have reached a level where we are expecting the next black person or the next organisation to take full responsibility for transformation, this is part of the transformation fatigue we currently experiencing at both a personal and organisational level.
Land reform has not been realised to the extent that would allow rural populations to access, own, control, use, or manage arable land, and they cannot access the credit they need to create self-sustaining local economies. As a result, rural poverty remains too high and urban centres cannot support the influx of migrants as evidenced by the rapidity of urban decay and sprawling urban slums which show no sign of abating.
The economy has been growing far too slowly to create jobs for South Africa’s growing and overwhelmingly youthful population. General unemployment is over 30% and youth unemployment close to 60%. The pace of programs addressing income and employment have been far too slow and only benefitted a small portion of the population and close to 50% of the population remain dependent on non-wage sources of income such as social grants. Women still earn less than men, the median earnings of white men are about six times that of a black woman.
What is the way forward? A house divided against itself simply won’t stand goes the biblical adage. The nation-building torch must once again be lit. This time not in a symbolic or piecemeal way, but one that illuminates the painful disparities that exist in our society. It is only through embracing the painful realities of the deep divide that we will find the means to bridge it!
