finally, is the gap between expectations and reality in the dream deferred a function of moral incoherence resulting from the apparent new politics of power as described in the opening paragraphs of this chapter?
A brief sketch of each chapter
Over its seven themes or chapters, including this introduction and overview, the intention of this book is to shed light on the above questions. The first chapter traces the roots of the moral authority of the state in general and locates the historical determinants in the evolution of public morality in South Africa.
Chapter two examines the performance of government in the nineteen years of democracy and sketches the public response to the dream deferred. The chapter presents a selection of performance indicators in the domains of political democracy, education, the economy and in the delivery of basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation, housing and electricity. It concludes by discussing and analysing public responses particularly in the areas of basic infrastructural services and the economy where overt protest behaviour against poor service delivery, low wages and poor conditions of employment have manifested.
Chapter three examines the role of Parliament in exercising its oversight function and compares the South African system to that of the British parliament as the mother of democracies. This comparison is particularly relevant because there are strong parallels between the South African and the Westminister parliamentary systems. South African citizens, like their British counterparts, expect accountability from their public representatives.
Chapter four links the absence of moral leadership to the chaotic nature of everyday politics in democracy. It draws from examples in the behaviour of political parties and organisations during critical moments such as in the election of office bearers by political parties and in the demonstrations and protests against salaries, wages and conditions of service by organised labour, including professions, to demonstrate how ordinary South Africans are denied democracy in practical expressions such as the right of access to health, work, education and the freedom of self-expression and self-realisation through the use of violence, intimidation and organised disorder.
Chapter five addresses elite embourgeoisement through participation in the state and through black economic empowerment as an engine of equity. It narrates and discusses the politics of greed played out through the use of the political instrumentalisation of disorder where the political and bureaucratic elite exploit their positions in the polity for self-enrichment by manipulating the remuneration system as well as by abusing government tender processes. The contention is that this has been at the expense of the dream of liberation as the resultant economic and social disparities have polarised both the society and the body politic.
The sixth chapter addresses the question of contested registers especially in the domain of the rule of law and the role of legal institutions in the execution and administration of justice. Four case studies are pivotal in this notion. The first two relate to the influence of the National Intelligence Agency in judicial processes and focuses on two cases. The first case traces the charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion against Jacob Zuma as former deputy president of the country and current State President. The second deals with the charges of corruption against Jackie Selebi, then National Police Commissioner. The third case study on contending notions of justice relates to how Judge Hlophe, the Judge President of the Western Cape, challenged both the Constitutional Court and the Judicial Services Commission, the former being the highest court in the land and the latter a body charged with overseeing the judicial system in South Africa. The three cases are exemplars of contending interpretations of justice and illustrate the tension between ethics and public morality. The fourth case study discusses how politics impinges in the administration of justice and narrates how two politically connected individuals, firstly Tony Yengeni and secondly Schabir Shaik, went on parole under suspicious conditions thus effectively having their jail sentences drastically shortened.
The seventh and concluding chapter revisits the moral question and discusses the philosophical and theoretical modalities in the construction of the morality of transformation operating in politics. The chapter describes how, despite practical attempts by the political elite to construct a new social reality on the basis of contested registers, the moral and intellectual hegemony still rests with critical morality. This is evident in the retreat by the political elite into defensive modalities as a symptom and demonstrable effect of the cognitive dissonance caused by the contradictions between the ideal of liberation and material greed. The present reality is that South Africa is at a moral impasse. How long such an impasse lasts is contingent on a vibrant civil society where organised labour is a constituent part. The chapter describes how civil unrest, labour strikes and a vocal media stand between the rape of democracy and the triumph of justice and the common good.
The common thread that runs through the chapters is that of conflicting norms that inform political conduct and guide the behaviour of political and management elites. These norms are bolstered by an electoral system that favours political party dominance over civil society, resulting in an undermining of social institutions that normally act as moral stabilisers. The objective is to determine if a political system fraught with normative contradictions in the assumptions regarding what constitutes morally appropriate norms of conduct can redeem the dream deferred. The argument is that despite cultural relativism, democracy is predicated on the recognition of universal rights, which incur corresponding obligations. A rights-based culture alone is not a sufficient precondition for democratic accountability. Democracy and freedom translate into a simple dictum of “live and let live.” This is in recognition of a basic moral value that exists independently of power politics, and so cannot be subjected to moral expediency. The Constitution recognises this as the framework for our governance. The common good calls for an integrated moral authority.
Chapter One
The roots of public morality
in South Africa
SOUTH AFRICAN public morality rests on three distinct but interrelated roots which have shaped the moral fibre of our society. However, the three roots provide only a moral environment. They do not determine public morality, but rather they influence and shape it. The responsibility for moral choice still rests with individuals and institutions that make decisions through a process of situational selectivity.
The first set of roots comprises what could be termed informing philosophical traditions. These combine traditional African philosophies, including ubuntu, as the spirit that regulates social relations, and western moral philosophies derived from the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions. The grouping of African and the western traditions in one set is intentional because the two systems are fairly similar in terms of ontology, general outlook on public morality, and heavy reliance on the mediation of the supernatural in human affairs. The only differences are in the mode of articulation and ritual. To the extent that the politico-legal system in South Africa is almost entirely western, public morality is informed by the Judeo-Christian ethos, the Greek logic of Plato and Aristotle, and the Roman philosophy of public service as espoused by Cicero, and later, Thomas Aquinas. The state concept, including the corresponding fetters and institutions such as the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and the bureaucracy, is premised on the specific relationship between the various functional organs and between those organs and the society or polity.
While the contribution from the west relates primarily to the structural and functional components that shape the institutional and politico-legal framework on which public morality rests, the contribution from the traditional African component relates to the form of expression of the social relations between public officials as the custodians of power including aspects of what Mazrui refers to as the monarchical tendency in African politics.15 Beyond the constitutional and the legal, there are behavioural expectations in the relationships between public officials and the general public.
The constitutional state was superimposed on an African political culture shaped
