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CITIZENSHIP AS STEWARDSHIP
Dr Mamphele Ramphele
an edited version
This excerpt focuses on Citizenship as Stewardship. It will explore the meaning of citizenship as stewardship. It will link citizenship and ownership. It will pose questions about our performance as the stewards of this young democracy and suggest some ways of giving further practical effect to our commitments.
HOW ARE WE DOING THUS FAR?
We are doing very well for a democracy as young as we are. At eleven year old we are no different from the proverbial teenager. Flexing our nascent muscles and asserting ourselves at home and abroad. We have much to be proud of. We have courageously tackled the enormous task of redressing the legacy of centuries of misrule, poor economic management and inequity. We have emerged from our political settlement talks with a proud foundation for our democracy, our National Constitution, that has served us well in setting policy and implementation parameters. We have reason to beam with pride at our performance thus far.
The government has to be commended for having successfully created a transformative national policy framework second to none to tackle the ills of the legacy of inequity. We have a stable macro-economic framework that has taught us for the first time in our history to live within our means. We have a growing economy that is providing significant opportunities and lifting many out of poverty. We have a growing middle class that is fuelling demand for goods and services thus propelling the economy to greater heights. We have progressive policies reflecting the commitments we made in enshrining socio-economic rights in our National Constitution. We have sensible “regstellende aksie” legislation to rectify the injustices of the past such as promoting employment equity, gender equality, black economic empowerment, land reform etc.
We have set ourselves very high standards as a nation. Given the gap between those high standards and the legacy we inherited it is not surprising that we have under-performed in a number of important areas. There are still too many South Africans left behind in poverty, despair, powerlessness with little prospect of being heard.
There are still too many going to bed hungry. Too many people are still without jobs and the dignity of self-reliance. Too many children still suffer abuse and homelessness despite our commitment to the Rights of the Child. Too many women fall victim to violence, both physical and sexual notwithstanding our vows to promote gender equality. Too many old people are abused and subject to misery and lonely deaths despite our rhetoric of Ubuntu. Too many of our fellow citizens are dying needlessly from preventable and treatable diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS despite our commitment to the Right to Health. Our inadequate human capital base is being further eroded by HIV/AIDS that is stealing those in the prime of their lives and depriving children of motherly love. The gap between the have's and have-nots continues to grow despite our commitments to a better life for all.
Many of the problems that still beset our society could have been tackled over the first decade of our democracy. Contrary to critics who blame the government's GEAR economic policy, we have the financial resources to address our challenges and provide for basic needs of all our citizens. Every year since 1994 unspent funds have been returned to the fiscus instead of being applied for the purposes intended. What we seem to be lacking is the political will to close the gaps between values we espouse and our daily practices; between policy-making and implementation; between problem analysis and strategic interventions.
A key constraint to closing these gaps seems to be our failure to acknowledge and address human and intellectual capital weaknesses in a systematic and consistent manner. We spent too much time post-1994 in denial about the extent to which apartheid education had damaged our skills base. It was as if we feared that acknowledgement of our woundedness would be interpreted as proof that we were indeed of inferior intellect as asserted by racists and unready to govern. Our denial betrayed our vulnerability to buying into racist myths that confuse lack of knowledge with low intelligence. It is refreshing to see the growing candour from government acknowledging the seriousness of our human capital challenges. For example, a recent government survey found that only 8% of people in key jobs at the local authority level of government have the requisite skills to do the jobs they hold. This explains much of the failure to deliver services where it matters most – where people live.
It is not surprising that Government has become a prime target of criticism for these failures. This is understandable given the responsibilities that government bears for creating an enabling climate for delivery on the promises of freedom. But is it fair to put the blame for past and present failures only at the doorstep of government? Is government alone to blame for our failure to make freedom a reality for those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid?
A Native American leader, Polingaysi Qoyawaymaa, 1964, had this to say about accepting criticism:
“No one likes to be criticized but criticism can be something like the desert wind that, in whipping the tender stalks, forces them to strike their roots down deeper for security.” Voices from India America, 1994.
We have to be courageous enough to accept criticism. Even better, we have to develop the capacity for self-criticism so that the roots of our tender democracy can be driven even deeper.
TAKING OWNERSHIP
Who is responsible for this under-performance? We have to own both our successes and our failures. Let us remember the commitments we made in adopting our Constitution. We boldly stated in the preamble that:
“We the people of South Africa
recognize the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We, therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to-
Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.”
This preamble is testimony to our acceptance that our citizenship is an active one. We accepted both the rights bestowed on us by our Constitution as well as the responsibilities attached to being citizens.
Citizenship is about ownership. The Afrikaans word “burghers” captures the spirit of ownership better. “Burghers” over the ages took their ownership of the land as sacred. They accepted the duties of “burgherskap” willingly. They saw themselves as guardians of the land they inherited. They exercised their guardianship to honour those who had gone before them, to sustain the livelihoods of those who depended on them in the present, and to ensure that future generations would continue to enjoy the rights and privileges the land provided them.
Citizenship as stewardship is about taking ownership of the gift of freedom. Stewardship is defined as the mantle under which operate all progressive causes: human rights, conservation, economic welfare, government reform and over-sight, education, health care, disaster relief, animal welfare, mental health and peace. Stewardship is about meeting the obligations we willingly committed to in our Constitution.
As citizens of our young democracy we have a sacred duty of care. Andrew Shepherd as quoted in The American President by Aaron Sorkin captures this duty aptly:
“You want to claim this land as the land of the free? The symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be of its citizen exercising his right to burn the flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can sing about the land of the free.”
The question facing us today is the extent to which we can demonstrate that we have indeed gone beyond the symbols of our citizenship, be they the flag, the national anthem or the values enshrined in our Constitution. Have we gone beyond singing about our beloved country to defending its values by living them out in our daily lives in the classrooms, the board rooms, the office complex, factory floor, the hospital ward, the police station, or any other space where we are active as citizens?
South Africa has traditionally exhibited different understandings of citizenship. Two main variants of citizenship have dominated our pre-1994 landscape: republican and liberal. Republican citizenship emphasizes self-governance and active participation in the affairs of state as a sacred duty. Many adherents of the republican view of citizenship either defended, or worked actively in opposition to the injustices of apartheid. Liberal citizenship emphasizes individual rights and government accountability. In this view of citizenship the responsibilities and obligations of the individual citizen take a back seat as each pursues what they see as being in their best interest. During the long struggle for freedom, many white South Africans took the liberal view of citizenship to the extreme. They became passive beneficiaries of a system that protected their material interests whilst pleading powerlessness to influence the direction the society was taking.
Black South Africans who were excluded from citizenship rights then, face the challenge of defining what citizenship means to them today. I would like to suggest that all of us as South Africans, black and white, need to face up to the challenge of revisiting the idea of citizenship and critically evaluate our performance against the stewardship role we accepted in the new democratic order.
KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS
Failure to take ownership of our democracy is evident in many areas of our society. First, many citizens complain that they are not being taken seriously as voters. They resent being used as vote fodder by political parties only to be discarded as soon as political positions are secured by the few. The system of proportional representation has not helped in attaching a face to a vote to enable voters to hold that person accountable for delivery on election promises. It is however not sufficient for citizens to adopt a cynical view to elections and neglect their responsibilities to demand more accountability from elected officials. The vote is a powerful tool that should be used strategically to express approval or disapproval of those entrusted with public office.
Second, the idea of civil service as an opportunity to serve seems to have become overshadowed by the notion of civil service as a job opportunity for the individual involved. The wisdom embedded in the idea that “In serving each other, we become free” as William Nicholson put it in a website on metaphors of stewardship, is lost on the many civil servants who fail to pass the test of common courtesy to citizens who are entitled to public services. Some of the officials behave no different from their apartheid predecessors in treating their fellow citizens with disrespect. Could it be that some of our civil servants have yet to take delivery of the freedom that would have made them recognize the sacred duty of serving their fellow citizens with dignity? Could it also be that the linkage of service with subservience for the majority of poor black people in the bad apartheid years has damaged the capacity for service in some people in the civil service of the new democracy? Whatever the reason, it is not acceptable for civil servants to expect taxpayers to continue to pay them for the privilege to be insulted.
The government for its part, needs to set and enforce the parameters for accountability. Party loyalty is not a sufficient basis for appointment to public service. The appalling skills gaps in the civil service as well as the unsustainable vacancy rates reflect not only lack of skills, but the corroding impact of politicization of appointments at many levels of our civil service. There are too many skilled professionals being denied job opportunities at the various levels of government because they are outside of the party political networks that have captured civil service jobs for patronage.
Comparative analyses worldwide point to the importance of limiting political appointments based on loyalty only to the top layer. Strict professional competency criteria need to be applied for the rest of the system to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. We need to strengthen professional recruitment, promotion, training and retaining of public officials at all levels of government. No longer can we tolerate municipal managers who lack basic management skills and the capacity to co-ordinate and give leadership to tackling the complex demands of running cities and towns. Mediocrity has to be rooted out and meritocracy promoted. We run a serious risk of losing even more of our brightest skilled people for greener pastures where their value is more appreciated. We stand to lose the competition for skills in today's global knowledge economy if we do not rise to the challenge of retaining those we train at great cost.
Third, professionalism is a matter of pride and a mark of maturity. Have we as a nation sufficiently signified our respect for and appreciation of professionalism in our public service? How does one explain the widespread unprofessionalism that plagues our public institutions? What has become of the pride that nurses had in neat uniforms, tidy wards, comforted patients and above all a sense of purpose in being part of the healing profession? What has become of the pride of place teachers enjoyed in the lives of communities everywhere including during the bad apartheid years? How do we continue to tolerate teachers who continue to fail to nurture creativity in their pupils? How can pupils learn the joys of learning from teachers who have in many cases become abusers of the very children entrusted to them? What has become of the pride of the police uniform with officers looking the part as fit for service? How have we come to the current disturbing trend of over-weight officers with their uniforms literally bursting at the seams? How can they catch criminals when they look so unfit?
Fourth, the private sector as the engine of growth and wealth creation plays an important role as corporate citizen in our young democracy. There are sadly still too many in this sector asking what the state can do for them rather than what they can do to contribute to a more prosperous society with greater equity. The performance of the state as an enabler of a better business environment has been admirable. Critics of GEAR are disingenuous in not acknowledging that given the realities of the competitive global knowledge economy we operate in, this was the best economic policy choice we could make. All over the world governments have come to accept the importance of positioning their economies for the competitive climate wrought by globalization. Social democrats, new labour, new democrats, even communist China are all rising to this challenge. What we need is to improve our ability to implement socio-economic policies in a more coherent manner to reap the full benefits of our macro-economic stability.
It is also fair to say that a significant proportion of the private sector still operates on an extractive industry model that focuses on excess profits with little attention to sustainability. Too much emphasis is placed on compliance rather than expanding the bounds of possibility offered by the new legislative framework. For example, black economic empowerment framed as an opportunity to enhance economic participation and thus grow the economic cake generates exciting possibilities in which everyone wins: traditional white business, new entrants, higher quality customer service and greater corporate social investment. A compliance approach that characterizes a significant proportion of the deals concluded to date has made lawyers and the financial sector the greatest winners thus far. The same can be said for the grudging implementation of employment equity. If we had all co-invested in the development of high level skills over the past eleven years, we would have broken the back of the legacy of skills shortages by now. But many in the private sector still believe that they can get away with a minimalist investment approach and depend on poaching skills from competitors. This is short sighted.
Finally, the media could play an even greater role by exploiting the freedom of the press we now enjoy to enhance its performance. Many are already doing a great job. But there is significant under-performance in the quality of news coverage in many sectors of the print, audio and visual media. The watchdog, investigative and educational roles of the media need further impetus as part of the media's stewardship. Much higher investments are needed in training to enhance the skills of the many young professionals who are eager, but inexperienced. No democracy can function adequately without a robust free press. The media must rise to the occasion.
SUGGESTED WAY FORWARD
There are a number of factors that have constrained the emergence of stewardship amongst citizens. The authoritarian nature of past regimes promoted a passive citizenry. The post-apartheid state compounded this passive culture by positioning itself as a developmental state ready to intervene in the critical areas of society in order to shape the pace and form of the transformation process. Post-apartheid rhetoric including the ANC's 1994 election platform that promised houses, water, education etc. also created a culture of dependence on government to fix everything. The anxiety to signal a break from an uncaring state to a people's government had the unintended consequence of demobilizing the civil society activism that was the hallmark of the 1980's and 1990's. Those who have been waiting for eleven years for the “promised land” are beginning to show signs of passive-aggression. Expressions of anger take forms that further indicate a disconnection with ownership of public resources. Trashing and burning assets is not compatible with stewardship.
I would like to suggest a few pointers to give greater practical effect to our stewardship as citizens of this beloved country.
First, we have to constantly put the vision of our democracy in front of us as we go about our daily chores. Our vision is of a free democratic non-racial, non-sexist and more equitable society. Let us remember Harding's words:
“ …where there is no vision, we lose the sense of our great power to transcend history and create a new future for ourselves with others, and we perish utterly in hopelessness, mutual terror and despair. Therefore this quest (for a vision) is not a luxury; life itself demands it of us (Harding V., 1983:xii).
Second, let us recommit to the values that are enshrined in our Constitution. They give meaning to who we are as a nation and provide a basis for social stability. A French writer, Jacques Monod, had this to say at a symposium of Nobel Laurates in 1969:
“No society can survive without a moral code based on values understood, accepted and respected by the majority of its members.”
We pride ourselves as South Africans as being inspired by the values embedded in our rights based Constitution. We have to measure our daily conduct by how well we are doing to live out these values.
Third, in honouring the martyrs of hope today let us rededicate ourselves to stewardship of the freedom they died fighting for that affords us the privilege to be who we are today. That requires a leadership style that reflects Sekou Toure's words that served as an inspiration for Steve Biko:
“In order to achieve real action you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of the popular energy which is entirely called forth for the freeing, the progress and the happiness of Africa.
There is no place outside of that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself concerned with, or completely at one with, the people in the great battle of Africa and of suffering humanity” (I Write What I Like, 1988:46).
It is in this spirit that Steve Biko's sons and I would like to announce the establishment of the Stephen Bantu Biko Leadership Fellowship Program, as part of UCT's 175 Chancellor's Campaign. This post-graduate leadership fellowship program will serve to further cement the great partnership between UCT and the Steve Biko Foundation. Our company, Circle Capital Ventures, will contribute R5m, whilst we as UCT alumni will complement this contribution through personal donations over a three-year period to endow this program. Samora Biko will work with UCT to elaborate on the structure and modus operandi of this leadership fellowship program to promote the development of leadership that encapsulates the values Steve lived and died for.
I hope that each one of you will rise from this occasion determined to rededicate yourselves to renewed stewardship signified in whatever manner you choose. History demands nothing less from us.
Thank you
Mamphela Ramphele
12/9/05
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