How the black majority vote has failed to deliver the economic emancipation of Africans. By Vince Musewe
JOHANNESBURG 5 November 2010- Our voting and political systems in Africa are inappropriate and fail to ensure that those with the necessary skills and competencies occupy political office.
I read a very interesting exposé on African history on BBC's website that has led me to confirm that we in Africa are not likely to see an end to racism and really we should not spend too much energy on it but rather focus on how we can create our own new democratic systems with the necessary institutional capability to cause economic emancipation of the poor majority who in hope have continued to vote dictators into power. The piece I read says:
"People in Africa were burdened by colonial perceptions of who they were. The British believed Africans were essentially different from Europeans and would stay that way. This point of view invited racism, implying that Africans were not just different but also inferior."
It then goes on to say:
"The Afrikaners had a huge social impact on southern Africa. Wherever they set up a community they pursued a policy of racial segregation, based on a belief in the racial superiority of Europeans, wherever they set up. This reached its most organised form in the system of apartheid created by the National Party of South Africa from 1948 until the 1980s, when it began to be dismantled."
Interestingly enough it also says:
"The French, by comparison, were prepared to treat Africans as equals, but only if they learnt to speak French properly and adopted the values of French culture. If they reached a sufficient level of education Africans might be accepted as French citizens. To fall below the required level was to invite charges of racial inferiority."
From centuries back it has always been the belief of the British later joined by the Afrikaner that blacks are an inferior race. Even if we become more educated than them, wealthy and as sophisticated in our behavior, no matter what political power we may have, we remain black and therefore inferior. One only has to read African history to see how blacks were described and caricatured as inferior and uncivilised savages only good for manual labour. This has unfortunately not changed and is not likely to change much, especially given the fact that Africans are failing to effectively (sic)their economies. We therefore should not spend too much energy on fighting racism for it is an inborn belief. Rather we should treat it as a mental shortcoming, a blind spot whose only cure can be our actions as Africans to create new social systems and the results that we create should speak for themselves. Unfortunately so far they do not.
The mismanagement of economies by African liberation political parties has unfortunately created continued white skepticism on one hand and black extremism on the other. Where on the one hand, whites continually criticise black mismanagement and become eternal critics, and on the other, black politicians continue to hide their incompetence through taking extreme political positions as a response to their inability to create meaningful and sustainable economic transformation punctuated by accountability and social progress that they continually blame the imperialists for failing to do. The bun fight continues and this, of course, does not serve the interests of either whites or blacks but fuels continued distrust of white intentions by blacks and a strengthening of black extremism. That is Mugabe's fight which we are all paying so dearly for and I am afraid to say South Africa may also pay for this through its expedient economic policies such as nationalisation.
Africans are still very poor and dependent on white capital not because of racism but because the majority voting system has failed to deliver credible and efficient black governments who can effectively deal with black economic empowerment and the eradication of poverty. This has led me to conclude that the millions of black voters out there do not really know what they are voting for when they vote. Most vote on emotions of the moment where, political parties go out there handing out food parcels and promising houses and a better future for all in order to capture votes. Most voters are quite illiterate and are not well informed on complexities of economics and politics and the fact they continue to vote for a black elite whose only concern is amassing wealth while pretending to be concerned about their plight further confirms this reality. This system of democracy, this system of majority rule, in my view, is inappropriate for Africa because the average African voter does not have the required tools to make informed decisions on who should be in power and this has led to its abuse by political parties for far too long.
Political parties that have been voted into power by a majority vote are hardly humble nor are the effective managers. They begin to believe that because the most people voted for them, only they know better on what social and economic systems are best for the majority. They begin to believe that theirs is the only correct worldview that must prevail because they have the majority vote. They become arrogant in their nature, selfish in their ambitions and invariably incompetent at looking objectively at our economic problems and coming up with sustainable solutions. This is the current scenario in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Angola, Nigeria, Uganda ......the list goes on.
Africa has not been economically emancipated by the majority vote and continues to be dependent on humanitarian aid from the West. Africa cannot deal with its own problems. This unfortunately fuels the stereotype that Africans are poor managers and we then conveniently call it racism and thus deny ourselves the opportunity to change at how we can effectively manage our social systems. On top of this, here in South Africa, we have what we call xenophobia where, it is not in the construct of South African black minds that foreign blacks can articulate their views on South African issues as I do, and thereby provide valuable insights to possible solutions to the benefit of all. Africans continue to be divided and remain simplistic in their approach to coming up with solutions complex social problems.
Change the system to change the behaviour
In order to change this behaviour we need to change the system and structure of democracy in Africa. We need to ensure that our method of selecting those who govern us is based not on the popular vote for it has not delivered, but on the competency to create and manage credible public institutions that protect democracy and human rights. We need new politics led by a new leadership that has proved its management capability and its concern for human rights. No longer can we allow liberation parties the sole privilege to govern us, they have failed and continue to fail us. The lack of institutionalised democracy is a significant barrier to success. Africa has failed to establish independent institutions that are effective in managing the competing interests in a democratic society. Because of this fact, the state becomes a machinery that is utilised in achieving the narrow objectives of the majority party and invariably democracy suffers and the ranks of the poor continue swell.
We are to still see African leaders that put the constitution above their own selfish interests, we are still to see institutions in African democracies that continually evaluate and check the abuse of power and resources by government and its officials. We are still to see transparency in government and a zero tolerance for corruption.
In order to create new democratic systems we need to change our required leadership qualifications and these need to be part of the constitution. We need to create serious oversight over presidents and their offices and be able impeach presidents when they act contrary to the constitution, we need not leave this to political parties but to citizens. We also need independent institutions that continually evaluate and monitor ministerial performance while being able to effectively fire ministers for incompetence and corruption, we need not again make this the responsibility of political parties, they have failed us. Above all we need to limit the extent to which the popular vote gives a carte blanche mandate to political parties to govern without further qualification criteria that can be evaluated and confirmed by independent objective bodies made up of competent individuals such as an electoral college.
In my view the main difference between the developed and the developing world is that we in the developing world fail to have effective social management systems in place. In Africa, we have so many resources, if not more than the developing world, but fail to manage these because our voting and political systems are in appropriate and fail to ensure that those with the necessary skills and competencies occupy political office. We are sadly faced with the culture of entitlement by liberation parties whose competence to create the future we desire is not necessarily obvious. We must change that.
*Vince Musewe is an independent economist based in South Africa. He is also chairman and founder of Truth2Power. You can contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com
See Denis Beckett's response here. Then feel free to add your own.
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written by Ian C-G , January 02, 2011
One is hard-pressed to disagree with Vusi Musewe. As Denis writes, he is pointing on the same road as D2.
Brett Goldin in Ways of Staying says it is not about class, but all about race.
Zkes Mda in Ways of Dying writes with cold eloquence on the seed of death implanted in South African black society in a way that warns it cannot be about anything else but race.
Race is all about justification and defense of some stupid ideal or other, and the world is held in race's thrall whether we like it or not.
Here in SA the damnable demagogues are the tongue and lash of the economically disenfranchised, and as I see it, despite the odd white face begging at robots, its STILL all about race. Denis no longer sees issues in terms of race, which is why D2 is a transcendant concept. This is going to be both its difficulty and its cause of success; difficult because the world won't easily let go its race-bound perspective, and succesful because ultimately it is the direction we are all bound to follow. The termination of that which separates the races has to be the logical route to our ascendance to some form of purposefulness as humans. Right now our inherent racism gets in the way of full descent from trees, let alone ascent to spiritual worth.
But Vusi I think is 100% on the money in his analysis of the causes of democratic failure and the attendant increase in national misery. We might all agree here, and thus find ourselves faced with the remarkable system that is D2. Thinking hard about how to replant consciousness with this seed, a seed of Life Itself (you gotta hear Bruce Springsteen sing this one...)is what will repair us as a race. South Africans can be at the forefront of world history if we get this right in 2011....
In response to your essay, I say: Give that man (you sir) a Bells!
It deserves a standing ovation in my opinion.
I can only think that there are circles among the Black Elite where these truths would not be received all to well, and that it might well ostracize you to an extent among those.
I applaud you for being brave and blunt with the truth.
Thank you for your permission to post it on the Aviation Website that I frequent.
http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=72167&sid=25ac15328f2fbadbd78e219c69224ead
And for the sake of the reader I need to add that I have already apologized to you for the insensitive way that some of my peers there approach the topic, and you are dead right that that is just the way that free-speech is, it will include the good the bad and the ugly, but I believe that you will soon also see the exceptional voices coming to the fore later on.
Thank you for your kindness and your understanding.
When are you going to write us some more here?
Dirk Van Der Walt