At the final Daily Maverick webinar of 2022, our excellent host, Rebecca Davis, asked Mmusi Maimane and me a perfectly sensible question about what we would do to put an end to rolling blackouts. We both offered what I felt were workable short- and long-term solutions, but I wished we had been asked a bigger question: How can South Africa be set right? 

Over the years we have spent so much time focusing exclusively on technocratic questions that we have failed to see and discuss what is hiding in plain sight, and that is a vision and a set of overarching priorities to realise it. Yes, the day-to-day issues oppressing South African citizens and businesses are real and unavoidable, but part of the reason we can never move the needle or make the tough choices needed to create the country we want is that we never describe it. 

My hope is for a South Africa built on the social democratic values of freedom, equality, justice and solidarity. I also believe that a fifth value, integrity, is non-negotiable. After the trauma of the past 15 years or so, it goes without saying that having people without integrity in key roles in our society is suicidal. These happen to be the values upon which Rise Mzansi is doing its work and building a national footprint, but more about that later. 

Agreement on values

Values are important because it is not enough to merely have a Constitution, a long legal document that most people find difficult to internalise. The first step towards rebuilding our country is to agree on our values, because they will anchor a vision, however contested it may be. Those contestations will, in the end, be about whether or not we are adhering to our values. 

Second, I believe in a free African society where the rights of every human being are not only guaranteed and protected, but the state (which belongs to the free people) and its assets are used to advance those rights. We should build a modern African society where everyone has a meaningful opportunity to build a fulfilling, happy life because they are able to fulfil their potential, using their talents for personal growth and the advancement of society. 

This is an intellectual and moral task that may appear abstract, but I earnestly believe that if we do not grapple with it we will remain a lost society trying to solve a myriad of problems but anchored by nothing. We cannot afford to delay the task, as daunting as it may be. 

By beginning this journey, we immediately give ourselves the opportunity to move past the old, suffocating framework of “progressive” politics as defined by the ANC’s historical journey. This definition is premised on Marxist-Leninist sloganeering that is an obstacle to progress because its proponents are often conservative, patriarchal, narrowly nationalist and the antithesis of what a modern society should aspire to be.

It allows its cadres and supporters to find comfort in a strange coexistence of stated revolutionary morality and the corruption almost inherently entrenched by the view that insists on the state being the alpha and omega of every option and solution. In turn, this transforms political processes into a contestation for control of national economic assets within the ANC, repeating a vicious cycle of political and economic corruption with devastating socioeconomic consequences for the poor. 

The need for a careful balance

No, I am not arguing for privatisation. I am arguing for a careful balance between the state being the intermediator of different interests in society, the facilitator of social and economic justice through legislation, regulation and the deployment of fiscal resources to drive long-term development, as well as the arbiter of disputes through an independent court system. 

Our task is to determine in which instances we need each of these and what principles and values must inform that work. If we do so, we unshackle ourselves from the misguided belief that either privatisation or state dominance are the only options on the table. A state that is clear and confident in its values and principles will create rules and conditions in which it is possible to deploy fruitfully both private and public sector capital to drive economic opportunity and development. 

This means that we must implement political reforms that reduce the power of political parties in favour of the electorate and that rebalance the powers of the legislative and executive branches so that Parliament can play a stronger oversight role. These political institutional changes are necessary so that we always set rules that ensure adequate transparency and accountability to the public, whether the actors are from the public or private sectors. 

In such a scenario, we will have a Parliament that can hold accountable, in public, both the private sector and government because ultimately the country belongs to all the people of South Africa through an open democratic system. We must work towards having parliamentarians of such quality that they can haul before Parliament, for example, the JSE, auditing firms and the leadership of Steinhoff, to account for their roles in the problems of the latter. 

These are all institutions that, although private, wield enormous public power and therefore must have an obligation to account properly to the South African people. And for those who think this is weird, many developed democracies and economies have precisely this arrangement — and the extent to which it works or does not depends entirely on the quality and corruptibility or otherwise of its political class. 

Fundamental shift in mindset

However, we must also recognise that the work I set out above requires a fundamental shift in mindset from all of us. That means we must all, at some level, accept political responsibility as part of our obligations as citizens. By this, I mean the responsibility to shape and drive political outcomes. 

There is no genetically special class of people called “politicians” who are preordained to determine the destiny of the rest of us. We are going to need South Africans who love the country and its people to come together to have this discussion, to determine a path forward and then to work with commitment to realise these goals. Good results are not manna from heaven, they are the outcome of hard work and sacrifice. 

And so, back to Rebecca Davis’s question about rolling blackouts. 

Neither Eskom nor our general energy crisis will be fixed if we do not have a government, parliamentarians and experienced professionals who share the same value system and work together with society to fix our national problems. We do not have that now and we will not have it until we work for it.

We cannot meaningfully talk about public-private partnerships if we do not have the leadership in both sectors believing in the same broad vision and anchored by clear and shared values. Again, we must choose to work at this and accept the difficult conversations we must have to get there. 

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This is why we have chosen the path we have in building Rise Mzansi, through the Mzansi campaign. The usual political party start-up is immediately insular, compelling people to be members before they can make a meaningful contribution to the country they love.

We have chosen an open, inviting path where we change from “What is your solution?” to “How can we work together to build the country of our dreams?” Securing the future we dream of is not a procurement process or a political buffet where most otherwise highly capable people behave like sceptical customers ready to poke holes at what is on offer. We have done that for nearly three decades and as a result, our country is falling apart before our eyes.

Now is the time to make different choices and take ownership of our country. Rise Mzansi is that opportunity, and we cannot let it slip from our hands. Our country cannot afford any more vacillation and self-doubt. DM

Songezo Zibi is a founding member of the Rise Campaign.