During the election season, which is now in full swing in SA, it is prudent to pause to consider the interplay between our national values and broad political goals as we, as active and participatory citizens, seek to address the issues of the day by voting responsibly and encouraging fellow citizens of all ages to do likewise.

Our national values are spelt out fully in Chapter One of the Constitution. We, as a nation, regard the Constitution itself and the rule of law as supreme. Parliamentary sovereignty is part of history and constitutional democracy under the rule of law is the order of the day. Our politicians are sworn to uphold both. They cannot paint outside the bright lines drawn in the Constitution.

“We the people” regard human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms as foundational to our non-racial, non-sexist post-1994 ethos. We hold free and fair elections in a multi-party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness.

Any laws, new or old, and any conduct that is inconsistent with the Constitution are invalid; the obligations imposed by our Constitution must be fulfilled, “diligently and without delay”. Our 12 official languages (sign language has been added) are granted “parity of esteem” and “must be treated equitably”.

The preamble to the Constitution spells out why South Africans have chosen the form of government that the Constitution establishes:

“We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise 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.

May God protect our people.”

There are three basic goals that the people have set that can be extracted from the ethos of the Constitution and its detailed provisions, which cover 243 sections and six schedules:

• Peace that is secure,
• Progress that is sustainable, and
• Prosperity that is equitably shared.

While great advances have been made to improve the lot of the people, especially the poor, South Africa could have done so much better if the National Development Plan had been taken more seriously by politicians and the public administration. It is inescapable that a large portion of the nation’s wealth has been frittered away on the greed of the politicians and their corrupt cronies. When available resources are looted by the corrupt, it is the poor who suffer most.

In terms of the Bill of Rights, which is Chapter Two of the Constitution, the state must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights guaranteed to all in it. Our Bill of Rights is more comprehensive than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, published by the United Nations in 1948; it includes third generation rights, some of which are deliverable by the state taking reasonable legislative and other measures, within available resources, to achieve their progressive realisation.

Delivery

Other rights, most of them, have been claimable in full since day one of the new South Africa. Basic education, for example, has in theory been available to all since 1994.

Every child in South Africa has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic healthcare services and social services: “A child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child,” according to section 28(2) of the Bill of Rights.

Yet, children starve to death in rural backwaters of South Africa and many more grow up stunted in body and mind due to the ravages of malnutrition in our country. Ours is a bountiful land in which nearly a third of food produced is dumped in landfill sites in perfectly edible condition. The lack of political will to unite empty bellies to excess food is a national disgrace. It ought to, but does not, keep fat cat politicians and public servants awake at night.

Brewers and soft-drink manufacturers are able to deliver their products to the most far-flung corners of the land regularly and without fail. The state is unable to replicate the simple tasks involved in respect of food distribution.

Peace that is secure is dependent upon a functioning police service and a defence force that is able to guard our borders efficiently and effectively. We have neither.

Policy

Progress that is sustainable is dependent upon pragmatic economic policy-making that inspires business confidence and attracts new investments, whether domestic (businesses in South Africa are sitting on cash or near cash reserves of close to R2-trillion) or foreign (fear of nationalisation and expropriation keep new foreign investors wary).

Ideological considerations inform poor policy choices by those who have governed at national level for the past 30 years. Businesses are better at creating jobs than governments.

Anywhere in the world, a functioning education system provides bright-eyed and bushy-tailed graduates who are ready to take their places in the economic sphere. Instead, we have dysfunctional schools and university students without food or accommodation due to NSFAS ineptitude or corruption or both.

Unchecked corruption

Prosperity will remain elusive for as long as those who govern in South Africa remain soft on corruption, willing to tolerate kleptocracy and grand corruption of all kinds and unable to deter those involved if they are not involved in corrupt activities themselves. The culture of corruption with impunity abroad in the land has to be ended; the political will to do so is frustratingly lacking.

Those who enter politics to serve the people are thin on the ground. Those who regard political office as a means to get rich quickly are plentiful in SA.

The centrality of successfully tackling the corrupt cannot be underestimated. Their looting and greed ensure that peace, progress and prosperity remain our goals instead of our national achievements.

It is not as though there is no plan available to counter corruption. The DA has promised to introduce private members’ bills within 100 days of the seventh Parliament taking office to address corruption head-on. In advance of the elections, all the other political parties need to be challenged by voters to support those bills, which are based on the work of Accountability Now since 2012 and on the drafts that have been available for consideration since 2021 and are set out fully in an appendix to the book about the Glenister cases, Under the Swinging Arch.

Savvy voters will insist that the political party of their choice is supportive of these bills. They will see the establishment of a new Chapter Nine Anti-Corruption Commission to prevent, combat, investigate and prosecute cases of serious corruption and organised crime. Without it, the values of the land will be left in tatters, its goals will not be achieved and its corruption problem will not be solved. Failure as a state will beckon.

It is possible to live in a South Africa that honours its international obligations to establish and maintain independent anti-corruption machinery, which respects the binding nature of court decisions in relation to the countering of corruption and which recognises that corruption is a killer of humans and an impediment to the delivery of human rights.

Voters complain about poverty, inequality and joblessness in South Africa. They experience dwindling service delivery in respect of, inter alia, water and electricity. Schools, universities and hospitals are increasingly dysfunctional, the public administration underperforms and most state-owned enterprises are a drain on the public purse.

Behind all these complaints and phenomena is the unseen but ever-present spectre of unchecked serious corruption. It is the problem, the challenge, and the issue that needs to be addressed before any other. DM