Question

Why did people in south africa feel the need to have written rules for the government?

Answer 1

The greatest mistake I have made so far in my academic life was to confuse democracy and republic. Since I read “Failed states: the abuse of power and the assault of democracy” by Noam Chomsky, I started to develop a feeling that South Africa is easily confused, or should I say, it is misusing “democracy” and “republic”. I often come across people in South Africa expressing their feelings by saying “South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy remains one of the most impressive transitions in the history of our country” some would say “Democratic South Africa is a miracle story that almost did not happen”.

I want to be clear on this statement: South Africa is not a democratic state, it has never been a democratic state and it is not a republic state either. It is time our politicians shed some light and educate the masses about the true meaning of the two forms of government I have mentioned above.

Democracy is a word that I always say or use without smiling. I attempt not to use the word “democracy” more often, but it is impossible to do that. Democracy to me is a dream that I will never give up on because I have never seen or experienced the true meaning of the word. I am hungry for democracy. “People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don’t want to learn it themselves”-Vladimir Putin. If there is democracy in South Africa, I guess it is an idea that we have never seen before, perhaps it is still hiding and it will come out later however 20 years of waiting is like complementing torture.

Let me share my knowledge and understanding of what are democracy and republic. Democracy in its simplest form is the government of the people, by the people for the people. “Democracy refers to social levelling or the collapse of legally maintained class hierarchies. At other times, it refers to self government or the institution guaranteeing that rulers remain responsible to electoral majority” (Stephen Holmes). Democracy is all about representing the will of the majority. If there was democracy in South Africa, the poor would have more power than the rich because there are more poor people in South Africa and the will of the majority would be supreme. If democracy’s definition was, getting votes from the poor and getting campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other, I would believe that South Africa is a democratic country.

Democracy is something that South Africa is avoiding to have. As I use Karl Marx’s class analysis, the Politicians of the majority ruling party are the owners of the means of production and the majority people are the means of production in South Africa. Why is that the case? The politicians of the majority party form part of the ruling class and this enables them to be in a position to exploit the rest of the society. We cannot continue to consider South Africa a democratic state while it has leaders who fail to take actions and decisions that serve the interests of all people. The leaders of the majority ruling party have weak interests especially in regard to the interest of the poor and marginalised people.

I often hear the word democracy being used by majority party (ANC) whenever they address the masses. The reason why they always use democracy is because they want to achieve one-sided advantage in accessing the levers of power. When you are power hungry, you will always use the word democracy even when you don’t know its true meaning. I once listened to an interview of the former United States of America (USA) president, Bill Clinton, stating how USA helped South Africa to attain democracy. I was confused by his statements because the last time I checked the founding fathers of USA hated democracy to the extreme. I will quote 3 founders of USA. “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murder itself”-John Adam; “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch”-Benjamin Franklin; “The best argument against democracy is five-minute conversation with the average voter”-Winston Churchill. I guess when USA formed coalition with the ANC to end apartheid; ANC leaders were not familiar with these quotes.

Western countries like USA can do everything for democracy including stealing, lying etc. To Western countries, democracy is a luxury that an African country can’t afford to possess. During apartheid, the USA did not care about democracy in South Africa; they did not care how South Africans were governed or how many people were dying; they did not care about human rights or peace in South Africa; they only cared about their national interest of exploiting South African natural resources and bringing American companies to operate in our country