The last week ended with the legal eagles at it. First there was legal wrangling over sector codes and then the game ended with a reserved judgment to be delivered in due course. Then there was a major judgment on Phala Phala. These two legal battles cast a dark shadow on South Africa 32 years after democracy. Friday’s Frank Dialogues, led by JJ Tabane, focused on financial services.
My aim is to illustrate through macro analysis the content, form and impact of South Africa’s three decades of conversation through the lens of data. This approach slips the promise of symphonic human effort through the eye of the needle ― data, analysis, evidence and communication of all these at a disaggregated level. This analysis consists of 2,752 instruments that make up the Lehohla Ledger.
They address the moral and ethical philosophical imprint of Morena Mohlomi, the Sage of the Caledon whose philosophy and practice start with a definition not of leadership but of a responsible leader.
It is as though he knew that in this valley of Ngolile in the Free State, “my leader” or “leadership” would be tiring flattery that sings for its bread and stinks of corruption. Mohlomi, the wise chief who mentored Morena Moshoeshoe, is recognised by contemporary scholars as a pivotal figure in the history of Southern Africa.
His leadership philosophy was characterised by a holistic view of ethics and morality. His philosophy of peace, intergenerational value creation through the use of new instruments of power and integrated reporting supports systems thinking and systems design.
Surveying the data may answer questions that Mohlomi would have asked:
- does South Africa possess leadership that knows itself and knows the people it governs?
- does such leadership lead and love its people such that it is the paragon of integrity leading its people towards fruitful and beneficial partnerships?
- does the leadership have and create new instruments of power that create and galvanise most importantly intergenerational value creation?
- is the effort driven by integrated reporting?
After 32 years, the conversations South Africans have had show that the country fails on all these metrics. The judiciary rebuking parliament for undermining chief justice Sandile Ncgobo’s judicial findings on Phala Phala three years ago and the legislators being instructed by the Constitutional Court to proceed with probity on Phala Phala are serious indictments that undermine Mohlomi’s principles of governance and peace.
The first observation is that the South African economic system is by design atrociously extractive, maintaining and accelerating its colonial centre-periphery relationship despite South Africa exhibiting sophistication of a global standard, yet at the level of societal benefit an elite class eats all on behalf of the poor and disempowered.
The economic performance of the country including its social metrics for the past 15 years undermines any semblance of intergenerational value creation.
Five important observations about how industry and the state extract from citizens are worth discussing.
The analysis suggests that all population groups are affected by the behaviour of industry. However, we know that industry is not an autonomous system. It is driven by government policies. To that extent then the extraction can directly be traced to government action. Whether they intended this outcome requires assessment. For how does a government of the people place society in the path of harm the way it has?
The first observation is that the South African economic system is by design atrociously extractive, maintaining and accelerating its colonial centre-periphery relationship despite South Africa exhibiting sophistication of a global standard, yet at the level of societal benefit an elite class eats all on behalf of the poor and disempowered. The formulation of this prospect is captured in the Es equation that explicitly defines the economy of South Africa as extractive.
The second equation points to which industries are engaged in this extractive behaviour and plots them by their network and magnitude of extraction. To this end the Ledger points to the spatial distribution of nodes of extraction and international standard industry classification. Spatially the following provinces have led the charge in being extractive: Gauteng, Free State, North West, Western Cape and KZN.
By industry, mining presents the major siphon link. It possesses a lion’s share of the R5.1-trillion extraction. In this legislated policy crime it is followed by finance and insurance at R3.9-trillion, and manufacturing comes at R2.8-trillion. This fundamental observation made by the Lehohla Ledger was emphasised by the presentation of Dr Nthabiseng Moleko, the chairperson of the National Empowerment Fund, which proudly sits at “a comfortable R100bn budget”, a mere 0.007% to try to solve a three-decade problem that sits at R14-trillion.
Dr Asghar Adelzadeh, of ADRS and director of Economic Modelling Academy, asks whether post-apartheid South Africa is engaged in the management of poverty or in addressing development. The evidence unfortunately points to the management of poverty instead of development as an outcome.
It is a message from the Messiah that “the poor will always be with you and you will not have me.” The two presentations of Adelzadeh and Moleko definitively point to a misguided policy commitment as the course of South Africa’s sorry state.
The third observation is who is being siphoned by race. The formulation of this phenomena is represented thus:
To this end black people bear the brunt of extraction at a whopping R12.9-trillion, driven by systemic neglect, and the Marikana tragedy was the height of such neglect, where 60 people lost their lives protesting for a living wage from a platinum mine. These are followed by whites at R1.3-trillion, Indians at R286bn and coloureds at R715bn.
There is therefore a point to be made that not all races are affected equally negatively by bad economic policies. However, the Nigerian saying goes, as long as “I better my neighbour” I am content. Making these facts of siphoning resources and their impacts being disaggregated brings the people closer, and common struggles can be waged. “I better my neighbour” can recede, and genuine developmental agenda can be pursued.
The fourth observation is siphoning by sex. The level of extraction is horrendous, affecting women the most. They lose R9.2-trillion against their male counterparts, whose cumulative harm is in the region of R5.1-trillion.
The final observation we make is by age group. In this regard we split the population by those below 14 and estimate what they stand to lose by government policy action. The young also lose from the evidence displayed below. They lose R1.54-trillion. Within this age group, blacks lose by a massive R1.33-trillion.
The Lehohla Ledger, which by design is a District Development Model, has remedial action as a central feature of its arsenal.
The four prior observations show that over the past 32 years South Africa’s economy siphoned R14.3-trillion from society. This extraction was uneven by race, but all races suffered and will continue to suffer losses if corrective policy actions are not undertaken urgently. The black people suffered the greatest with a loss of R12.9-trillion.
To remedy this R14.3-trillion deficit, the state must apply the Sovereign Restitution Formula (Rs). This is the mechanism for restoring human vitality by closing the gap between measured reality and the potential envisioned. Restitution requires the establishment of sovereign hubs, foundry schools and infrastructure shielding.
It is the transition of the African identity from an administrative liability into a sovereign asset.
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