South Africa on ‘auto-pilot’
AUCKLAND PARK – Political experts provide their their views on the state of the nation.
According to a panel of political commentators and academics, the state of the nation is officially on ‘auto-pilot’.
The current state of the nation was recently questioned by a panel at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), where members of the media, students, and political commentators gathered to participate in an open panel discussion entitled What is the state of the nation?
The Citizen newspaper in partnership with Mapungubwe institute for strategic reflection (MISTRA), South African Research Chairs Initiative’s African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy and the UJ Library presented the discussion, emceed by the newspaper’s editor Steven Motale.
The members of the the panel consisted of Head of the UJ Department of Politics Prof. Chris Landsberg, head researcher at MISTRA [David Maimela – Research Fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation and political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi, and political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni.
Each panellist presented their own impression regarding the current state of South Africa.
Maimela said the recent State of the Nation Address could not capture the imagination of the public.
Maimela generally felt that South Africans lack bold leadership, and that there were two promises that have not been kept by the current leadership. He identified these promises as a lack of correct democratic procedure and human rights freedom.
“There is no country that can sustain high levels of unemployment and still maintain a healthy state of democracy,” he said.
Maimela maintained that there are two things that South Africa requires but does not have, namely “substantial evidence of high levels of growth and noticeable structural change in the South African economy.”
Dr Fikeni felt that South Africans were “generating more heat than light.”
Fikeni said more respect should be demonstrated toward correct and fair democratic procedures.
Matshiqi pointed out that South Africans are going through a current state of hysterical pessimism, where the matter of the state of the nation was concerned. He continued to warn that just to critique institutional power is not enough, it is required that all forms of societal power be questioned and revised.
Matshiqi reminded the panel that democracy is a hard and arduous process which is not characterised by a straight line or linear fashion
There were also a number of foreign dignitaries present at the panel, including the United States Consul General Christopher Rowan and a representative from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Renate Tenbusch.
