Measuring the Progress of Transformation

How should we measure the progress of transformation in South Africa? There are many that use the situation in South Africa under Apartheid as a benchmark, but this is actually ridiculous. How can one compare freedom enjoyed today by millions of South Africans to a situation where the majority of South Africans were virtual prisoners in their own country? Similarly, one cannot compare access to services since millions were denied the most basic of services under Apartheid, while at the same time, the minority received services that compares to the best in the world.

Another method of comparison that is often used is the experiences of other African countries, especially their experiences since independence. The argument is that South Africa was also colonized, suffered injustice and had to fight for its freedom. But the South African experience and situation is unique in Africa. South Africa is the most “Westernised” country in Africa. It has a large first world component, and even poverty in South Africa does not compare to poverty in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. Should we then compare our progress to the experiences of industrialized countries? No. South African history, the existing power relationships, the heterogeneous society with its many cultures and languages does not compare to the mostly homogenous societies found in industrial countries. I could find many more arguments against using African countries and industrialised countries as benchmarks, but it would only sidetrack the issue.

So, if we cannot benchmark ourselves against our past, neither against other African countries, nor against industrialized countries, what should our benchmark of progress be? My suggestion: THE FUTURE. Future generations would ask the question we ask of previous generations: have they done enough? Have they made enough effort, no, not just effort but produced actual outcomes, to ensure that all people in South Africa would live in a better country? We should continually ask ourselves how we want South Africa to be in 10 or 20 years.

Every generation blames previous generations for all the problems they face. Many people today blame the previous government of Mr Mandela for slow transfer of land to those forcefully removed since 1913. Similarly, many blame Mr PW Botha for not changing the political situation in South Africa in 1984/5 as intended. We can go back and blame Mr Verwoerd, Mr JBM Hertzog, Mr Jan Smuts, Mr Cecil J. Rhodes, even Mr Shaka Zulu or Mr Jan van Riebeeck for all the troubles we experience today. However, we often forget that most of these people thought that the decisions they made were in the best interest of South Africa (as it was then) at that respective time, based on the benchmarks they had at these respective periods in history. Slavery was accepted practice till the early 19th century. Colonialism was accepted practice till the mid 20th century, in the process denying the majority of Africans the right to vote on who governs them. Not only were Europeans culprits of these “wrongs”, but many African societies’ committed accepted practices within their societies and with other societies, such as slavery, war and exploitation. We can say with hindsight that these decisions and practices were wrong.

In this light, we must ask: What would future generations think of the choices and decisions we make today? Would they say our Human Rights practice is sufficient or too lenient? If it were determined in 15-20 years that our idea of Human Rights is the main cause of the lack of discipline and order and the subsequent breakdown of society and world wars, would they convict us of this? What about the rights of animals? When the majority of animal species become extinct due to our preoccupation with economic development and using natural resources for our immediate economic benefit, would they convict us of not doing enough to conserve the environment or overusing resources? If the polar ice caps were to start melting, would we be blamed for not listening to warnings we have today? Closer to home, if we have civil strife in South Africa in 10-15 years because of insufficient land redistribution or slow empowerment of Africans due to low, but accepted, targets today, would we be convicted and “sentenced” for not doing enough?

Zimbabwe is an example where those that cried: “you are going too fast” in the 1980s and early 1990s, are the same people that blame the current government for not doing enough in the 1980s and 1990s. However much the Zanu-PF wants to blame Britain and the USA for this, they should take responsibility for the fact that they did not push hard enough to transform the economic landscape in this period when they had the power to do so. Indeed, they were doing well according to the benchmarks of their era, especially against other African countries.

How do we measure or benchmark against the future and ensure that we have done enough? We should take the current situation into account and set ourselves the maximum possible outcome of transformation. For instance, a 50% improvement in public service delivery in one year is probably an ambitious target, but if it is possible, we should aim to achieve it. If we failed by only achieving a 40% improvement, it is still better than achieving a target of 20% which were considered a good reasonable target. In the latter case, future generations would ask: Why did you have a 20% target if you could have achieved 50%? Similarly, setting a target that a third of the SA rugby team must be non-White by 2007 could be viewed as low considering that more than half of all current rugby players in South Africa is non-White. Our target should at least be 50% by 2007 and then 75% by 2011. There are many other examples where our benchmark should be the future.

South Africa has the advantage of knowing the experiences of Zimbabwe and many other African countries, as well as non-African countries like India and Indonesia, to name but a few. We must use this knowledge and decide how we want South Africa to look in 10-20 years time. We must then make sure that we do everything possible to ensure that the next generation won’t have reason to blame us for the problems they experience. Indeed, only if we aim for the near impossible will we be able to make a real change to our world.