State Of The Nation: South Africa 2005-2006
Extensive social, political and economic analysis - albeit with a few mythsNovember 27, 2005 Edition 1
Terry Bell
edited by Sakhela Buhlungu, John Daniel, Roger Southall and Jessica Lutchman (Human Sciences Research Council)
R194
I listened to our leader's State of the Nation
Speech and couldn't understand it
I read a critic's review that
Said the
Citizens of
"Manenberg, Harrismith, Diepsloot, Hanover Park
Phomolong and Crossroads" couldn't
Understand the speech either
And although I know none of these
Places
I felt empowered knowing none of us knew:
And that our President's secret was safe.
This was a cynical view published in a daily newspaper earlier this year in the wake of President Thabo Mbeki's state of the nation address. Now, with the availability of this third State of the Nation publication, we can all gain something of an understanding, both of the president's views and targets and of the views of many critics.
Much has, of course, already been written about this latest offering from the Human Sciences Research Council. And most of it, unsurprisingly, has been uncritically laudatory since there is a relative dearth of good, critical analysis of matters social, political and economic.
Some reviewers have also used the facts and conclusions drawn, mainly in the state of delivery scorecard chapter by David Hemson and Michael O'Donovan, as a cudgel with which to beat the government. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has been little concentration by such critics on the very good chapter by Devey, Skinner and Valodia with its critique of economic individualism and "trickle-down" economics. But then such critics tend to fall into the pro-"free market" category .
However, nearly all reviews and published comments have concentrated on one or two chapters of the 19 contained in this volume, a reflection perhaps of laziness and the pressures of deadlines, but also of the weightiness of this tome; it covers an extraordinarily wide range of subject matter.
But in some of the lesser - even unquoted - chapters, such as Merryman Kunene's analysis of the local soccer scene, there are nuggets of useful information to be mined.
However, although this book is wide-ranging, readable, interesting and informative, it is also flawed. Not fatally, but perhaps inevitably, given the overbearing influence of current economic and political orthodoxy.
With reference to economic theory, this is perhaps best summed up by "new economics" promoter Margaret Legum, who has noted of much current economic debate: "The whole edifice, built upon unreality, is lightly tweaked with a nod in the direction of the facts, leaving the theory intact."
Welcome to the world of Francis Fukuyama and The End of History and the Last Man. But welcome too, to the acceptance of electoral myths such as a 70 percent landslide for the present government. This calculation ignores those who abstained or refused to vote and translates into 38 percent of the potential electorate.
So there is no real pushing of theoretical boundaries and there is the occasional sloppy use of terminology, such as "socialism" or even "Leninism". Presumably, as relics of the past they require no definition.
There is also the uncritical acceptance of a comment attributed the Anglo American's Bobby Godsell that the labour theory of value was a creation of Karl Marx and needed to be buried. This is not only ahistorical, it raises one of the fundamental questions of economic theory that needs to be interrogated to make real sense of the current state of national and global economics.
For the record, and in vindication of Legum's comment: the labour theory of value was developed by Adam Smith, father of liberal, laissez-faire economics, who died 28 years before Marx was born. It is a fundamental theory underpinning an ideological rump based on some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo about an "invisible hand".
While it is certainly correct, as one of the editors, Roger Southall, states that there exist three main tendencies pressing their agendas for the best way to develop the South African state, all are based on the same, fundamental premise: that the present system of competition and accumulation can be improved or reformed, to the benefit of the majority of the population.
Critical issues such as overcapacity and overproduction as well as distribution simply do not feature with such tendencies, yet they exist and should be analysed.
The fact that Moeletsi Mbeki is included among the nationalistic "new Jacobins" as one of the promoters of black economic empowerment (BEE) and a "patriotic bourgeoisie" also caused me only marginally less surprise than it did Mbeki himself. He has in fact been - and remains - a critic of BEE. If he has to be included in any of the three categories listed here - Liberal, Jacobin and Developmental - it is the latter where he belongs.
But given the great usefulness of this volume, it may seem churlish to find such faults. Or to belabour the fact that health was a section ignored in this edition at a time when, arguably, it is more critical than ever, with a raft of new and controversial legislation being tabled, and the government pressing ahead with a public sector medical scheme that is perhaps both unconstitutional and in contravention of the labour laws.
However, State of the Nation is no curate's egg, good only in parts; it may be slightly underdone and contain a few generally minor blemishes, but it provides, overall, a nourishing diet of useful information and insight.
To mix metaphors: top of the class - but could do even better.
