The troubles of South Africa’s Second Republic

During the 79 th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week, President Ramaphosa opened his speech by applauding South Africa’s triumph of political democracy against apartheid in 1994. He also stated (although only in intention) the scattered fragments of economic democracy that should have followed the end of South Africa’s first republic. The first republic lasted between May 1961 through April 1994.

During the onset of South Africa’s second republic (1994), it was necessary to build political coalitions to manage constitutional change and a complex transition of government institutions-that is, laying of political foundations for economic growth and development. This was an attempt to coalesce a highly fragmented society into shared democratic ideals. The hard left who argue that the political settlements and concessions made in 1994 amounted to cop out might as well argue in favor of building towers mid-air. By necessity, foundations require allowances. There should be therefore no questions on the successful transition from the first Republic to the second, which was managed under the country’s first Government of National Unity (GNU). That the objective of subduing the vicious impulses of a politically troubled (first) republic was achieved under the first GNU was a miracle.

President Ramaphosa’s reminder to the world, of the miracle of relatively peaceful transition to the second republic was therefore timely. This is particularly the case in a world described by the UN Secretary General as engulfed in a whirlwind, in the same meeting. Last year The UN Secretary General warned the world of a proverbial doomsday clock ticking towards mid-night. Divine intervention increasingly seems the only way from the brink.

Curiously however, before launching presentation of South Africa’s foreign policy on current conflicts, Mr. Ramaphosa cited the current (2024) GNU as a second miracle, which was of course an attempt to sketch a second ring of South Africa’s legitimacy as a global peace broker. I do not question the intentions of this insertion. What seems troubling is the fact that such argument could partly or fully escape public scrutiny.

There has been a lot of bravado around the second GNU, which could easily be misinterpreted as, at least a repeat of the golden moment of the second republic, at most a re-set of the recent development history. To be fair, both GNUs have occurred during the second republic. Also, they were/ are coordinated by the African National Congress. Thirdly, they are both referred to as GNU. But that’s about all the resemblance there is.

In terms of context, the first GNU occurred not because the ANC did not achieve sufficient voter support, but because national unity was an imperative even after the ANC won with almost two thirds majority. The organizing logic of the first GNU was social cohesion, a political attempt to resolve a national question on who would be a legitimate South African in the second republic. Such towering objective admitted not just politicians but also the public in national development discourse.

On the contrary, the second GNU takes place on the backdrop of ideological vacuum, which has alienated any meaningful public discourse on politics or economics. The parties which form the second GNU have backsliden from their ideological commitments and policy positions. Thus, the second GNU is about political interests which are no longer tethered on any form of ideology (development or whatever) in any convincing way. Second, the country’s chaotic decline on almost all major development indicators has mainly been presided over by kleptocrats, most of whom often invoke Karl Marx as their inspiration for public service. On the contrary, the pre-1994 underdevelopment was a consequence of an oligarchy, a crude form of elitism which did not hide its intentions. During the first republic, crude elitism was visible and exposed. During the second republic, elitism re-invented itself as a friend to the poor. While the first GNU sought to establish justifiable means to a meaningful end, the second GNU is nothing more than fragmented group of elites scrambling to justify only the means of governing. The current politicking and shambolic disregard of sustainable service delivery is just one evidence of the obsession with who will govern and not those governed.

Is the second GNU going to last? This is no longer an open question. If within just twenty-four months the first GNU started to fragment notwithstanding the moral force that held it together, just how far will a coalition of political expediency go? The public should be less interested in the idea of organizing political interests into a single unit. This is far from a miracle. The real miracle should be defined by citizens, who have waited for more than a generation for the promise of development. Most of the liberators who stood up against the first republic expected nothing less than seismic change. The lofty development goals and expectations of the second republic initiated by the first GNU are not to be negotiated downwards.

Dr Musyoka is a Development Economist at the University of Pretoria.