Venue: Mount Grace Hotel, Magaliesberg

Programme Director Dr Somadoda Fikeni,

Honourable Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Advocate MT Masutha,

Executive Dean of the College of Law, Professor R Songca,

Vice-Principal Academic: Teaching and Learning Professor MC Mare,

Honourable MP Mr Andile Mngxitama,

Members of the Esteemed Academic Community at the University of South Africa,

Honourable Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of your 2^nd Annual Spring Law Conference, during which you must, no doubt, deliberate on weighty matters of legal substance that concern us all. Although I am not a legal eagle and do not boast any legal experience somewhere in my personal background, I dare say that it is important that the country’s top legal minds should have occasion, from time to time, to reflect critically and unemotionally on the current state of our nation and come up with the requisite remedies. This is particularly so given the numerous challenges that currently stare us in the face, most of which have serious legal and even constitutional implications for our beloved country.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some owning up to do right at the outset of my speech. Firstly, although I currently have the privilege of being at the helm of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa, I speak here in my own personal capacity, and not in my capacity as CEO of SEIFSA. Secondly, this speech was prepared in July, which was probably before the invitation for me to be part of this august conference. I wrote it then for the sole reason of posting it on my personal website, www.kaizernyatsumba.com, because I believed then and still believe now that it would be most unfortunate if we allowed the first 20 years of our democracy to pass by without any serious reflection on our part.

This is, then, a candid, personal reflection on my part on the first two decades of our democracy. I embarked on this exercise because I believe that it is vital for us, as individuals and as a nation, to pause from time to time to reflect on our experiences and to see what lessons, if any, could or should have been learned and what could or should have been done differently.

Now, Programme Director, I am but a plain person who believes strongly in the sacrosanctity of ideas and in the need for men and women always to engage freely in the exchange thereof. Therefore, I know and accept that the views that follow below will not be to everybody’s liking or approval, but this much I will say: I have thought on these matters very carefully over the years, especially since I was privileged to have had a ring-side seat during our political transition and, therefore, to have had the opportunity to document South Africa’s historic political transition.

While I accept that not everybody will agree with them, nevertheless I believe fervently in the accuracy of the observations that I am about to share with you. I ask not for your concurrence or agreement therewith. Instead, I appeal only that we all allow ourselves to be guided by Voltaire’s sagacious words: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Now, with those two disclaimers out of the way, I proceed to my reflection on the first two decades of our democracy.

As a democracy, we are only twenty years old, with 27 April 2015 marking an important milestone when we will turn 21 and come of age. However, we don’t have to wait until then to reflect on our development as a country. It is never too late to pause and reflect on our lot from time to time in order to establish what we could have done differently or what requires our immediate attention as a nation.

So, twenty years since the end of apartheid, how are we doing as a country? Well, we have certainly made considerable strides, about that there can be no doubt. Thanks to the efforts of our founding father, Nelson Mandela, and the leadership of those who followed him in office, but especially former president Thabo Mbeki, we have proudly taken our place among the civilized nations of the world. There have been occasions when we have punched way above our weight on various international fora and when our opinion or approbation as a country has been sought by nations far more powerful than us both politically and economically.

In our first 20 years of democracy we have hosted some of the most important events on the political and sporting calendar, including United Nations events and three World Cups in three different sporting codes: rugby, cricket and, of course, the mother of them all, football. We have made impressive and visible investments in infrastructure, with the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg being among the most iconic features of that city.

Politically, our democracy has matured. Where once political intolerance was rife, with many a no-go area in the country for some political parties, by and large free political activity is now the order of the day – except, as we have seen in the run-up to our last general elections in May this year, when some members of the ruling party feel seriously threatened politically in some parts of the country.

We will have to watch the latter development very carefully, because it may be more revealing of the kind of behaviour that we can expect as real competition for our votes takes place in the country, with liberation credentials no longer adequate to guarantee the black masses’ support. After all, the true test of a fledgling democracy takes place when a party which had come to take winning elections as its birthright suddenly feels seriously challenged to the extent that it might lose an election – or lose in some significant areas of a country. What we saw happening in the country in the run-up to the May 7 elections indicates that we do, indeed, have reason to be concerned.

Still, we continue to pass the democracy test with something akin to flying colours, and that is something worthy of celebration.  However, we dare not be complacent as a people. We will do well to be ultra-vigilant, and those institutions charged with the important responsibility of oversight over Government have additional pressure to guard their independence jealously.

It is when we turn to our economy’s performance that we have reason to be very concerned. Regrettably, as a country we have not done as well economically as we could have done. This is an area that requires the kind of mature partnership from all stakeholders that was shown by those who led South Africa’s political transition from apartheid to a democracy, especially those within the now-moribund National Party – in human history, it is never easy for people in power to give it up voluntarily, without having lost in battle – and Africa’s oldest liberation movement, the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela.

Even when our economy registered healthy annual growth rates bordering on five percent, it simply failed to create jobs in sufficient numbers. In many ways, it was a job-less growth. In the past decade our economy has been stuttering, with the situation worsening after the advent of the global recession of 2008. In 2013 we registered a pitiable 1,9% growth in our Gross Domestic Product – at a time when many other countries on the continent have registered much higher growth rates – and in the first three months of this year our economy contracted by 0,6%. Since then, our sovereign credit rating has been downgraded by Standard and Poor’s from BBB to BBB-, just a notch above junk status, with Fitch downgrading our economic outlook from positive to negative.

Should we be concerned? Most certainly. With rampant unemployment confronting us, we need to grow our economy as a matter of extreme urgency. We need to find ways to stimulate local manufacturing and to improve our international competitiveness as a nation. We need to take a very critical look at some of the decisions that we took hastily in the early days of our democracy, including some of the pieces of legislation that we put in place at the time, which have had the unintended consequences of making us less attractive for foreign investors.

To this end, the Government has by far the biggest responsibility. South Africa will never realize its true economic potential for as long as some in Government are hell-bent on pushing certain ideological agendas, rather than on advancing the country’s best business and political interests; nor will it do so for as long as key appointments in Governments and related institutions are determined by political – or even factional – membership or allegiance, rather than qualifications and experience.

However powerful it may be, even the Government cannot accomplish this goal on its own. Instead, it will need a rock-solid partnership with the business community and the labour movement. The Government will have to prove itself to be driven solely by what is in South Africa’s interests, and business – especially white business, which continues to be very dominant 20 years into our democracy – will have to prove itself to be truly willing to embrace change and transformation and to enter into a constructive partnership with the Government. The less transformed our economy continues to be, the more threatened business will be, with white business interests more so.

The same applies to the labour movement, which generally appears to be caught in a terrible time warp. It, too, will have to enter into that constructive partnership with the Government and the business community, in the best interests of South Africa.

Is that all a pipedream? Is it too much to ask of stakeholders who are currently miles apart from one another? Yes, I understand that it might appear so at the moment, but it is certainly not an impossible dream. If we could slay the apartheid monster and transition relatively peacefully to a democracy two decades ago, surely we can do the same economically – if only we can have the kind of inspirational leadership that we were so fortunate to have as a country in the period from 1989 to 1994 and beyond.

Among the dragons that need to be slayed is the deep-rooted culture of entitlement that was allowed, by our political leaders, to take effect right from the early days of our democracy. While social grants are important, everybody will have to accept that they do not constitute a solution. Except in the case of senior citizens, children and the disabled, social grants ought to be temporary assistance offered to those who find themselves in a situation where they require it, with the solution being to help transition them out of grants and (back) to the workplace as soon as possible.

It is only when the people of South Africa – men, women and the youth – recognize that their destiny lies in their respective hands and not in the Government’s, when they accept that if they work hard enough they can turn their lives around and attain any goal that they set for themselves, that South Africa will know true success. It is only then, too, that South Africa will finally be a truly stable country that does not need to fear the possibility of an uprising from poor masses who consider the Government their uber Parents.

Ends