We have negotiated the first month of 2022 with a sense both of trepidation and of hope. The latter, almost without exception, is rooted in our encounters with communities around the country – whether in delivering food parcels to the most vulnerable, engaging with early childhood development practitioners, or exploring the possibilities for community garden projects. The determination to find a way forward, and the resilience of people, are often humbling. These are qualities which will be stretched to the limit in the year ahead.
Already, for instance, we have seen early signs of what positioning and campaigning ahead of the governing party’s elective conference will inject into public discourse. It is distressing when those in leadership positions don’t hesitate to trash each other and the institutions they themselves have been part of building over nearly three decades. Political point-scoring feeds very easily into a public discourse which is brutal and a public domain which is susceptible to thuggery. This is damaging, and potentially dangerous. Especially for a society like ours, where the social fabric is in tatters and all it takes is a spark like the one we saw in July last year to ignite an inferno.
The tireless endeavour of the Human Rights Commission and other structures across sectors has made it clear what the underlying causes of the wave of public violence in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last July were – from deepening patterns of poverty and inequality to an orchestrated insurrection; from failed crime intelligence capacity and terrible failures of related structures of the state to growing cultures of lawlessness. The fact is that we have made little progress in addressing these causes in the last six months. Work the Foundation is doing on the ground, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, suggests that further eruptions will be almost unavoidable unless decisive and sustained action is taken.
Almost routinely now, South Africa responds to crisis by appointing a commission of enquiry. The year has begun, of course, with the results of the Zondo Commission beginning to be made available. One of the great tests for government in 2022 will be its resolve, and its capacity, to implement the recommendations of the commission. South Africa has a long history – through the colonial period, through apartheid, and into the democratic era – of using commissions of enquiry either to simply ward off public discontent or to be the basis for implementing minor societal adjustments rather than the deep structural transformation which is needed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission fell into this trap. As did the Marikana inquiry. As did the arms deal inquiry. We could go on listing them. South Africa cannot afford to have the Zondo Commission experience a similar fate.
If the rule of law is to hold in our country, and if the social fabric is to begin reweaving into a strong tapestry, then the nettles – and there are many of them - will have to be grasped.
Already 2022 has demonstrated, for instance, that we are teetering on the brink of renewed hostility and public violence directed at those perceived to be "foreign". It is heartbreaking to consider that when the first big wave of such violence broke in 2008 the state worked with civil society and the private sector to understand underlying causality and explore strategies for implementing sustainable solutions. The Nelson Mandela Foundation itself worked in 11 communities over three years in the wake of 2008 to contribute to this endeavour. Again, the challenge was clearly delineated. What needed to be done in both short and long-term was identified. But as a country we had neither the will nor the capacity to do what needed to be done. This can’t be right.
It is time to change these disturbing patterns. It is time to rise to the challenge. We wish all our friends, partners and stakeholders a fulfilling 2022 as we continue to work together to make the South Africa of Madiba’s dreams.