THERE IS NO SHORT CUT TO DEMOCRACY
THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF SANCO - MBONGENI NGUBENI

GREETINGS

My fraternal greetings to Comrade DeputyPresident, Jacob Zuma, the leaders of the South African Trade Union Movement in COSATU,FEDUSA, and NACTU, the leaders of business in BSA and NAFCOC.

INTRODUCTION

The year is 1999, the day is two October, and ifI was a visitor from another planet to South Africa, what would I notice. Besides noticingthe obvious splendour and natural beauty of the country and its people, I would alsonotice the pain and suffering of the majority of the people. Moreover, it would besurprise to me that the ones who are much better off than the majority of South Africansare the ones who complain the loudest and the most!

It would then dawn on me that the definition ofdemocracy as espoused by this powerful minority can be described as skew. This democracyhas an inherent belief that to be democratic we must be opposed to and 'fight back'against the democratically elected government. Most noteworthy of this democratic inactionis the ability to oppose radical and soft transformation in the favour of merit! Theproverbial playing field is now level, democracy is for everyone particularly those whocan afford it!

Maybe this is inconsequential to the debate, butthose who are this type of a democratic animal and belong to the disadvantaged majorityare regarded as well understood, rational, educated, and, civilised black people. Whereasthose who do not espouse to this form of democracy are regarded as just the opposite,namely, irrational, ignorant, impressionable, and well, stupid!

I want it to be noted at this esteemedinstitution, that the poor define and measure democracy in one simple way - the democracyis inextricably and fundamentally defined by transformation. Every poor person, disabledperson, and women in this country knows the type of transformation, maybe business andgovernment should contract the poor as consultants so that they can assist inunderstanding both democracy and transformation.

But I digress. Let's go back to this fancifulnotion of democracy. We have inexcusable comparisons being made, such as comparing theAlexandras and Sandtons of our country. For instance there is more than one Five starhotel in Sandton, whereas there is not a single hotel in Alexandra. Yet Alexandra andSandton must be dealt in the same manner. They must be taxed in the same manner, in factthey must be regarded as equal.

But we as a poor voted this government intopower. We as communities gave this government even a stronger mandate that before to pushforward transformation. To understand how the poor measure leadership, remember that thepoor chose comrade Madiba as their leader back in the 1940s, theysaw what you see only in the 90s. You see a person who came out of a horrificincarceration smiling and bearing no grudges. You see a person who holds no need formaterial trappings, and is in fact uncomfortable with wealth, no business suit for comradeMadiba. You see a person who travels the length and breadth of this world raising fundsfor the poor, without asking anything in return. And who did these democratic peoplechoose as their leader, the list reads something like this, Verwoerd, Voster, PW and FW.The question begs both Madiba and FW De Klerk received the Nobel Peace Prize, but where isMr De Klerk now, where are the babies he was hugging. We hope that this does not seemGreek to you! But the point is that the poor understand in selfless ways what is need inthis country whereas the rich can only talk about moral issues like democracy in selfishways.

WE ARE ON COURSE

As stated above, we voted this government intopower a second time around, with more power. We understand that this government, like theprevious, is committed to transformation. We know the loins from where this governmentemerges, it comes from the African National Congress, a movement of the people, whichconsists of communist, capitalist, worker, middle-dass, etc. A true movement andreflection of the people of this country.

But in as much as we trust and have faith in ourgovernment, to borrow a phrase, together with our government, we want to speed updelivery. We as communities of this country are not moaning, complaining or even begging,but we want to be part of the solution to our country's problems in a practical way. In away that adds value to the process. We do not want to be passive beneficiaries ofdelivery, because more often than not when you do not work with us, well you get it wrong.These are costly mistakes, and we want to save costs.

Communities are neglected, yet is in thecommunity that you find the unemployed, the disabled, the poor, etc. We as communities arehomeless, waterless, cellularless and so forth. We want to be empowered so as tounderstand the socio-economic problems of this country. Because we have a difficultymeasuring all these complex issues like so many of our imminent statisticians are able to.They tell us, and we must believe them, that every quarter of a second a person is killedin South Africa, every quarter of a second a woman is raped, every quarter of a second achild is sexually assaulted. How do they arrive at these conclusions we do not know. Theonly question of interest we do have is, 'How come in the eighties, we did not have therate of murder like we have today.' Why is it that nearly every White person in theeighties did not know about the carnage and destruction being perpetrated in outtownships.

Comrade Deputy President, we are on course, notas government, but as communities. As the people we spoke and voted you into power. But weare not complacent, nor are we just blowing our own trumpet. But we wish to come to anunderstanding, so that we can be exploited as an instrument which will solve our andcountry's problems. And therefore we must be capacitated to take forward our programmesand aspirations. I repeat, it is only together we can speed up delivery

CONCLUDING ISSUES

The issues we find in local government, remindsone that you cannot find gold by digging in a coal mine ail that can occur is that youwill get dirty. There is no shortcut to democracy. And as communities we agree that therecannot be stop-gap measures.

But our Local Government authorities are in acrisis. They have run out of ideas. They are victims of problems not of their own making,and their lack the capacity to be able to deal with the problems. So they have becomedefensive and reactive so that they can balance their books.

Their easiest solution is to come hard down onthe poor. They wish to balance their books by confiscating the little property of thepoor, by moving hawkers out of the streets, whereas they are no markets being built forthese hawkers.

For us the solution lies with the participationof the communities in the governance system. We need to have community participation inthe budgetary processes, so that the community can understand the pressures of our localauthorities and can assist in resolving the problems.

We appreciate the efforts of government inarriving at the Municipal Systems Bill so that it can increase community participation. Weare fully behind this bill, and want it to be promulgated as soon as possible.Furthermore, the memorandum of understanding on Tariff pricing Policy as negotiated inNEDLAC needs to be incorporated into the Systems Bill. It is only in this participativeand multi-lateral approach shall we be able to resolve the problems of local government.

We all know that unemployment andunder-employment is a problem. However, the latest ILO study shows that South Africa doesnot have a rigid labour market, but a flexible one. We need to implement the resolutionsof the Jobs Summit. NEDLAC must be central in terms of that implementation. Furthermore,we call on our black business people in particular to acknowledge the labour laws of thiscountry and to stop shamelessly exploiting their own people.

We recognise the achievements of government onfighting crime however the Community Policing Forums remains the solution, and therefore,we must ensure greater community participation. NEDLAC is central here again, since NEDLACknows SANCO's policy of Operation Mpimpa, let us fight crime, and build communities.

And finally, HIV/AIDS remains the single biggestthreat to communities. We call on all partners in NEDLAC to join forces so as we can haveeffective education on HIV/AIDS, cheaper medicines and drugs, controversy-free research.

I thank you for listening.