At the end of this Programme it seems only suiting:

Building a bright future for South Africa

Developing a vision for this country through the lens of history, philosophy and the practical possibilities that are at hand, is an undertaking that is seemingly out of the ordinary. But as a young person living in a new country born of great possibility, I think this undertaking is of utmost importance and should be pursued by all, young and old, who live within the bounds of this new country.

Firstly, I write this text under duress and secondly, I will venture to start at the beginning with the words of the German philosopher, Friedrich Engels: ‘Freedom is the recognition of necessity’. In recognition of our freedom, we need to reconcile our shared goals and shared challenges and come together, shifting our focus away from petty pursuits that do not serve the longer-term interest of our South Africa. This is a necessity.

Coming together, we can work towards a progressive developmental approach, encompassing the best of all which is known to humanity, to attack the difficult elements within our society that are most pressing, addressing our individual imperfections through collaborating towards making corruption and poverty history. Creating a fair society where all have the opportunity and space to dream and participate, without fear or favour and prejudice or inequality, through dignity giving life to the best elements of freedom embedded in our constitution. Indeed, people ‘cannot eat freedom’ and, evidently, the separation of political freedom and economic freedom is not feasible. It can only be so for shorter periods of history, but for us to prosper and thrive in the longer term as a country, these ideals must become a reality – together - towards building a more substantive freedom in South Africa.

The history of the country is such that there are certain special challenges that we must face together, such as progressive transformation and land reform. The question is not whether we, as young people, have a relation to apartheid and therefore obligation to carry its burdens. That answer is self-evident in our common reality. The question is how we, as the young people of this country, use our political freedoms and positions of privilege or lack thereof to build a bright future for South Africa collectively, in a process that transcends barriers of privelege and disadvantage – a common cause to unify.

'Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains^’, and in view of this Jean-Jacques Rousseau insight, I think it may be necessary to consider where is it that we find ourselves in this world, our burdens and our possibilities.

'A gentleman [sic] (or gentlewoman) is one who puts more into the world than [s]he takes out', George Bernard Shaw  in this case it would make it seem fair that the privileged take on that task and progress towards putting more in, since we have been afforded the statistically rare opportunity of taking much out. In considering the obligation of the haves and have-nots, it has been said that ‘those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they', again thanks to Rousseau, leading that performing a service to others in everything we do can be the only way to progressively develop our common humanity.

I have come into ownership of the following ideal, new to me as a young person in South Africa, but not necessarily the world: human development challenges are universal. There are no sub-sets of the human creature in different areas of the planet that are immune. History has proven, that the most significant impacts we can make as humans, are made through collaboration. The minds and cultures of individuals in countries may differ, but the basic unit measure of societal consciousness, emotion, is transient and certainly non-variable to a significant extent. By extension, these challenges are largely generic in trait, transnational and independent of any border or control. People want basic building blocks such as comfort, safety, freedom, dignity and security and so forth. Once these basic units are addressed and protected, all else will follow.

Indeed, it is the case that we have focused on these unitary measures since democracy in 1994, but economic freedom still eludes the majority.

We live in a country very dear to each of us. It is a special place. We know it, so too, does the world carry an awareness of this trait. At this point in history a survey of general spirit may indicate that the broader optimism and hope we have become accustomed to, may no longer be evident in as great a quantity or as widely as it once were. The realities and the sheer magnitude of the structural challenges we face in our post-conflict society are manifesting.

The impending threat is far greater than the imagined, unpalatable and inconceivable notion of a pariah state. It is rather a creature manifestation of multilateral and endemic, inertial, tri-axial and corrupt forces evidenced at many layers of the South African veneer - one would be so lucky to think that the democratic state could escape the complete legacy of nationalist machinations, conflict, violence and oppression. In fact, it is likely that some of the basic tenets of Apartheid are still with us today such as manifest white supremacy (no longer official or systemic, but evidenced) and capitalist exploitation, evidenced widely and in some industries considered ‘business as usual’. Thankfully, we have rid of deliberate and organised oppression of one group by another. These things must be addressed, if not, and we (as a society) choose to continue in the thinking that these problems are ‘managerial’, then we face an almost inevitable and catastrophic destabilization of the Republic, rooted in the external social barrage of undelivered promise, dreams deferred or internal turmoil. The people of South Africa deserve a better future, at any cost. I implore that you do not see pessimism in my analyses here, I find that optimism is often most sincere when it is found in the most real and absolute perspective.

To this extent, I find a significant degree of solace and calm in the knowledge that the people of this country have a resilience and spirit of triumph like no other nation on Earth and further, in that there are people such as the many young up-and-coming leaders in our universities to take the reigns at various levels. The following correspondence is historically significant, not only because it occurred during the period of the formation of the League of Nations, but also because it represents an intersection between worlds. Worlds that we still know and understand and live, and ones, which have long since been transformed…

Jan Smuts to Albert Einstein in 1936:

“It is pleasant to contemplate the physical universe with its mystery and its immensity. And you are fortunate that that is the sphere, which you have chosen for the exercise of your genius. As for me, and for many of us, who are for many years in the world of practical affairs, the world presents another aspect, and today a very sad one. The reign of Reason in our western civilization seems to be in decay. Intolerance, persecution, denial of rights, dictatorships, threaten to become the order of the day. Statesmen are perplexed and do not know how to deal with the situations that face them.

And yet, we dare not lose faith. In human affairs, just as in the physical universe, very long views have to be taken in one wishes to arrive at the truth. The curve of history is a long range one, and I have the feeling that mankind is not plunging into the night, but is passing through a phase, a very disheartening and trying phase, but one through which it will work to daylight beyond. In the end, the forces of good and right in human nature will prevail and mankind will settle down in a new society on a higher level of living and thinking.

Such is the faith which keeps one going in these difficult days.”

Einstein responded in brief, an extract exemplifies his sentiment:

“Initially part of this is the fault of many intellectuals themselves, who have made bad compromises.”

I trust and hope that we will form part of a generation that does not make bad compromises, independent of whether our world is a Western one. The world has seen enough of these very judgements. As Robert Kennedy reminded us in his speech at the University of Cape Town decades ago, “this world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.” Indeed, it is a combination of rigour, will, and imagination and courage that leads to sound judgments in the face of adversity.

“Power is no longer what is, but what should be”, in this Albert Camus paints a clear illustration of the mental coup I believe to be necessary in our South Africa. The power that is democratically bestowed is real and must be respected, but the mental associations and accompli of power in these places, born of colonial infiltrations, can be no longer. Everything can only be what should be. “As people existing in a continuous struggle for truth, we have to examine and question old concepts, values and systems”⁶ – Steve Bantu Biko, in these worlds summarily cements himself as one of the most powerful forebears of the revolution of mind required in our applications and endeavors as young people in this world.

At the start of this text, I noted that I write under duress. I am under duress in so far as my existence is not independent of yours as you read this and in so far I am bound to this world, duress of the spirit. It is therefore not a negative sentiment, but an expression of our common humanity and need for ownership of this world. I implore that in our existence together, we’ll show the world the principality of this irrevocable tenet: I am, because you are – Ubuntu.

We can each rediscover a personal hope for this country, through recognizing the transformative power of our own serithi, our mutual dignity and place in the world.

Normal never changed the world, because it relies on its present state for definition. As South Africans we should recognise that what we have in our society is not normal, by virtue of our specific history, we have set ourselves definitively apart. Individual South Africans are in a better position to change the world than many of their counterparts the world over, simply because their identity has become rooted in recognition of dignified human rights and the commitment to build a brand new society, based on progressive ideals and values, in the wake one fractured by destructive ideologies.

In our specific case, destiny may not be a point in time, but rather a frame of mind. Our destiny awaits, all we are required to do, is keep the faith and hope alive, rediscover the power of individual agency and action and re-humanise each other as South Africans by pointedly going out of our way to connect with each other across the rich-poor, racial and cultural divides we have come to accept as ‘normal’.

The preceding text is diagnostic in nature. However, at this juncture in our history it is likley time to make the move from diagnostics to practical possibilities and realities. It in the space of creation that we should ideally spend the majority of our time and application of our minds, since this space will yield sustainable solutions and a new manner in which we can move forward practically. It is this space that I hope to be moving towards in these endeavors.

Inkululeko. Freedom. Vryheid.