South Africa has never been a democratic country; it was a republic country back then. Therefore wha

The greatest mistake I have made so far in my academic life was to confuse democracy and republic. Since I read “Failed states: the abuse of power and the assault of democracy” by Noam Chomsky, I started to develop a feeling that South Africa is easily confused, or should I say, it is misusing “democracy” and “republic”. I often come across people in South Africa expressing their feelings by saying “South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy remains one of the most impressive transitions in the history of our country” some would say “Democratic South Africa is a miracle story that almost did not happen”.

I want to be clear on this statement: South Africa is not a democratic state, it has never been a democratic state and it is not a republic state either. It is time our politicians shed some light and educate the masses about the true meaning of the two forms of government I have mentioned above.

Democracy is a word that I always say or use without smiling. I attempt not to use the word “democracy” more often, but it is impossible to do that. Democracy to me is a dream that I will never give up on because I have never seen or experienced the true meaning of the word. I am hungry for democracy. “People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don’t want to learn it themselves”-Vladimir Putin. If there is democracy in South Africa, I guess it is an idea that we have never seen before, perhaps it is still hiding and it will come out later however 20 years of waiting is like complementing torture.

Let me share my knowledge and understanding of what are democracy and republic. Democracy in its simplest form is the government of the people, by the people for the people. “Democracy refers to social levelling or the collapse of legally maintained class hierarchies. At other times, it refers to self government or the institution guaranteeing that rulers remain responsible to electoral majority” (Stephen Holmes). Democracy is all about representing the will of the majority. If there was democracy in South Africa, the poor would have more power than the rich because there are more poor people in South Africa and the will of the majority would be supreme. If democracy’s definition was, getting votes from the poor and getting campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other, I would believe that South Africa is a democratic country.

Democracy is something that South Africa is avoiding to have. As I use Karl Marx’s class analysis, the Politicians of the majority ruling party are the owners of the means of production and the majority people are the means of production in South Africa. Why is that the case? The politicians of the majority party form part of the ruling class and this enables them to be in a position to exploit the rest of the society. We cannot continue to consider South Africa a democratic state while it has leaders who fail to take actions and decisions that serve the interests of all people. The leaders of the majority ruling party have weak interests especially in regard to the interest of the poor and marginalised people.

I often hear the word democracy being used by majority party (ANC) whenever they address the masses. The reason why they always use democracy is because they want to achieve one-sided advantage in accessing the levers of power. When you are power hungry, you will always use the word democracy even when you don’t know its true meaning. I once listened to an interview of the former United States of America (USA) president, Bill Clinton, stating how USA helped South Africa to attain democracy. I was confused by his statements because the last time I checked the founding fathers of USA hated democracy to the extreme. I will quote 3 founders of USA. “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murder itself”-John Adam; “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch”-Benjamin Franklin; “The best argument against democracy is five-minute conversation with the average voter”-Winston Churchill. I guess when USA formed coalition with the ANC to end apartheid; ANC leaders were not familiar with these quotes.

Western countries like USA can do everything for democracy including stealing, lying etc. To Western countries, democracy is a luxury that an African country can’t afford to possess. During apartheid, the USA did not care about democracy in South Africa; they did not care how South Africans were governed or how many people were dying; they did not care about human rights or peace in South Africa; they only cared about their national interest of exploiting South African natural resources and bringing American companies to operate in our country. In a nutshell, South Africa starved its own people to feed the western countries and there is nothing democratic about that. If the ANC had competent leaders, we would be telling a different story. The ANC excels in producing weak, too greedy and aggressive leaders. For example, all people who are corrupt the ANC does not punish them, instead it rewards them with higher positions in the government to squander and embezzle public money. Is that democracy?

The only democratic element we adopted is the multi party system, but it is now becoming a problem as it is dominated by one political party. The ANC dominates the political landscape and it faces little prospects of electoral defeat. One party domination in Africa give rise to the possibility of declining government response to public opinion; loss of accountability; the overall erosion of democracy principles and development of authoritarian methods of rule (Adar, Hamdok and Rukambe, 2008:96-97). My advice to the South African government is that “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed”. Since the ANC dominates the multi party system ostensibly over a prolonged period of time and this party is guaranteed to win every election, competitiveness is unable to play its pressure to deliver.

South Africa is not a republic country, it was a republic some few years ago. A republican government is a system of rule in which the citizens of a nation have the power to govern themselves. In a republican system, the citizens give power to leaders that they have selected to serve their interests. These leaders then work to promote the common good for the people or community as a whole. I was not born by the time South Africa became a republic country in 1910 however I have read the history of South Africa and I have learnt from it, so I refuse its mistakes. The idea to constitute South Africa as a republic was to unite white South African people, both Afrikaans and English speaking. When the referendum was held on 5 October 1910, most whites favored a republic. Throughout the referendum, blacks, coloreds and Indians were not allowed to vote. Why? It is because the government of South Africa in 1910 was only serving the interests of the whites only. In a republic, people have no obligation to the government; instead, the government being hired by the people, is obliged to its owner, the people. So if we still call South Africa a republic country, does the current government serve the interest of the black people now? Or is the current government serving the interests of all people living in South Africa?

Between 1910 and 1994, 31^st May in South Africa was celebrated as a republic day. If we are a republic indeed, why the 31^st of May is no longer celebrated as a republic day? If we no longer celebrate the 31^st of May because this day is not important, I suggest that we should also not celebrate 27^th April, 24^th September and 16^th December. May 31^st is equally important as other days we celebrate in South Africa. I don’t know if whether the ANC is trying to bury the history of white people or not, but burying the history of white people is the last thing ANC must try not to attempt. The history of white people has been a recruiting tool of the ANC that’s why they are still in power. History of white people is the survival of the ANC. That’s part of the history of South Africa, nobody can deny that.

In a republic country popular sovereignty is important. Why am I saying so? Popular sovereignty protects a nation’s rights not to be exploited by other nations. It also gives the citizens of the country a right to determine for themselves the nature of their government. Is popular sovereignty applicable in South Africa? No it is not applicable in our country. Since we became the victims of what I normally call the CHINA THREAT THEORY, our country’s rights have been exploited by China. Every government decision we make in our country is influence and determined by China. I have a feeling that it is only a matter of time until South Africa will be called Mao Tse-tung. It is true when they say History repeats itself, China is slowly colonizing Africa and South Africa as a hegemonic state in Africa, it has been used as a gateway to access Africa. My lecturer describes China and South Africa’s relationship as romantic one, whereby China and South Africa are kissing and hugging. BUT we all know that love is like communism, it is a good idea unlike capitalism but it is not easy to attain. In this case, South Africa will be heart broken when they realize that China is only interested in advancing their national interests. Remember what John Mearsheimer said “The rise of China will never be peaceful to the world”.

I know that some people will argue that South Africa is a constitutional democracy. Let me educate those who believe that South Africa is a constitutional democracy. Constitutional democracy has 3 elements; limiting power of the government; adherence to the rule of law; and protection of fundamental rights. In South Africa does our government have limited power? If our government had limited power we would not have rife corruption. Our government is embracing corruption and they are not trying to combat it. Do our leaders adhere to the rule of law? No our government can do whatever it wants and the people of South Africa have no say in the decisions taken by the government. Our government is ignoring the basic principle of democracy which states that “every citizen has a right to a say in any decision that may affect him/her.” The most important fundamental rights are the human rights. To kill someone is a violation of human rights and we all know what happened at Marikana. No one has been held accountable. Where is justice in our country?

Poverty is one of the challenges of South Africa and our government is doing nothing to eradicate poverty. Poverty is also a human rights violation. According to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 21 which link democracy and human rights states that: the value of freedom, respect of human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy. In South Africa there is no equilibrium; people who are poor remain poor and the rich become richer. When the ANC came into power in 1994, many South African citizens voted for it as it was viewed as the country’s best political party to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. The ANC was a hope of many citizens to create a balance between the rich and the poor despite the inequalities of the past. Judging from what I have seen, most people who were poor in 1994 are still poor even today that is why we have endless violent service delivery protests. People are not only concerned about the levels of service delivery they receive; they are also concerned about the quality of democracy they experience. I repeat South Africa is not a democratic or republic state.

So South Africa is neither a democratic nor a republic country, then what is it exactly. I think South Africa is slowly becoming a kleptocracy country. A kleptocracy is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often with pretense of honest service. The characteristics of kleptocracy are concealment of illegal gains, dictatorship, autocratic government, and instability of economic and political agenda (Owah, 2011). Some people are of the view that South Africa is an autocratic country. Yes, they are right because the supreme power in our country is concentrated in one person. One individual obtained power and governs without being accountable to the higher authority. Autocratic government is one of the characteristics of kleptocracy. In South Africa we don’t have leadership that is responsive to the needs of the society.

I conclude prudently that South Africa since 2009 became a government of the crooks. The state of South Africa has been used an instrument for the predatory accumulation of wealth. And South Africa will continue to be a kleptocracy country because power in our country is placed in the hands of people with material wealth whether or not they have mind and time to reflect the interest of our country. I have no confidence in the government and leadership of South Africa.