CAN any one coming from the background of the colonial project of the West put any premium on the much vaunted developments in South Africa, which are very much still work in progress if not very much fantasies of white liberalism as well as opportunists and liberation pretenders running out of ideas and their grands schemes being shown for what they really are and have been.
Very much a neo-colonial project that it is and has been, which is part of the grand colonial project which is part of the global capitalist imperial project, which has seen the South being colonised in the name of Capitalism. A project which essentially has not been completed but with the so-called decolonisation has seen the former colonies being re-adjusted to suit the continued capitalist hegemony.
Two of the last bastions of capitalist hegemony in Southern African is Namibia and South Africa. South Africa especially. Because unlike Namibia, South Africa has been and continues to be be seen and regarded as more than just another colony but an integral part of the capitalist configuration. Hence rather than being decolonised, the premise has been to reform and fine tune it.
Meaning that South Africa, a capitalist powerhouse that it has been and continues to be, the Nationaist Party of the Afrikaners erred in introducing Apartheid.
As Apartheid mitigated against its status as a capitalist powerhouse. Hence as opposed to many of the other African countries, which need to be given nominal independence, and consequently continued to be used as full members of world capitalism, Apartheid South Africa, by its riches and economic advancement, the nationalist policies of Apartheid mitigated against its full blooming as a capitalist nation. Hence the exigency and political prudence of reforming Apartheid so that eventually she could be fully induced into the capitalist hall of fame.
That is why in 1994 the world with open arms welcomed South Africa as apparently another free and independent nation of the world. Oblivious to the heavy baggage the country, like many former colonised countries are carrying, a heavy socio-economic deficit. Which in the case of countries like South Africa and Namibia, have been and is still being carried by a section of the population, the Africans and/or blacks if you wish, especially the workers.
A factor that seems to have been overlooked. Because once the political jargon have been done away with, it has been down to economic reality.
The reality thereof which is a heavy socio-economic deficit weighing heavily, of course on those who all these years have been carrying the brunt of an economically unequal society, favouring whites and heavily loaded against black workers.
The wealth and opulence that societies such as Namibia’s and South Africa have been enjoying and a section thereof continues to enjoy, comes with a price. A price that has been carried by black workers.
It is thus natural that it cannot healthily continues with such a deficit That if it does not owe it to the workers of the two countries, somehow the economy must find a means of compensation and/or rectification.
This surely cannot be left to the market forces. Nor can it be left to the democratic exigencies of the system, however perfect it may be assumed to be.
Somehow, the democratic system in South Africa, through the just-ended elections, has given an indication that all is not well in the democratic and free South Africa. Namibia as much has her turn this November.
But all indications are that the revolution is far from over. That the revolution seems to have been taken for granted and that the hour has cometh that it must be refined.
Much premium was put on the just ended election in South Africa. All and sundry had put so much on the outcome of the elections. Especially in terms of bringing about change. Change for what and for whom?
There are those who thought that the elections would bring about a change in the political landscape of the country. Still it has never been clear what change. Not so much that what change but there are those who have been hoping for a regime change, actually those who naively, or rather for own parochial and shortsighted interests, rather looked and been looking at only but a part of the bigger picture. In fact in both South African and Namibia, two of the last colonial projects, ironically either because of gross oversight, and/or cynical over haste, if not total lack of ideological clarity, seem to have missed all the telltales for retrogression and /or anti-revolution.
That is if the movements themselves which were on the forefront of the agitation for change, like the African National Congress (ANC), and others in South Africa, and the Swapo Party of Namibia in Namibia, was and has never been sure about the nature of the society socio-economically in the aftermath of Apartheid Colonialism in both countries.
It seems for the ideological and political masterminds within both the ANC and the Swapo Party of Namibia, change itself, as long as it was ostensibly away from the abomination of Apartheid colonialism, was a sine qua non.
In fact such seem in the dictum of other African deconollonisation projects in the mode of political kingdom first. Irrespective of that would follow. Close to 60 to 70 years of African liberation and/or decolonisation, this remains a conundrum in most of the African countries.
Indeed it is only now that most of the African countries are only realising now that in deed they are and have not been free and independent, at least not economically but only nominally. For South African and Namibia, is seems, to have only taken them 30 years. It is only now that the movements in both countries, are, if indeed they are and have been waking up to introspect self and what their missions ever were.
Because even they themselves have been question if they ever were meant to be socialist in terms of transforming their societies. Exactly the conundrum in which South Africa currently finds herself. With talk of a government of national unity (GONU). Whatever this would mean. It has never dawn on the South Africans, let alone the ANC, which has conveniently remained silent and muted as to its mission, especially in terms of transformation. Because the fundamentals in Namibia has been real economic transformation from the Apartheid Capitalist production. Meaning neither the market economic and all the capitalist market economy jargons modern economic would proffer would ever provide a quick fix.
Neither any brand of socialism and/or egalitarianism. So South African is in for the long haul and probably one of instability marketers would never conveniently would have wished to forecast and and/or expect or predict.
