South Africa, Aren’t We Special?
UP Women In Law
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South Africa is marching headfirst into its third decade of democracy. Its feet, like that of the elephant is firm in their disposition, its hands ever searching, propels it forward and its head centres itself calmly and looks down on its children provisionally. This article aims to contrast South Africa’s legal and political landscape against Western counterparts and to argue how exactly the blaring successes in our current democratic disposition link to our past and how this same past gives rise to the success of socialist/communist rhetoric around inefficacy in our legal system. It is further discussed how this dysphoria around certain legal processes should not extend to the democratic system as a whole in South Africa as it has given so much progress to the self-empowerment of minority, marginalized groups through the implementation of inclusionist policies.
In contrast to the many democratic frameworks in operation in the West, South Africa finds itself with a critical predisposition: Our past has allowed us to develop processes for and consensus on integrating and addressing public discontent into government policy and transformation. This is something that Western democracies, that have not had a radical transformation into democracy, are being criticized for not having developed or implemented sufficiently. In America, 57% of Americans opposed the decision to overturn Roe v Wade. 1 In light of the recent peaceful, pro-Palestinian protests on the American University campuses of UCLA, Brown and many more, the universities enlisted the police force to remove and arrest the students. Contrarily, the US government did not sanction violent attacks directed toward the students. 2 England has followed suit with 58% of the British public voting that a ceasefire should be enforced in Gaza, with 300,000 people participating in the protests, protests however the British government follows a strictly pro-Israeli stance and supports its attacks on Palestine. 3 4 This highlights the Western democracies’ tendencies to not effectively be able to reflect the views of its population into their government policies due to them never having developed a relationship with the nature of protesting.
In contrast, South Africa has been dubbed the ‘protest capital of the world,’ with over 193 service delivery protests alone in 2022. 5 6 The ‘toyi toyi’ dance is linked to demonstrations and has itself developed to denote protest. The successes of the Zuma Must Fall campaign as well as the FeesMustFall student protests in 2015 – 2016 are both examples of where systemic change has been instigated after people became disillusioned with certain processes. This article does not disregard that protests in South Africa have not been detrimental in regards to the loss of human life, however, it argues that it is seen as socially acceptable in our political and legal environment to exercise the right of protest and demonstration and that it is essentially viewed as the rightful first step for systemic change. The protest has always been a catalyst for change in South Africa, with our democracy itself being established on the protests against apartheid. The South African democracy has effective processes on how to address public discontent while most of our fellow Western democracies seem only to have the platform for free speech and not processes for its integration into government policy.
This article’s second consideration continues in examining our colonial, apartheid past and how it shapes South Africa’s current legal and political disposition. With the blaring carry-over of the apartheid policy of superiority of the political elite into our democracy, there has been a rise in socialist/communist rhetoric addressing this phenomenon.
In a strictly political sense, there is a pattern of a political elite within the government across our history books. While this is evident and a defining characteristic in most democratic systems across the world for example in America and Great Britain, in South Africa there is a larger disconnect between this elite and the lower classes. We are said to be the most unequal country in the world. As South Africa is nearing the end of its third decade of democracy a certain disenchantment about the democratic political landscape has surfaced with certain groups arguing that change has not been instigated. The political elite are seen to be yielders of power, however, seem to be unable to accurately provide much needed resources to the very communities that are keeping them in power.
Socialism and communism have been a popular response to these pitfalls. Since the Cold War, in South Africa’s struggle for democracy, there has been a large influence of socialist/communist rhetoric in South Africa. More and more of the population is looking toward the socialist/communist collectivist and distributive qualities in hopes that that would give them these resources and systemic changes that they need. 7 In the EFF’s first year of running they garnered just over 6% and almost doubled that number in the 2019 elections while both the DA and the ANC had collectively lost over 6% of their voters up till 2019. The MK party garnered over 14% of votes in the 2024 election, its first year running, and stands as the third biggest party in South Africa.8 MK is stated to be a socialist party.9 This begs the question, should an emphasis not be placed on the transformative processes of democracy that the country’s legal system has been proven to uphold and successfully instigate and has there perhaps been an unfair link established between the government’s failures and the democratic system? Would the same government be any better at implementing collectivist policies and similarly not take advantage of the centralization of resources?
A political elite has continued to plague our leadership with even socialist/communist leaders displaying large amounts of affluence.10 Minority leaders in Parliament, some belonging to socialist parties, receive R1.47 million per annum and have a complex history of scandals about their said affluence. 111213 With the blaring apartheid carry-overs of these policies and structures all of South Africa’s eyes should be on the rectification of power imbalances that our systems have kept.
South Africa looks down on its children provisionally. Our judicial system has been strong-willed in implementing and striving toward inclusionist policies advocated for by marginalized, minority groups. This is particularly impressive as more and more developed democracies have been citing that privileged minorities are being given preference to the detriment of the marginalized majority.
The Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie case concluded in Parliament promulgated the Civil Unions Act which allowed same-sex partners to get married. A full 8 years before the US. This new law does not affect or institute change for a majority of people and is even not agreed with by some, however, it shows that there is protection for minorities and for their inclusion.
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Furthermore, this phenomenon highlights the beauty of our diversity and how the existence and recognition of it allow more of the population to agree on bettering the circumstances for one group, as it means that should they have a concern to voice, it would be addressed as well. Our South African democracy is different from the original Western democracies because for African countries diversity is inherent. Again, this article does not overlook the unfortunate cases in which minorities were unfortunately not given the relief they sought however intends to highlight that there are functioning systems in place that have much promise and hope. Fundamentally South Africa’s needs and wants as a country are different from Western democracies. African democracies crave and are adamant about smooth, well-functioning, government frameworks and not blanket laws so that all groups can be catered to equally in a substantive approach.
In conclusion, because of the timeline and inputs that have gone into developing our democratic system, it displays such unique functions which allows for diversity and the implementation of change. There has been a rise in socialist and communist rhetoric addressing the evident corruption in our country highlighting the separation between political theory and its implementers.
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What a beautifully articulated article by Ekaterina Kudashova! It's inspiring to see such insightful analysis on South Africa's democracy. Your efforts at UP Women in Law to highlight diverse voices and address inequalities are truly commendable. Keep up the great work! https://hi.switchy.io/L4c0
Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Candidate Fellow | BA Law student at the University of Pretoria
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