I wish I knew more about Fatima Meer, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes for the poor in South Africa. Sean’s Africa is a Country blog has a video and interview with her, as well as a few good links.
Do you see the future leadership coming from the poor?
FM: No, I can’t say that I see the future leadership coming from there. My assessment is that our Constitution, which we boast so much about, is flawed to the extent that it gives power to the parties, not to the people. The people haven’t achieved democracy in this country. Democracy has been achieved by the party. People nominate nobody, they cannot nominate their officials, they cannot nominate their leaders, the people remain powerless.
I work in Chatsworth, which is an Indian township, and I’ve tried very hard to get the leadership to emerge from the people; we even put up candidates at the last election. It’s impossible to put up candidates outside the party. Now if you don’t like the party, you’re upset with the party, you can’t be in the party.
Where do you see South Africa going forward?
FM: The Constitution will have to change, for one, and I don’t know how that can happen. We have to give more power to the people so that they can be involved in electing their own leaders. You can’t enter an election without some financial resources. Now as things stand, the parties are financed but the people aren’t. If there is a civic organisation that wants to put up a candidate, that civic organisation will not get any financial support to do so.
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Related deployments:
It’s convenient to just go through the motions with blinkers on as the icons of our society are unrealistically idolized and poorly understood. In a democracy the best of the averages flourish. The entire system is based on quantity and not quality. No wonder there is such a shortage of good leaders.