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Mbeki tells students SA must deal with violence, dysfunctional municipalities
At Unisa, Mbeki discusses South Africa's non-alignment stance, gender-based violence, and the need for effective governance in municipalities.
Former president Dr Thabo Mbeki at the ‘Conversation with Mbeki’ event at Unisa. Picture: X/@MbekiSchool
Former president Dr Thabo Mbeki engaged with the University of South Africa (Unisa) community, addressing critical issues like South Africa’s foreign policy, gender-based violence, and dysfunctional municipalities.
The Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs (TM-School) at Unisa hosted its engagement event, “Conversation with Mbeki”, on Wednesday, 4 September, at the Unisa Muckleneuk Campus.
The platform allows the Unisa community and school alumni to engage intellectually with the university’s chancellor on socio-economic and political issues, as well as local and international affairs.
Mbeki asked about governace, GBV and foreign policy
The panel discussion was facilitated by postdoctoral research fellows of the TM-School who asked Mbeki questions about local government, governance, gender-based violence, and South Africa’s foreign policy.
Dr Vongani Nkuna, who has an extensive publication record in the field of South African foreign policy perspectives, asked questions on South Africa’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war and lasting solutions for the conflict in the Middle East.
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On the Ukraine-Russia war, the former president said South Africa’s position of not being aligned with Ukraine or Russia and calling for peace is correct.
Mbeki said that, in his view, the war can only be resolved in the context of a discussion about multipolarity with Russia and the United States.
Multipolarity is defined as a system in international relations where there are three or more great powers that hold significant influence.
SA’s non-alignment position on Ukraine-Russia war ‘correct’
“The position taken by the South African government about non-alignment between the two is fine. It’s correct, but in the end, the solution has got to be true belligerence,” he said.
Regarding the Middle Eastern conflict, Mbeki said the possibility of a two-state solution was not possible at the moment.
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The former president said the international community is stuck with a situation where the rights of Palestinians are not being addressed and the possibility to address them in the context of a two-state solution ceases to exist because of the behaviour of the Israelites.
“I think any attempt to persuade the Palestinians not to fight for their rights will fail, so Palestinians will continue to fight, and I imagine Israelites will continue to talk about self-defence,” Mbeki said.
On what can be done, he conceded that he doesn’t know but added that the direction needed to be taken from Palestinian leadership.
‘Make issues of women empowermain mainstream’
Dr Koliswa Matebese-Notshulwana, who has a research interest in governance and gender-based violence (GBV), posed questions on the GBV Bill and on having more women in positions of leadership.
The former president said the solution to having more female leaders is that society needs to mainstream the issue of women’s empowerment within everything that you do.
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“When we do anything or everything that we do, we should say, ‘What is the gender policy with regard to whatever it is that we’re trying to do?’ I think this is the only way to deal with this issue,” he said.
He added that this was important because even if South Africa has a female president, it doesn’t mean the conditions of women will change.
On the GBV Bill, the former president said South Africa is “exceedingly violent” and that the levels of violence against people are too high.
SA is ‘exceedingly violent’
“I’m saying we must indeed address this matter about GBV, but we must also address the matter of violence to create the social context within which you can more effectively address the question of GBV,” he said.
Mbeki said South Africa cannot hope to produce a better outcome without dealing with the rest of the violence in society.
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Dr Zaakirah Jeeva, a town and regional planner who specialises in the field of spatial administrative reform and dysfunctional municipalities, is asking about avoiding total municipal collapse in dysfunctional municipalities.
The former president said that in order to fix dysfunctional municipalities, the government should implement some of the proposals of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) report, as it devotes a good portion of the report on the District Development Model (DDM).
Leaders, read the DDM
The DDM was designed to address problems with service delivery by allowing all spheres of government, from local municipalities to national government, to work together in a more effective and coordinated way.
“I’ve been trying to say to all these people of ours in government, read that report. Read the section because it’s so very clear to answer the question you are asking: What do we do about these dysfunctional municipalities?” Mbeki said.
“The ideas are there. The ideas are there to deal with that dysfunctionality.”
Watch the discussion with Mbeki here:
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