‘GNU must foster dignity’: Political leadership challenged to empower all South Africans

The key challenge confronting the fledgling government of national unity (GNU) is ensuring that South Africa escapes from the grip of the past through creating conditions allowing a life of dignity for all people.

This is the view of Gugu Motlanthe, executive trustee of the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation (KMF).

Defining the challenge for the GNU political leadership in her keynote address at the 2024 KMF inclusive growth forum in Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, Motlanthe said the battle for the economic empowerment of society remained paramount.

The conference was attended by captains of industry, economists, high profile politicians and analysts.

“This can only happen through a leadership that is focused on the future of the country.

“A new social accord and contract is needed between the people and the GNU,” Motlanthe said.

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She said poverty should be prioritised.

“Now that the GNU is in place, we expect the pooling of resources to deal with the poverty pandemic. In South Africa, income poverty is immense, especially for women and the youth.

“Women suffered under structural apartheid and now there is structural gender discrimination. An enormous amount of work remains to be done by all of us – and that includes this forum, as far as women participation is concerned.

“Why can we simply not get on top of the issue of GBV [gender-based violence], which has gone out of control?” she asked.

Motlanthe said the Gini-coefficient measuring inequality indicated extremes in South Africa. “Elites exist in comfort zones that are unsustainable.

“We desperately need a new social contract and a national formalised deal.

“While business has increasingly come to the party, we have some way to go.

“On a political level, there needs to be greater unity of purpose across South Africa’s diverse demographic constituents,” she said.

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Against the background of “poor quality of services rendered”, Motlanthe said people “increasingly experience tax in the negative”.

“In the township, the dynamic vibrancy is on another level of ingenuity and resourcefulness.

“If it is true that many a truth is spoken in jest, then perhaps there is something to the meme that high taxes are driving people out of the suburbs and back to the township.

“We joke that the taxman will not find the money in the township,” said Motlanthe.

She said in the township, there was “a so-called invisible, informal and intangible world where the youth have dreams of buying homes for parents – with aluminium doors, just like the neighbour”.

“The GNU must shine a light on this invisible matrix at the heart of informal economies and support the multitude of young entrepreneurs – including responsible proactive citizens who are a market place and have hidden talents.

“Leadership should reveal their extraordinary work and potential – changing their lives by encouraging the vibrancy of eKasi (township).”

Education, said Motlanthe, should produce for an industry “providing for basic needs and sending our children to the moon.

She added: “We have been grossly affected by shortage of resources.

“Everyone is affected by dwindling resources and the KMF is no exception.”

She said technology should be taken “to the hands of ordinary subsistence farmers, equipping them with the same advantages of Farmer Brown”.

“Such interventions and turnaround strategies, are required to improve the lives of the people and make them feel more invested in the political sphere of the GNU,” she said.

“Politics matter, as it impacts directly on peoples’ lives. We must continue all efforts to strengthen our hard-fought constitutional rights and to usher in overdue social accord.”

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