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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 07:40 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 07:40 |
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Dr Mamphela Ramphele delivered the second annual Helen Suzman lecture in Cape Town on November 3, entitled Integrity in Public Life. "We are here to honour Helen Suzman’s memory whose life was the embodiment of integrity in all respects. Hers was a tough time in the life of our nation. But she did not shy away from making those tough calls that leaders who leave a deep imprint on society are called to make. For Nelson Mandela, her contemporary, it was a matter of commitment to ideals of freedom for which he was prepared to die. For a much younger man, Stephen Biko, it was a matter of honouring an idea worth dying for, rather than live for ideas that would die. Helen Suzman’s ideals drove her from her comfort zone as an upper middle-class suburban white South African to stand for a more just society. All signs in our society point to the need for us to take stock and ask ourselves fundamental questions about how we have been able to discharge our responsibilities to honour the ideals we enshrined in our founding Constitution. We stand at a crossroads yet again as a society struggling to emerge from the growing pains of being a young democracy. It is fair to say that much more is asked of us that we have given over the last decade and a half. We all grossly underestimated the task of transforming ourselves into a democratic society. We did not reflect enough on the paradigm shift it would entail given our pre-1994 histories. Nor did we appreciate the complexities embedded in our diverse starting points in our journey to the new dispensation. The TRC process was a bridge that allowed us to cross over the turbulent waters of our past. But much more work remains to deal with the unfinished business of growing into the nation we dared to dream to become. The women of Crossroads are yet to wipe away their tears. The social pain of past and ongoing humiliation at the hands of public servants undermines whatever self-respect many of them have clung to over the last 15 years. The extortions they endure from unscrupulous moneylenders as they try to keep body and soul together leave them in a state of permanent anxiety. The issue we face now is how we rediscover the ideals for which so many have sacrificed their lives and devoted so much energy? How do we wrestle with the inherent tensions in choosing integrity in public life as individuals, public servants, business people and community activists? How do we follow Helen’s example and stand out above the fray and pressures from peers to lead lives characterised by integrity? What is integrity in public life? Integrity is defined as that which is beyond reproach, fully honourable and trustworthy. But in public life such a definition is inadequate. The complex issues inherent in integrity are best dealt with by standing outside the obvious formulations. Theodore Sturgeon takes an interesting approach to this issue in a 1953 novel entitled The Wages of Synergy. He constructs a dialogue between a wise man and a youngster: “An act can be both moral and ethical. But under some circumstances a moral act can be counter to ethics, and an ethical act can be immoral.” “I am with you so far,” he [the youngster] said. “Morals and ethics are survival urges, both of them. But look: an individual must survive within his group, The problems of survival within the group are morals.” “Gotcha. And ethics?” [The youngster probes further]. “Well the group itself must survive, as a unit. The patterns of an individual within the group, toward the end of group survival, are ethics.” Cautiously he [the youngster] said, “You’d better go on a bit.” “You’ll see it in a minute. Now, morals can dictate a pattern to a man such that he survives within the group itself may have no survival value. For example, in some societies it is immoral not to eat human flesh. But to refrain from it would be ethical, because that would be toward group survival. See.”  CONTINUES BELOW Helen Suzman’s life stands as an example of one who wrestled with matters of ethics and morality in a complex political context. She did not shy away from breaking with family expectations of moral choices for a young Jewish woman. Nor did she refrain from making ethical choices that demonstrated courage to follow patterns in her life that went against conventions of “her group”. She was able to see the folly of what was regarded as “good morals for the survival of the group” to borrow Sturgeon’s formulation. South Africans tend to have short memories about recent social history. Remember the Immorality Act? Here was an example of what was seen as “moral for the survival of the group”, namely prohibition of intermarriage between white and black people in order to protect white supremacy. Only the most courageous were able to make the ethical choice of crossing the colour line to follow their hearts. For the majority of South Africans private choice of partner was sacrificed on the altar of “moral expectations of the group”. Some were even prepared to lead unethical double lives of lies and deceit in the name of morality apartheid style. But awful as the Immorality Act was, it was not the most damaging racist law. The worst damage was wrought by the Migrant Labour System and its corollary, the Influx Control Act, that systematically destroyed the foundations of indigenous African family life. Africans were reduced to units of labour as a “moral act for the survival of the group” that stood to benefit from their economic exploitation. Helen Suzman’s courage was most memorable in fighting a lone battle against this inequity. She was not intimidated as a lone voice: only woman, only opposition MP, only defender of human rights of those without a voice. Hers was an ethical stand in the face of overwhelming belief by white people that these were essential laws for their survival as a group in a country with a predominantly black population. There was little reflection on the absurdity of the belief that “group survival” of a small white segment of the population on a continent where such attempts fail could be sustained by such “moral patterns of behaviour.” Few white people questioned the survival value proposition that was the dominant paradigm of the time. Most were seduced by the “swart gevaar” rhetoric. Of all the witty statements Helen Suzman made in Parliament the one that is most apt for the subject of this memorial lecture is: “I have been sitting here and watching a shiver traversing the green benches in search of a spine to crawl up on!” She was to have to watch for a long time indeed. Ethical behaviour was soundly trumped by the morality of “group think”. The question before us now is what frame of reference have we been, and are we currently using, to make choices as citizens of this democracy. What paradigm underpins our conduct in public life? Is it group morality or is it ethics? How do we respond to pressure to sustain the patterns of acts driven by group morality? How is this group moral pattern of acts in line with the values of our human rights constitution? Integrity, ideals and citizenship Our society is bleeding. The social pain endured by those who have remained marginal in our society has burst into greater and louder protests in our streets. Human beings are “hardwired to connect” which in our lexicon we have translated into ubuntu. Growing research evidence points to fact that people’s need for connectedness is just as essential as air, food, and water. Exclusion from one’s society has thus a devastating impact on one. In addition, scientists believe that the reason why the physical pain and social pain mechanisms are super imposed in bio-physical processes in the brain and possibly other yet unknown body mechanisms related to adaptation and evolution. We have not focused enough on the costs of exclusion and marginalisation for those people still living in poverty and deprivation. In addition, what development efforts have been made have been driven by a paradigm that does not address the self-worth and self-respect side of social pain of living in an unequal society. RDP houses that are shoddily constructed by politically connected winners of tenders are an additional affront to what is left of their dignity. Disrespect by public officials and loss of life due to uncaring health rofessionals weigh heavily on those excluded from the fruits of freedom. It is accepted worldwide that too great a degree of inequality makes human community impossible. Our democracy is at risk from the level of inequality that is exacerbated by patterns of actions that are unethical. The media is overflowing with reports of corruption, nepotism and looting of public resources. A culture of impunity has taken root over the last decade due to the failure of those in authority to hold officials involved in these behaviours accountable. The deployment policy of the ANC that has packed public services with incompetent politically connected people has undermined the institutional culture of our public service. The good officials are demoralised, and may have left or are leaving the service. Appointing and promoting people beyond their levels of competence not only break the law in terms of the Public Service Act, but fail the ethics test. The public good is undermined by imperatives of the “morality of the party and its survival”. It is encouraging that some leaders of the ANC are urging a shift from this perverse incentive system. The same “group morality” operates in the private sector. How else can one explain the participation of the private sector in corrupt and nepotistic deals? What of anti-competitive practices that artificially push up prices for basic foods and services that negatively affect poor people disproportionately? What legacy? What are we to tell our grandchildren and their children about the choices we have made over the last decade and a half of our democracy? Are we going to be able to look with confidence to handing over to the next generation a society we are proud of? What would we say about our silences in the face of "group morals" trumping ethics in public policy and practice? HIV/Aids denialism; education under-performance; and corruption in high places? What about our inaction in the face of outrageous statements by young political leaders? Shoot to kill University of Free State Prof Jonathan Jansen! Professor Kader Asmal must just die! We are at a crossroads as a society. We need to make a second transition to strengthen the institutions of our democracy to enlarge the political space for more citizens to make ethical choices. We need to identify constraints that may limit this space. We should not shy away from what may look like holy cows, including our Constitution. The provision of our world renowned national Constitution for proportional representation without the counter-balancing constituency representation mechanism has the unintended consequence of weakening the voice of the voters. The resulting strong role played by parties in allocating positions within Parliament and in the executive branch of government disempowers citizens. Our electoral and parliamentary systems unintentionally promote “group morality” by giving too much power to political parties, with a resultant weakening of incentives for ethical choices. Citizens need to work with those in the ANC who are proposing reviving the report of the Van Zyl Slabbert Commission on Electoral Reform to get a constitutional amendment passed through Parliament before the next national and provincial elections. Preserving and strengthening our democracy depend on it. Ours is a great country but we owe it to the memory of Helen Suzman to create a vibrant polity driven not by group think, but by ethics. The integrity that marked Helen Suzman’s political career is in serious need of revival and strengthening. That is the least she would expect of us. TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
Comments
GUS @ WORK on November 5, 2009, 1:54 pm
Yaapp yaap,will you just shut up for a minute.We are sick and tired of your pessimism.
You had your turn at the World Bank to improve Africa and what did you do? Nothing to show,you are a failed disgrace who is preaching an assumed perfect society yet you are busy signing BEE deals left right and centre. I challenge you Ramphele to come out and declare how many boards you're sitting in and how many BEE deals you have signed yet you're the first to loudly call "coruption". You're so prejudiced and biased against the JZ Admistration so much that you just criticize and want to create fear amongst the people in SA. Get a life and get off your pedestal of paranoia,we know you and you have never ever done anything for South africans all you do is warawarara....sies man.
Facts and stuff like that on November 5, 2009, 2:23 pm
Well put Mamphela, I can only support your statements, which are reflected in many conversations that I have had with people recently.
We need to look at how this society can live up to its high expectations as set out in the constitution. How we deliver to everyone and deliver quality and true service to each one. Creating the future and an equal future, is a great task and asks a great deal of each of us. I trust that there are enough of us who truly want this nation to thrive to make it happen
Judith Taylor on November 5, 2009, 2:34 pm
Like intelligence, integrity in human populations follows a Gaussian distribution. While some in SA might point to Dr Ramphele as indicating there is hope for your country, the unfortunate fact is that people like Mr "Facts" are predominant. Predominantly, the leaders steal from their own people. And the voters continue to believe that this is right and correct.
One may think, after hearing Dr Ramphele, that it is possible at least theoretically for people like her to form a parallel political party, with all the policies of the current government, but without the culture of theft. But it is not. Because only a very small percentage of the population are not hard-wired like Mr "Facts".
Jonathan Haze on November 6, 2009, 7:09 am
Someone please tell me that this is not the same Ramphele who dutifully served the morally bankrupt World Bank,which has been instrumental in enforcing and retainining the structurally asymetric relationship between the North and South. Did she not preside over the shameless commodification of education at UCT which resulted in thousands of poor, mainly black students, being expelled because they could not pay as they learned? Did her World Bank report of 2001 not propose liberalization of African agriculture, which subsequently led to the collapse of local farming and fishing communities?
And is the Helen Suzman not the same one that served in institutions of the fascist apartheid regime, thus legitimizing them? Did Helen Suzman not liken the intellectual capacity of the 'native' to that of a child, and stated that the European had the burden of caring for the black man and woman? Were these not the attitudes that led Nelson Mandela to stating that white liberals were Mickey Mouse hypocrites not to be taken seriously? And today these people are our moral guardians? Give us a break!
pasile mtshwelo on November 6, 2009, 9:23 am
@Ramphela- Pointing out at issues doesn't resolve anything. What did Helen Suzman do for Black Africans? How many black women did far more but are never mentioned. Why is it that you force us to celebrate white supremacy? If Helen was not white would we have known her? Well, I don't care about Helen, I absolutely have nothing to learn from her. Mamphele, you have become like Desmond Tutu, one of those few blacks celebrated by whites. Once that happens, you should know something is very wrong about you. I don't know of anything significant that you've ever done for your race except to point at our weaknesses all the time. Well you are black, even after death you will go and join your Black ancestors in a Black Mens heaven, just don't forget that..
Freedom Ndlovu on November 6, 2009, 1:51 pm
How will we ever understand our history when we persist in romanticizing contributions that did not contribute to the overall freedoms of oppressed people. We must rigorously interrogate Suzman's political position. Apartheid was a system that controlled the allocation and ensured the subservience of black workers in SA private and industrial sectors. Suzman and other liberals were largely silent abt the relationship between apartheid and private employers.They were extremely silent on black labour sourced from apartheid prisons. They were very silent on the profitability of the very cheap mining migrant labour.It must be pointed that that Suzman was an apologist for big business and its oppressive practises. Suzman espoused the very crass class liberalism that Ramphele now portrays.
Kitty Kat on November 6, 2009, 3:58 pm
She forgot that she had an illegitimate child with a married man in Steve Biko, what would she explain that as?, Too quick to judge other whereas her is out there in the sun, trying to appease enemies of the African peoples.
lenate mogale on November 6, 2009, 4:03 pm
It really hurts me reading some of the comments. Without people like Helen Suzman, peaceful change would not have been possbile. Insulting Ramphele for pointing out present wrongs demonstrates shortsightedness by those doing so.
All you do is widening the existig divide. What this country really needs is reflecting on what is wrong presently and then to decide how those wrongs can be corrected. Integrity and not greed should be the examples for young people to follow. Civil servants are there to serve those who pay their salaries (the public). They state should be there to provide service and security to its citizens, but right now it is far from achieving that. The poor, at whose expense many today make an extravagant living, will rise one day if we do not start to change things soon.
Hermann Funk on November 6, 2009, 5:42 pm
Ramphele good stuff on Suzman, she spoke up as a white women and gave dignity to many whites who felt Apartheid was wrong. Pity Ramphele that you hang out with the World Bank - Steve would not have been proud of that. Those usurers have held the rest of africa in bondage for decades and it continues, so much for Ubuntu. Even some of the good stuff you did with the Bank is questionable like not strengthening current universities and setting up new ones! The World Bank sucks, and some public integrity from you would be nice. It suits you. The likes of Wolfowitz and Zoelick don't, come home mama.
bashar teg on November 6, 2009, 9:28 pm
Lets be clear. Helen Suzman was a chief beneficiary of colonialism of a special type. She and her ilk benefitted from a economic,social and spatial imbalance which she too was hugely silent about. The nauseating practise of shouting from the rooftops from the confines of luxurious homes and expensive living is totally disgusting. Ramphele, who was Helen Zille's boss at UCT (if you wondered abt their 'close' relationship and undying love for each other)are the effects of colonialism of a special type. They pretend to speak in the interests of the poor but they insist on the relationships of slave and master. When have you ever heard Ramphele protect our constitution and all the rights afforded therein. She does not have a view abt farmworkers or any other marginalised worker. Now that she wears the coat of the colonial she acts and pretends on behalf of them. Very much the practise that STEVE BIKO warned us about and those cut from the same cloth as Helen Suzman.
Kitty Kat on November 9, 2009, 9:16 am
kitty? so who is benefitting from colonialism now? Why do people from all over africa come here and drool over the advancements? They can't believe they are still in africa. Lets pretend that the colonials were actually just sitting around and doing nothing watching the poor black people build up this great country in slavery all on their own? Everybody pretends, life is a stage and you can choose the role you want to play. The victim sounds like a good one for you, we will all feel very sorry for you and give you some money and then you will shut up and behave?
white trash on November 10, 2009, 6:06 pm
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You're my kind of girl; excellent speech and Steve would be proud of you. Ours is too precious a country and too formidable a people to let it be run into the ground by cadres whose only competence consists of looting for themselves and lazing around all day.