Burn the System Down: Towards a United and Radicalised Civil Society

By: Alexactus T Kaure

WHERE do we go from here? I think it is time we go back to the drawing board and ask what kind of societies we want to live in, and in what sense of democracy do we want these to be democratic societies? Are these the kind of societies we promised our people during the dark days of colonialism and apartheid come independence?

Are the political systems in the SADC region opening up or are we witnessing a closure and less responsive governments, thus narrowing the range of possibilities for citizens? Or what Andre du Pisani called ‘non-emancipatory politics’? Professor du Pisani asked “why is that public figures, who enjoy considerable respect, engage in crude, unreflective, animated talk? And what are the implications of all this for our nascent civil society and for democratic governance?” 

In recent but separate articles by Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro, Henning Melber and I have bemoaned the silence of Namibia’s civil society groups. In my case, I singled out the NUNW for systematic attack and I argued then that what we have in Namibia was an ‘uncivil civil society’. And I will still come back to the issue of the NUNW and its controversial relationship with the ruling party (they are holding their congress this weekend and it would be interesting to see what come out of that!).

Suffice to say that perhaps I was wrong in my earlier critique to lump all civil society formations together. Because during the just-ended SADC meetings in Windhoek, we have seen that there are other more vibrant civic groups and NGOs in the country. They in turn were joined by others from the region. Unfortunately the Namibian government didn’t allow them to exercise their democratic right to organise their demonstrations. But at least they made their voices heard thanks to newspaper coverage and to the Namibia Non-governmental Organisations Forum (Nangof) for raising some of the pertinent issues facing the region.

I think people have had enough. They are now beginning to see the almost unbelievable political idiocy among our political leadership. A few years ago the leaders were regarded with respect and reverence but today they are viewed with contempt. I can tell you this apparent negativism extents to many institutions, including the system itself, in much of the region. Many of the’have-nots’ regard their societies as morally bankrupt, violent, materialistic, corrupt and bourgeois in their outlook and value. 

Many countries in the region, including those said to be democratic like SA, Namibia, Botswana, are all trying to come up with strict media laws or legislation. But despite the pressure from governments, the media has helped expose our leaders’ hypocrisy, and our societies’ inner contradictions and the obvious failure of almost every aspect of our social, political and economic life to a much broader audience.

The political leadership across the region is united and they speak with one voice and that’s why nothing concrete came out of their meeting. For them it was just another occasion to celebrate, saying they didn’t want to spoil the good atmosphere by ‘embarrassing’ their friend President Robert Mugabe or the other dictators like Eduardo dos Santos (who didn’t attend though). Therefore, civil society organisations must also unite across the region and equally speak with one voice and support each other. It is only through a unified and a radicalised approach that they can force their governments to understand that equality, peace, justice, equal education and health opportunities and full employment is for all not just a few select ones – the ‘haves’.

Unfortunately not everyone is on board in this ongoing struggle by civil society groups to fight for a dynamic, participatory and radical democracy in the SADC region. The trade union movements, especially in Namibia and SA, have been co-opted in the ruling party political structures and their neo-liberal ideologies.

All civil society actors that are aligned to political parties and with state structures have effectively closed that important empty public space between state and society within which civil actors are suppose to operate.

In fact, this kind of arrangement has stalled the emergence of a vibrant civil society more in Namibia than it has, say, in SA, for different political, economic and historical reasons.

Therefore the functions of the NUNW and even that of Cosatu are nothing but to propagate the hegemonic agendas of Swapo and the ANC respectively. What this means is that labour has been drafted into politics without it in turn putting any demands on the political establishment. Take the case of NUNW’s sudden u-turn on the issue of basic income grant (BIG). Just because President Pohamba said he was not supporting it, then suddenly the NUNW also withdrew from it in cowardly fashion while BIG is meant to support the very constituency they claim to represent.

As citizens we should not sink into apathy, anonymity and de-personalisation. Because the result is that we come to depend on the politicians and other public authorities and then a state of civic-sclerosis sets in. Thus the civil society movement must live in the spirit of that credo of the Spanish Civil War that it is ‘Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.’

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