South Africa in the post-Mandela era

Excerpted from a speech by James A. Joseph, former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, for the Sanford Institute's Board of Visitors meeting, November 19, 1999. Ambassador Joseph is now Leader-in-Residence and Visiting Professor of the Practice of Public Policy in the Sanford Institute's Hart Leadership Program. He will teach a course in the fall entitled "Leadership as a Moral Activity.".

By James A. Joseph

The June election launched the second phase of the South African effort to build a new democracy. The first phase focused on reconciliation and the political empowerment of the majority population. New leaders were elected; apartheid- era laws repealed and a new policy framework developed to take South Africa into a new era of openness, equality, economic growth and international engagement. Those were the accomplishments of the Mandela era on which Mbeki must now build. Political empowerment must now be accompanied by economic empowerment. The new laws must now be implemented and the economic, cultural and social systems transformed.

Almost all assessments of Mbeki's first 100 days have been positive. His leadership style is different and he represents a younger generation of leaders who share his emphasis on getting things done. Any one who follows Nelson Mandela is in some ways diminished in stature because Mandela was an international hero, a cultural icon who comes along rarely in history. But Mbeki was groomed for the challenges he now faces. He is an economist who understands how an interdependent world economy functions. Mandela was precisely what South Africa needed for its first five years and Thabo Mbeki appears to be precisely what South Africa needs for its second. He has the right priorities and the right programs, the right commitment and the right competencies.

I can also report that the South African economy has emerged from the financial turmoil that hit emerging markets with new signs of vitality. Inflation is down to its lowest level in 25 years and economists are now projecting economic growth of three to four percent for next year. Houses are being built and water and electricity are no longer the exclusive prerogative of the privileged. New health centers are being established and new classrooms constructed.

U.S. - South African relations are at an all time high and most of the contentious issues that could have easily driven us apart are now resolved. The Binational Commission has worked well, elevating the relationship to the highest levels of our two governments. The opportunity for collaboration in the public, private and nongovernmental sectors has never been better.

Let me describe five challenges facing those who seek to work in partnership with South Africans to consolidate their new democracy, grow their economy and improve the quality of life of those most disadvantaged by the legacy of apartheid.

African solutions

The first challenge is to support African solutions to African problems. The nature and style of collaboration with the new African leaders must be changed. President Clinton put it best when he said in Cape Town, "The old question was what can we do for Africa or what can we do about Africa? The new question must be what can we do with Africa." The President emphasized on another occasion that what all of us should want for Africa is what Americans helped build in Western Europe - countries that uphold common standards of human rights, where people have the confidence, the security and the means to invest in the future, and where nations cooperate not to wage war, but to make war unthinkable. Helping people help themselves is not only an idea whose time has come, but it may be the only approach that can effectively support sustainable development.

Realistic strategies

The second challenge is to support reconstruction and development strategies that are realistic about South Africa's standing in the region and the world. With elements of both the first and third world, South Africa reflects both the best and the worst of Africa. It is the potential for using first-world elements to develop the third-world sectors, however, that provides reason for optimism. South Africa's new leaders recognize that in order for their country to grow and prosper, the nations of the region must grow and prosper. It is no accident that the number of unemployed and the number of foreign workers in South Africa are about the same.

South Africa dominates the region

Yet, any regional strategy must take full consideration of the impact of South Africa's dominance. South Africa has only 21 % of the population, but 76% of the Gross Domestic Product of Southern Africa. It has 69% of the world exports and during the last year of record received 84% of inward foreign direct investment. South Africa has 87% of the region's telephones, 61% of its rail network and generates half the electricity of the entire continent. Economists tell me that the primary engine for growth in the Southern African region is South Africa.

The dominance of South Africa in the region has three major consequences. The first is the imbalance in the institutional capacity of other governments and NGOs to participate fully in regional development. The Southern African Development Community (SAD) can be an important vehicle for regional cooperation, but the other countries in the region simply do not have sufficient staff to share equal responsibility for the functioning of committees or the development and management of programs. A second factor is the continuing suspicion of South Africa's intentions. South Africa faces the same problem on the continent, and in the region that the United States faces in the world. There is always suspicion about the intentions of the dominant power.

A third byproduct of South Africa's dominance in the region is the envy and even jealousy it generates of South Africa's leaders. South Africa's moral standing and political stature on the continent and in the world has made its leaders spokespersons for the developing world and at the same time bridge-builders between rich and poor nations. South Africa is the leader of the non-aligned movement while heads of state and royalty from throughout the world beat a path to its door.

To understand why South Africa's leaders are destined to play a disproportionate role in world affairs, it is necessary to look beyond the size of its population and its Gross Domestic Product. Joseph Nye in a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine made an important distinction between hard and soft power. Hard power refers to a country's ability to use its military and economic might to influence and even coerce. Soft power refers to the ability to attract and influence through the flow of information and the appeal of social, cultural and moral messages. Military power is unipolar with the United States far outstripping all other states. Economic power is multipolar with the United States, Japan and Europe accounting for two thirds of the world's production. Soft power is more widely dispersed with South Africa a leading practitioner. As Nelson Mandela has demonstrated, soft power can be a very important source of influence and standing in an information age.

It is this misunderstanding of the source of South Africa's influence that has led some leaders in the region to seek equal standing and stature. Even with Mandela retired, the envy and jealousy seem to continue in some quarters. Yet, South Africa is making a concerted effort to make a contribution through multilateral rather than unilateral deliberation and action. President Mbeki's championing of the African renaissance is well known, but what may not be so well known is his focus on the African continent as his number-one foreign policy priority. There seems to be a renewed commitment to regional development as the key to reconstruction and renewal on the continent, and more attention seems to be focused on the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Mbeki has come up with a regional growth plan that involves a range of cross-border investment projects, including distance-learning, telemedicine and common tourism ventures.

The threat of AIDS

The third challenge facing those who seek to support transformation in South Africa is the growing threat of HIV/AIDS. It is not just a health problem, but a major threat to economic development. As much as 10 percent of the population is HIV positive. A recent survey sponsored by the Kaiser Foundation found that seven in 10 South Africans regarded HIV/AIDS as their most important health concern. But the pandemic is not getting the attention it deserves in other parts of the region because too many people see it as someone else's problem. We need to find ways to remind the people of Southern Africa that the victims of AIDS are rarely strangers. They are their colleagues in the work place, they are their neighbors, they are their children, they are their immediate families, and they are the global families of humankind. In helping them, they are helping themselves. As South Africa's Deputy President Jacob Zuma pointed out at a meeting of SADC health ministers last week, territorial borders are fictitious in the fight against HIV-AIDS. The countries of Southern Africa are all in this together.

Just before leaving South Africa I met over the course of two months with representatives of more than two dozen NGOs working on social issues and social needs related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I can tell you that despite the gravity of the statistics and the dire predictions for the future, the story that is not being told is that there are a wide number of citizen initiatives that deserve to be supported and duplicated in other communities and countries. The whole of Southern Africa can benefit from knowing that some of their neighbors have found alternatives to despair and that there is something ordinary people can do to combat this plague.

Developing a public service culture

The fourth challenge I wish to address is that of supporting emerging leaders and developing a new public service culture. One of the untold stories of Southern Africa is the number of competent and committed leaders that can be found at all levels and in all sectors of society. Many show real promise, but do not yet have the experience, confidence and context for fully realizing their potential. As I have traveled the region meeting with young mayors, provincial legislators, academics and a new generation of NGO leaders, I have found a hunger for a continuing relationship with someone who can help guide them through the minefields of public leadership. They want to know more about how others have dealt with issues ranging from public accountability and best practices to communicating with constituents and responding to pressure groups. They would benefit from knowing how others in similar positions avoid burnout and provide intellectual and spiritual renewal. It is not so much formal management training they crave as informal networking and the sharing of insights born out of experience.

That is why I have decided to develop a Center on Leadership and Public Values that will be based in Durham and Cape Town. It will develop and conduct "Renaissance Weeks" that bring together emerging Southern African leaders with experienced mentors. The Center will also establish a Binational Commission on Civil Society to bring together leaders in the nongovernmental sector to facilitate binational linkages in the same way that the Gore - Mbeki Commission has facilitated government to government relations.

Strengthening civil society

Let me conclude with a word about the fifth challenge facing Americans in search of ways to support South Africa's new democracy. There has been such an outpouring of good will toward South Africa that many civil society institutions, including colleges and universities, are overwhelmed. They simply do not have the capacity to absorb the good intentions of well-meaning outsiders. On the other hand, almost every citizen delegation with which I met in South Africa wanted to know how they might help. I hope that through the Binational Forum on Civil Society we will be able to answer that question.

South Africa's new democracy needs three strong sectors: a public sector driven by the ballot, a private sector driven by markets and a social sector driven by private citizen initiatives and the institutions of civil society. Any effort to strengthen either of these sectors helps to consolidate democracy, but it is the strengthening of civil society that most concerns me. South Africa has a long tradition of people coming together to form groups that promoted social change, assisted self-reliance and participatory development. But many of the civil society leaders are now in government and the role of civil society in the new democracy is still very much unclear.

There is also the need for the development of a new public service culture. We can rant and rave about corruption, for example, but unless there is some common understanding and frame of reference for determining what practices are inappropriate and unethical we alienate rather than connect with those whom we seek to reach.

To those who ask why should Americans be concerned about developments in Africa, the answer is simple. In this age of interdependence, we can not continue to rise to the heights we aspire as Americans without Africa rising with us. Whether a woman in Mozambique has water, whether a child in Zimbabwe can grow up educated, healthy and free from violence, whether the citizens of South Africa can face life free from hate and full of hope, will go a long way toward determining the life people all over the world will lead in the 2 1 st century.

Why Africa? Secretary of Sate Madeline Albright put it best in her confirmation hearing before the United Sates Senate when she said, "We want a world in which every nation is free and every free nation is our partner, a world in which there is peace, freedom, food on the table and what President Clinton once described as the quiet miracle of normal life." It is a world, however, "in which we face many threats, some as old as ethnic conflicts, some as new as letter bombs, some as long-term as global warming; some as dangerous as nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands." It is a world in which "we must be more than audience, more than actors, we must be the authors of the history of our age."

Clearly, many Americans who work through universities, foundations and the vast array of nongovernmental organizations involved in South Africa understand what it means to be the authors of a new age. Our nation is replete with examples of how voluntary nonprofit organizations have contributed to the creation of a new history and a new hope. My only plea is that as you focus on the magnitude of the challenges that remain in Southern Africa, you not lose sight of the magnificence of what has already been accomplished. While there is still much to be done, I want you to know that after almost four years of living and working in South Africa, I am optimistic about the future of the new democracy and remain convinced that independent sector organizations can make a difference.