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Ayanda Ndamane<\/p>\n
Mamphela Ramphele has told South Africans she has launched a political party to try and make the old dreams of freedom and a democratic country come true.<\/p>\n
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I am here today to invite you to join me on a journey to build the country of our dreams. I ask those of you of my generation: let us cast our minds back to the run-up to 1994 and the moments immediately following the dawn of our freedom. Do you remember our patience and quiet dignity as we waited in long queues to cast our very first votes as citizens of a free South Africa? Do you remember how you choked with emotion and had goose bumps as you made your very first cross on the ballot? Do you remember the tears of joy and relief when we watched our first president, Rolihlahla Mandela, being honoured with a fly-past by the air-force that was to have its first democratically elected commander in chief? <\/p>\n
Do you remember the dream we embraced to build ours into a great society \u2013 a prosperous constitutional democracy united in its diversity? Do you remember our commitment to promote human dignity (Ubuntu) and banish the humiliation and disrespect of our apartheid past? Do you remember our vow to promote transparency and accountability in public life? Do you remember that we agreed that our democracy would be known for being responsive to the social and economic needs of all citizens? <\/p>\n
Encouragement <\/p>\n
I have had to overcome the high barriers to opportunity confronting many black people, especially black rural women, to become a student activist, a medical doctor, a community development activist, a researcher, a university executive, a global public servant at the World Bank and now an active citizen in both the public and private sectors. Key to my success is the support and encouragement I received from my family, my teachers, my friends and fellow citizens. <\/p>\n
The country of our dreams has unfortunately faded for many of my fellow South Africans. The dream has faded for my sisters and brothers in rural areas who live under the threat of again being made subjects of traditional chiefs and other unelected traditional leaders through proposed acts of our own Parliament. The dream has faded for the many living in poverty and destitution in our increasingly unequal society. And perhaps worst of all, my generation has to confess to the young people of our country: we have failed you. We have failed to build for you an education and training system to prepare you for life in the 21st century. <\/p>\n
I am here today to invite you, young and old, to re-imagine the country of our dreams and to commit to building it into a reality in the lives of every South African. I am willing to be a bridge between my generation \u2013 those of us who fought for freedom who remember not only with their minds, but also with their hearts \u2013 and that of my children. <\/p>\n
Today I announce that I am working with a group of fellow citizens to form a party political platform that will focus on rekindling hope that building the country of our dreams is possible in our lifetime. Our consultations and conversations across the country have confirmed a hunger for a new beginning. This will be a platform that will enable us to transcend our divided past and work together as a society united in our diversity. It is a platform that will seek to work with others to reduce the fragmentation in the political landscape and to realign politics towards a focus on putting the country first. We launch this initiative under the name Agang, or in the Nguni languages of our country, Akhani, which can be interpreted in English as \u201cBuild South Africa\u201d. <\/p>\n
The decision to enter party politics has not come easily. I have never been a member of a political party nor aspired to political office. However, I feel called to lead the efforts of many South Africans who increasingly fear that we are missing too many opportunities to become that which we have the potential to become \u2013 a great society. I have no illusions about the difficult road ahead. Bridges get trampled on. But I trust my fellow South Africans\u2019 capacity to come together at critical times to do what others believe is impossible. I believe that greatness is within our grasp if only we can reach out across divisions and self-interests and put the country first. <\/p>\n
Our country is at risk because self-interest has become the driver of many of those in positions of authority who should be focused on serving the public. <\/p>\n
The great society to which we committed ourselves following our relatively peaceful political transition is rapidly unravelling before our eyes. The impressive achievements of the past 18 years are being undermined by poor governance at all levels of society. An unchecked culture of impunity and the abuse of power as well as public resources rob children, young people, rural and urban poor people of the fruits of freedom. <\/p>\n
This party political platform will declare war on corruption. It will work with all those in civil society as well as individual citizens and dedicated public servants who share our concerns to fight this scourge. <\/p>\n
We have not invested adequately in educating for democracy. Civic education, a cornerstone of all thriving democracies, is absent in our homes, schools, places of worship, work places and communities. <\/p>\n
The most troubling example of our failure to shift our mindsets and take ownership of our country is that less than 10 percent of South Africans \u2013 young and old \u2013 self-identify as South Africans first. Ethnicity, religion and economic class come first to mind for the majority of citizens. We must build a sense of common South African citizenship. We will work with those in civil society who are drafting a citizen charter to help guide us on our journey to the country of our dreams. <\/p>\n
Our rallying cry during the struggle for freedom was for the people to govern, yet the system of choosing Members of Parliament from lists drawn up by political parties gives disproportionate power to party bosses at the expense of ordinary citizens. We should be able to vote for the person in our own area who we want to represent us in Parliament, so we can hold them accountable for the electoral promises they make. We want an MP for Marikana, an MP for De Doorns, and an MP for Sasolburg, so if the people are unhappy and the MP is not responsive enough, they will be voted out at the next election. We will be working with fellow citizens to launch a million-signature campaign for electoral reform. <\/p>\n
Governance failure is also reflected in the manner in which powerful vested interests have undermined key decision-making and proper management of assets of the state. This is reflected by the seamless manner in which the party, the government, the president and the state have merged into a monolith of impunity. <\/p>\n
The ANC\u2019s Chancellor House investment arm represents the most blatant example of how the governing party has abused the state to benefit its loyalists and to sustain itself in power. The most troubling aspect of Chancellor House investments is the lack of transparency of its deals. <\/p>\n
What we do know is that the participation of Chancellor House as a BEE partner of Hitachi, a supplier of Eskom\u2019s Medupi Power Station, makes a mockery of the ANC\u2019s claim to accountable and transparent governance. Poor people are the biggest losers as a result of the unholy business-government alliances designed to aggressively pursue commercial interests for political elites. <\/p>\n
Workers and poor people are also the victims of the interests of privileged union leaders becoming too closely tied to those of government. We will defend the right of workers to unionise and protect their rights at all times. <\/p>\n
We are committed to establishing a competent, performance-managed and professional state bureaucracy that serves the public. Co-ordination and collaboration must be at the heart of the culture of public service to ensure efficiency and effectiveness at all levels of government. We need to depoliticise the public service beyond agreed levels where political deployment of competent dedicated professionals is desirable. <\/p>\n
Our nation\u2019s progress is hampered by an economy that does not work for every South African. There is no justification for so much poverty in the midst of so much opulence. It is appalling to learn that an estimated 71 percent of South Africans in the 15-34 age group who make up 60 percent of our population are not participating in the economy, and are instead forced to accept the humiliating substitute of social grants. <\/p>\n
We must create an environment that creates incentives for job creation and opportunities for livelihoods for all. The mining sector\u2019s business model based on reliance on the migrant labour system and large numbers of low-cost, low-skilled labour is unsustainable. The mining and agricultural industries have to migrate to a business model that invests in skills of its workers, uses innovative technologies to remain competitive and creates new types of jobs and opportunities for all. Another important test for our country is how to improve the skills of the rapidly increasing pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour to give them jobs in an economy that is dominated by the services sector. We have to become much more focused on productivity and competitiveness in our areas of strength, and become a desirable investment destination and supplier of choice internationally. <\/p>\n
The alarming collapse of education in our public schools represents a grave threat to our future. It is woeful, shameful that we should have such low expectations of young South Africans that we are prepared to accept 30 percent as a pass mark for school leavers. What nation can expect to succeed in the 21st century with such low standards of education? <\/p>\n
The fight against poverty and inequality cannot be won without radical transformation of our education and training system into one that promotes and rewards excellence at all levels. The time has come for us to work together to establish an education and training system that re-ignites the self-confidence and hopes of young South Africans to be part of the shaping of the country of our dreams. <\/p>\n
Ours must be a society in which every child matters and their talents are nurtured to enable them to become the best that they can be. <\/p>\n
The most serious flaw in our foreign policy stances is our failure to consistently align our policies with the human rights principles of our constitution. We have taken positions in the multilateral arena in recent years on vexed issues such as Zimbabwe, Darfur and Myanmar that are at variance with our human rights principles. <\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s global standing has also been diminished by the surrender of our country\u2019s national sovereignty to appease foreign powers such as China, as the case of the Dalai Lama\u2019s unsuccessful visa application to visit our shores showed. We have also not sufficiently used our strong position as an African country to provide leadership, especially on regional integration processes, and to forge strong mutually beneficial relationships in a continent that is set to out-perform others in a struggling global economy. <\/p>\n
Our failure to protect our borders has created a huge burden of uncontrolled economic and political refugees. This burden has generated a virulent xenophobic response from poor people who are forced to compete with much more determined migrants and refugees. We should be the magnet for Africa\u2019s most talented skilled people and be able to respond systematically to deserving political refugees. <\/p>\n
We are here to invite people of my generation to rekindle the South Africa of our dreams. We are here to invite people of my sons\u2019 generation to experience for themselves the thrill of living in an age of excitement and possibility. <\/p>\n
We are here to mobilise to build a world-beating 21st century democracy. We are here to invite you all to rediscover and live the values that made us a great nation. We are here to make sure that Ubuntu becomes again a way of life. We are here to ensure that being human must again become the most important status. We are here to invite all citizens to help turn our country away from the road to ruin that it seems to be set on. <\/p>\n
This is an opportunity for citizens to take ownership of their own country\u2019s destiny and shape it. We need to have the courage of our convictions and not let fear imprison us. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
l This is an edited version of Ramphele\u2019s speech at the launch of her party yesterday.<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ayanda Ndamane Mamphela Ramphele has told South Africans she has launched a political party to try and make the old dreams of freedom and a democratic country come true. I am here today to invite you to join me on a journey to build the country of our dreams. I ask those of you of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-18150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}