It is a truism that politics and rhetoric go hand in hand. But the ANC’s rhetorical strategy seems to be taken to new heights in a mixture of sophistry, pious moralism, and blithely ignored contradiction.
Aristotle described rhetoric as ‘the art of giving effectiveness to truth’, whereas sophistry was ‘the art of giving effectiveness to the speaker’. And of the latter there is no shortage, ranging from gimmicky window dressing to vanity projects and policy red-herrings.
The State of the Nation address was rich with such material. For example, much was made of the Grade 11 pupil – I still refuse to use the word ‘learner’ – who supposedly helped write the SONA speech. To what extent she really had a hand in the content is uncertain, particularly if it was but one day’s work according to the president, but it is telling that President Ramaphosa was so keen to signal this. Surely nothing to do with the current fad for young women leaders like Greta Thunberg, now is it?
Indeed, the government repeatedly prefers to tout the new-fangled and the cosmetic, eager to show that they can keep up with the Zeitgeist. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, a nebulous concept as it stands, is a favourite tool here. Making sure the basics are sound and functional is just an inconvenience.
Fevered imagination
Thus, Ramaphosa heralded his ‘smart city’ in Lanseria, ‘built on the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Elaborating on the one-liner in the SONA of June 2019, he indicated that this is to accommodate an influx into the city. One wonders from where, and if this is a different influx to the one which also produces the rapidly expanding squatter camps along the same road. Yet no reason is given as to why it needs to be of that specific form and functionality. Perhaps it is a dream of the president’s fevered imagination. What is the point if the rest of the city is left to limp on in neglect?
Basic Education is not immune from the march of progress, either. Students have been promised free tablet computers for many years now. The fact remains that no amount of technology can replace well-trained and knowledgeable teachers who are on top of their brief and can communicate this knowledge properly. But it looks good and forward-thinking. Too bad that such mod-cons as proper plumbing in rural schools are still lacking…
In curriculum development, robotics and coding are being trialled in Grades R-3, with a view to being extended across the foundational phase in 2022. At the same time the President declares that students must ‘read for meaning’ (a meaningless phrase in itself) only by the time they are ten years old.
Even more sober departmental documents are inclined towards empty display. Of the solutions offered for the reading crisis, most programmes had pseudo-inspirational names or acronyms with strings of letters: the bureaucratic equivalent of Ramaphosa calling a jobs summit.
Grand titles
It is perhaps telling of the state of things and the emptiness of these grand titles that between 2017 and 2020, when Minister Angie Motshekga responded to the SONA speech, the acronym PSRIP, which had previously stood for Primary School Reading Improvement Programme, had (voluntarily?) become Primary School Reading Intervention Programme.
It is just as telling that the proposed plan of action to deal with the underperformance was to work on those who could likely make the benchmark grade, a comparatively cosmetic solution, rather than addressing the underlying issues. And how far it is from the lofty ideals of the National Development Plan of 2012.
Like the potholes which are only ever patched, and then so poorly that it takes one downpour to open them up again, so too is the state of our country and ANC policy from top to bottom: patching problems here and there, when what is really required is for the whole to be overhauled on sound principles.
Every ‘solution’ now seems to follow the same pattern of being a stand-in and panacea for the whole problem. The smart-city will at once fix all the ills of space shortage, job creation, societal cohesion, and the climate panic. Making early development education compulsory will improve the economic prospects of the country. The founding of a University of Science and Innovation will make Ekhuruleni the Silicon Valley of South Africa, while at the same time fighting climate change by developing hydrogen fuel powered scooters for postmen to ride…
The literary term for this is mise en abyme: where an episode or motif which encapsulates in miniature the themes of the whole work, just as when one looks at oneself between two mirrors and the image repeats until oblivion. The French word abîme, ruin, is perhaps apt, given the country’s current likely trajectory.
Liberation credential
Then there is the claiming of the moral high ground, the spectre of Apartheid which is brought up at every turn, and often within the same breath. Most often it is the liberation credential which trumps, if not prevents, good policy making.
A good example is drawn from education again. The National Curriculum lists among its driving principles such vague things as ‘social transformation’ and ‘human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice’. These are noble ideals, but they have little to do with the effectiveness or efficiency of education. In this spirit is the address given by the Minister of Basic Education in 2017 with reference to the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) report, which measures basic literacy and reading achievement.
Minister Motshekga prefaced the speech with a curious statement that the only way in which South Africa can achieve its desired educational goals is through “an inclusive, equitable, efficient quality education system; drawing on the energies of all our people; growing an inclusive economy; promoting positive and accountable leadership and partnerships”. Not properly trained teachers? Not quality control? Not a sensible curriculum based on sound principles?
As with most things, the optics are more important than integrity. So, too, with the two most pressing issues of the day: expropriation without compensation and the introduction of National Health Insurance.
People’s War
It is a built-in defence mechanism. As Dr Anthea Jeffery has shown in her work on the People’s War, the ANC positioned itself as the only legitimate movement liberating the country from Apartheid. To critique one is thus inherently to critique the other: to go back to the past, to want for oneself but not for others, and more significantly, to undermine the legitimacy of the new country.
This kind of talk recently escalated, when Ramaphosa used the word ‘treasonous’ to describe dissent from the idea of apartheid as a crime against humanity. Whatever one might think of this particular point, it is alarming that the orthodoxy of rainbowism is being enforced in such a manner. Freedom of speech must be upheld in a pluralistic liberal democracy such as ours.
It is beyond time that the people of this country see these techniques for what they are. The government has nothing left to offer. The broader question is how much longer the government thinks it can get away with using these techniques, and how much longer the populace will continue to buy it. How much longer will the other world powers continue to buy it? When the country hits rock bottom, when recession becomes depression and then collapse, this unbridled idealism and cosy (self-)deception will be cold comfort indeed.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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