Former President Thabo Mbeki has told an academic gathering at the University of South Africa (UNISA) that a briefing last month to the Cato Institute in Washington DC by Dr John Endres, CEO of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), is ‘a very interesting speech which I think everybody should read’.
Democratic South Africa’s second president was addressing a gathering at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs at UNISA on Thursday.
After referring to an observation about ‘people who have been sidelined since 2007’ – adding, ‘and that includes me’– Mbeki drew attention to Endres’s Cato Institute briefing, which is titled, South Africa’s Third Age: What lies ahead. (You can read it here.)
This portion of Mbeki’s address is at the beginning of the third minute in the following half-hour video.
Mbeki highlights Endres’s delineating developments in South Africa’s since 1994 into three distinct ages – the first, from 1994 to 2007, the second from 2008 to 2022, and third, the current term.
The former president notes of Endres’s characterisation of the ‘First Age’ that it reveals ‘a very positive period in our country…’ while, in contrast, the post-2008 ‘Second Age’ was marked by downward trends.
‘I do not think any one of us can challenge (Endres),’ Mbeki said, ‘because practically that’s what happened, and that’s the truth.’
Endres told the Daily Friend: ‘Mbeki presided over many of the successes IRR analysis has identified as characteristic of democratic South Africa’s First Age, from 1994 to 2007. During that period, the economy grew at 3.6%, the public debt was halved, and the number of people with jobs almost doubled. Public services in housing, education, healthcare and infrastructure were rolled out at a rapid pace.’
He added: ‘The former president’s acknowledgement of the credibility of IRR analysis in his UNISA address underscores the compelling moment SA has reached. It reflects the critical importance of candour in our assessment of where we stand. We need fresh, bold thinking and planning to take us beyond the present crisis.’
Bold reforms to turn South Africa around are the key elements of the IRR Growth Strategy, also penned by Endres, which was submitted to this month’s Multi-Party National Convention when it met in Johannesburg to begin fashioning a post-ANC turnaround.
In a webinar on Thursday, Endres discussed the contents of the Growth Strategy document with IRR projects and publications manager Terence Corrigan. You can watch the webinar (and access the report itself) here.
In his address to the gathering at UNISA, Mbeki was also sharply critical of the ruling party for not having rid itself of people who had entered the party, who ‘wear ANC T-shirts … know how to toyi-toyi, and sing and dance, and all that’, but cared nothing for the part’s ‘value system’ and were merely intent on gaining ‘a stepladder to government, in order to have the possibility to steal’.
He bemoaned the fact that though the ANC repeatedly committed itself to renewal, ‘nothing has happened so far’.
Looking ahead to the next election, Mbeki said: ‘I say to the ANC comrades … when you say that I must go campaigning next year, to say to people, vote ANC, how am I going to do that when I know very well that the branch of the ANC in this constituency is led by a criminal? You can’t… it’s not possible.’