IMRAAN BUCCUS: Business’s role in the search for the social democratic sweet spot

Powerful figures in white business invested large sums of money in this election. Along with the DA, major investments were made in new political players Change Starts Now, Rise Mzansi, Build One SA and ActionSA. 

All these parties did well in the liberal media and were liked by liberal journalists. But there was very little return on these investments in terms of winning votes. It is clear that big funding and slick marketing campaigns will not win elections for cookie-cutter liberal parties in SA.

With the DA unable to move beyond its ceiling and the new liberal entrants unable to take on the ANC and its offshoots in the EFF and MK, the new liberal parties can contest only for the share of the vote now held by the DA.

We should not be surprised that most South Africans are not attracted to liberalism. Most South Africans remain poor 30 years after the end of apartheid, with millions in desperate circumstances. Youth unemployment is at staggering levels, and many families are going hungry.

Anodyne slogans like “We need new leaders” aren’t going to cut it in this kind of crisis. New entrants will succeed only if they can develop a language that resonates with people who are suffering in this crisis. 

Business now has a stark choice: to continue with its fantasy that the decline of the ANC will mean a turn to liberalism, which it clearly won’t, or to accept that it will have to make major concessions if it wishes to avoid a swing to forms of authoritarian and nationalist populism, some of it kleptocratic, that will be willing to destroy the economy to enrich a politically connected few, as Zanu-PF has done in Zimbabwe.

I would like to see a figure like Lula da Silva emerge in SA who could, working with social movements, mount a serious challenge to inequality and lift millions out of poverty. But while the left in SA has a number of mass-based organisations — most significantly the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), Cosatu, Abahlali baseMjondolo and the SACP — they work in silos and have no charismatic figure able to unite them. Unless something unexpected happens, the left will not be a player in electoral politics for the foreseeable future.

A social democratic option may be more likely, and perhaps the pragmatists on the left and in business could find some tentative common ground behind a social democratic project. This would require the left to understand that it now does not have the organisational force to nationalise the platinum mines and undertake other similar measures. It would require business to understand that major concessions are required to stave off the real risk of an authoritarian nationalist populism that could put an end to democracy and destroy the economy.

Our history of racial oppression has correctly meant that it cannot be business as usual in SA. But the cost of doing business here has often meant placating avaricious elites in and adjacent to the ANC via BEE deals and affirmative action. Affirmative action must be continued, but BEE deals that enrich only political elites can no longer do so. 

The price of doing business in a country scarred by a history of terrible oppression needs to shift towards supporting the working class and the poor, and needs to be driven with maximum urgency. This must include business offering its skills, which are often world class, to support the institutions used by the poor, such as public healthcare and schools.

Of course, business cannot abandon the search for profit but if it wants to sustain profitability in the years ahead it will have to understand that this will be possible only with genuine and effective social commitments. The individuals who have become very rich in a very unequal economy will need to understand that the kind of market fundamentalism driven by the liberals in organisations such as the Brenthurst Foundation, the Institute for Race Relations and the Free Market Foundation has no future in SA and can only worsen the attraction to various forms of authoritarian populism. 

These kinds of funders need to shift towards supporting social democratic alternatives. We have brilliant and often world-class policy and economic experts who could help to find the social democratic sweet spot that enables a new compact between business and society. Some of these people, such as Duma Gqubule, Ayabonga Cawe, David Lewis and Neva Makgetla, are regular contributors to Business Day. There are also all kinds of think-tanks such as the Institute for Economic Justice and the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies. There are also many other people, such as Busi Sibeko, Mark Heywood and Matthew Parks, who could make a huge contribution.

This election was not only a rejection of the ANC. It was also a rejection of the new and newish black-led liberal parties, and one in which the DA could not grow despite the appalling governance of the ANC. 

Market fundamentalism has no future in our electoral politics. This must be faced and business must understand that its only viable way forward is to concede this and to accept that it needs to shift to supporting social democracy. 

We don’t yet know what the outcome of the coalition negotiations will be. If they result in an alliance between the corrupt nationalists in the ANC, possibly led by deputy president Paul Mashatile with the MK party and/or the EFF, it may be too late to ensure a democratic future. It may be that the path towards what Jeremy Cronin called “Zanufication” is already set.

If the negotiations result in a deal between the more liberal faction of the nationalists in the ANC and the DA, some time will have been bought to keep the kleptocratic authoritarians away from national power. But such a deal cannot resolve our crisis. It can only provide a few more years to make the kinds of changes that can secure a democratic future. 

That future cannot be the one envisaged by the economically right-wing faction of SA liberalism. Market fundamentalism has no future here. For business, the only workable way forward is to abandon market fundamentalism and accept that it must throw its weight behind a genuinely social democratic alternative. That is the price of doing business here. If business is not willing to pay that price, it will pay a much, much higher price if the authoritarian and at times kleptocratic populists win control of state power. Indeed, it may already be too late.

• Dr Buccus is a political analyst.