The Berlin Conference and the Carve-up of Africa: Part 5

Inferences

The fight against imperialism in Africa is particularly challenging, with the continent enduring ruthless exploitation and domination by imperialist powers. This was made worse by the collapse of socialism in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, which had provided an alternative to imperialist world economic domination. The persistent extraction of natural resources by foreign corporations, sometimes in collaboration with corrupt local leaders, has perpetuated poverty in Africa, and reduced its control over its resources. Imperialism in Africa has also led to political instability, as imperialist powers have propped up oppressive regimes to further their interests, resulting in a cycle of tyranny, and a deprivation of fundamental human rights for African people.

Like the bulk of the global economies, particularly those of the global south, the South African economy is undergoing challenges resulting in the persisting crises of poverty, inequalities and unemployment. This results from the remnants of apartheid and insufficient transformation towards inclusive growth and industrialisation. The challenges of insufficient power supply, persisting racial and gender inequalities, as well as underdevelopment issues, compound the difficulties facing the working people. This reality applies to South Africa as it does to the current global economy because capitalism inherently produces and reproduces inequalities of uneven development.

South Africa is not ignorant or immune to the existence of other foreign powers who are influential on the continent, where the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Gulf countries, and Europe, exercise significant influence over certain African governments. France, for example, still controls the trade and currency of its former colonies with about 65 percent of foreign reserves obligated to be kept and under the control of the French Treasury. The presence of France’s vigorous companies, such as Total Energies, is not only in the Francophone countries, but already holding lucrative contracts elsewhere on the continent.

When considering the geo-political spheres, China’s presence on the continent has not only disturbed the Global Powers’ economic influence but also created ample space for policy flexibility for African countries. These developments could strengthen a multipolar era, especially with BRICS offering new opportunities for African development. South Africa’s positioning in the current geopolitical contestation for global political and economic influence by the Great Powers, including its membership of BRICS, acts as a counterbalance to the liberal international world order dominated by the US and its allies. It is, however, a testament to the establishment of an alternative global order that is underway, as the old foundations are crumbling, and new frameworks are already in the process of being developed.

The world is gradually moving from a unipolar to a multipolar configuration since the financial crisis in 2008, with power increasingly diffused among different global actors. China is emerging as a major economic and political power to rival the superpower status of the United States, and regional organisations such as the European Union (EU) and the BRICS are exerting their power in a variety of international issues, even though multinational corporations still continue to wield power capabilities that are beyond those of the state system.

Countries of the global South and East are gaining prominence, and the role of Africa and Latin America is growing, which is a new political and economic reality that serves as the foundation for the emerging multipolar and multilateral world order, and this process is foreseeable in the near future. The global economy, politics, and competition that is prevalent in technological sphere is changing international dynamics in a manner that has never been experienced before. Focus for most countries, including in the African continent, are efforts towards strengthening their sovereignty, self-sufficiency, as well as national and cultural identities.

In South Africa, the leading party, which is the oldest national liberation movement in the African continent, the African National Congress (ANC), is struggling to take the country forward from a populace that is merely able to vote them into power, but unable to transform the economy into a democratically owned and driven sector beyond the apartheid or colonial relations. Largely, the colonial and apartheid political economy did not extend itself to address issues such as poverty, water, energy (electricity), sanitation and health, housing, education as well as environmental concerns, but most importantly the challenges of unemployment and inequality within the black community in general, and Africans in particular.

The ANC inherited an apartheid debt that is consistently mounting, and its servicing costs are unjustifiably eating into the coffers that could have been utilised towards effecting service delivery, particularly in areas where development is still imperceptible. Responses by the superstructure, under a government of national unity, led by the ANC, to crises of a neo-colonial and a neo-apartheid state are a tall mountain to climb, especially if led and driven from the centre, as other sectors are not responding enthusiastically or are rather selective in their responses. Actually, it should have been obligatory on all sectors to energetically respond with the state at the centre towards redressing the imbalances of the past to ensure a level-playing field for a conspicuously uneven economy to compete globally.

However, the other sectors, particularly the private and civil sectors, do not share the same vision as the ANC, since they are deliberately withholding their contribution, and the rest are not exposed to or understand the theories and practicalities of socio-economic development. Most of them are still grounded on individualistic rather than collective efforts towards economic advancement and global competitiveness. The latter has nothing to do with socialistic ambitions but has everything to do with giving capitalism an impetus it has never experienced before in South Africa towards mutual benefit.

This is where the social compact has failed to materialise: a social compact that ensures that the country’s economy is given a lift to revive the productive forces, particularly the industrial (including manufacturing, mining, agricultural, cultural and oceanographic) capacity within which the mostly literate, but currently redundant, youth could be utilised. For the past thirty years the ANC has been begging the private sector to come to the party, without success, and unfortunately also foreign direct investment is reluctant to inject into a morbid environment that shows slow growth and high levels of unemployment.

It is high time that the South African society realises that the phase of going cap-in-hand to the private sector, in particular, to join the transformation journey is over, but must now create an environment whereby this sector will wake up to the reality that if it does not become part, it will be left behind, as the rest of society transcends to another mode of socio-economic advancement. It wouldn’t be a smooth and easy journey, but it is within the grasp of the national liberation movement in conjunction with other socio-political and economic forces that are willing to take the voyage to a truly non-racial national democratic society. The argument here is that there is a huge potential for the economy to grow and expand effectively, given the right space, latitude, tools and resources to do so. And this will be the beginning of an accurate designation of a national democratic revolution.

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!