I am sometimes asked: can South Africa survive? The answer is easy. We will, of course, survive. A much better and forward-looking question is: can South Africans prosper? Will we be able to create a system of government and economy that will realise the hopes and aspirations of South Africa’s citizens? Or are we doomed to struggle forever through apartheid’s terrible legacies of exclusion, division and inequality? I believe the answer is: we can. But to realise a more positive future, we have to face a number of hard truths and act on them.
In November 2017 Jonas formed the Centre for Change (CFC) in response to his belief that the state capture period had thrust the country into a transition. He believed that this left two choices: first choice was a future where our democracy would fall victim to power-seekers who would misuse our institutions to enrich a few at the expense of many; the second choice was a future built on inclusive, pluralistic institutions, which in time would create virtuous circles of innovation, economic expansion and widely held wealth. He, like many others, was convicted that action was required to avoid the destruction of South Africa’s hard-won democracy.
He also believed that overcoming state capture was only the beginning and if this period in our history was simply written off as the work primarily of bad apples or of criminals, we would have failed in our duty to rebuild, sustain and protect our country.
His belief was founded on his experience that state capture, beyond what it showed us about the values and morality of the political elite in the country, was symptomatic of deep character flaws in the 1994 negotiated settlement. He believed that if state capture was never to be repeated, we had to understand what had happened in government and among the political elite since 1994. In doing so, we had to place the consequences of this settlement (including state capture) at the very centre of our current narrative. We can then rebuild our country based on a renewed reframing of our future.
