Development, not greed

By Rampe Hlobo SJ

While growing up in the dusty streets of Orlando in Soweto — which have been tarred since 1994 — one knew very little about democracy. The little we heard about democracy was that it was a political system that would allow the people to choose their own government: A government of the people, by the people and for the people.

On April 22 the people of South Africa were presented with the opportunity to exercise their democratic right to choose whoever they prefer to lead them and take the highest office and responsibility that this country has to offer. The people have spoken indeed! They have exercised their democratic right for the fourth time as a democratic nation and made their choice. That’s democracy.

With democracy however, comes responsibility and duties: the most difficult and frequently ignored aspects of this political system. Its objective has been perceived as challenging the oppressive powers of the day with the view to bringing about a democratic government not for its sake, but for the sake of freedom and justice for the oppressed.

This government, ideally, will pursue the communal will — the will of the people in their capacity as a moral and collective body — which is for the good of the entire community, as opposed to the good of a person or a particular section. This is the basis of politics as outlined by the Franco-Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract.

Since the transfer of governmental power from the minority to the majority, the striving for different and better things had been kindled in many South Africans. For the poor, in particular, democracy meant that there would be radical development. Hunger, homelessness, unemployment, and so on would miraculously give way to prosperity and well-being.

Alas, both perpetrators and victims of the evils of apartheid did not know the extent of the damage caused by that system. The legacy of apartheid was enormous and underestimated. Expectations of the poor were, and still are, much higher and the challenge to meet and address them seems insurmountable. Although many have received basic services in the new dispensation, this is not the case for many others for whom the democratic order has not yet improved the quality of their lives as they had expected.  Some have used the situation as an excuse and yielded to the temptation of criminal and dishonest activities.

For others, greed and the possession of more goods became the ultimate objective, as opposed to other social objectives. The accumulation and possession of many goods and money has become a vice that has affected many South Africans, rich and poor alike. Materialism has led to undesired practices that are socially and morally unacceptable.

As Pope Paul VI once said, every kind of progress is necessary for our growth as human beings, but is enslaving if it is regarded as the supreme good that does not enable us look beyond it. The exclusive pursuit of material possessions has, to a large extent, prevented the growth of many.

Avarice, as Pope Paul’s 1967 encyclical Populorum progressio states, stultifies development, especially integral development.

Development is what our democracy in South Africa needs. One wonders whether development in our democracy has taken any root, or whether ours is just a procedural democracy. The development that one is thinking of, is the one mentioned by Paul VI when he says in Populorum progressio that it is not restricted to economic growth alone.

This fundamental development is authentic and fosters the development of every person and of the whole person. When this development is achieved, people will not be living in inhuman conditions. They will be subjected neither to the material poverty of those who lack the bare necessities of life, nor to the moral poverty of those who are crushed under the weight of their self-love, as described by Paul VI.

This is the development that one is yearning for and should be indispensable in our democracy that will hopefully pursue the will and welfare of the people of God.

Fr Rampe Hlobo SJ is based at Braamfontain parish, Johannesburg.