I remember that somewhere in 1993 there were ideas of renaming South Africa as New South Africa, in line with names such as New Zealand and New South Wales.
At the time I was against it, but upon reflection, I now consider that it might have been a really good start to our new democracy.
Democracy sits on us like an oversized poorly-tailored piece of clothing. We have been looking for leaders who can skilfully tailor this garment to fit us. Or do we just wait until we grow into it one day? That may take a long time.
The 2022 tragedy is that we do not have the skilled leaders to skilfully tailor this democracy garment and we have run out of time to grow into it.
Democracies are by their very definition a government by the will of the people and not the will of a political party. Such cities and states, according to Aristotle and Cleisthenes, are supposed to be adequate for a self-sufficient life for its citizens.
The last 2 300 years, however, have reshaped people-centred democracies into fascist autocracies.
Political parties, who claim to be the embodiment of the will of the people, act like monarchies competing to obtain power appropriate to the powers of a royal household.
Once in power, they quickly turn from serving people to becoming monarchist who insist on being served.
Apartheid South Africa was in many ways an imperial state, as are most oppressive States. Imperial powers are given to the heads of State and parties become greater than the people.
Like the National Party of 1948, many modern-day political parties adopt similar behaviour of being averse to scrutiny and criticism and have stormtroopers who machete every criticism levelled against it.
It is from this imperial apartheid state that many South African political parties have learnt their political behaviour, rather than from the classical founders of democracy.
Instead, Vorster and Verwoerd become their role models and they appropriate their distasteful behaviour as necessary for their political conduct.
Here is the corresponding truth: most South Africans still only have the mental models of apartheid as their blueprint for what they expect their government to do. So both party and people, 28 years into democracy, are still doing the apartheid imperial dance – because it is all they know.
We have not adopted alternative political behaviours despite us having alternative political policies. In some cases, we have sought to rewrite policies to suit our imperial political behaviour.
Both the retirements of Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille are cases in point. Both have and are seeking the most senior controlling position within the political system they served after they retired from public office.
These desires for imperial installations are straight from the imperial apartheid playbook.
What South African leaders don’t embrace easily is that when you leave public office, you also leave the power that goes with that office.
Nelson Mandela was the prime example of this good practice. Leaders who leave office but keep their power will continue to seek roles for themselves to use that power.
Thus we have Zille and Zuma who still dominate the political discourse in this country, from extremely powerful positions, though they are not holding any public office in government.
Like Zille, Zuma is now seeking coronation as the party monarch.
So perhaps that 1993 discussion wasn't so far off. Perhaps we had to name ourselves New South Africa and perhaps we should have had deep conversations about what is the “new” we needed to appropriate that would define our democracy as different from the apartheid imperial state.
I suggest this dialogue can still happen. It can begin by dethroning these imperial monarchies consisting of personalities and words that pollute our political life. We should say a firm no to the coronation of public servants after retirement.
This is, after all, a New South Africa.
* Lorenzo A Davids.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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