An appeal for the renegotiation of the political settlement of 1994 may seem absurd and outrageous. Generally, the political settlement is still considered as perhaps the most significant and momentous achievement in South Africa's history. The political election of April 1994 concluded the end of the era of apartheid and introduced the final phase of liberation and freedom under an ANC government. Any attempt to discredit this, may seem to border on the sacrosanct! It is just not done!

Yet, after almost twenty years of liberation and freedom, something has gone wrong. It has become a popular topic in general conversation. The finger pointing has already started, but as yet, no one is willing to accept any responsibility - or has any idea of how to deal with it.

The Tripartite Alliance (ANC, SACP and Cosatu) are ill at ease with their achievements and call for greater "activism" and "government intervention" in the private sector and civil society in years to come. Society at large is aghast with a spectacle of a collapsing government and the social environment that has become largely "governmentally empty."

Good governance on national, provincial and local level - as embodied in the constitution - has become the exception. Many government services mainly exist on paper, although the constitution embodies it and parliament provides the necessary legislation and budget allocation for the façade to continue.

The growing tension between the ANC and some of its traditional black supporters largely stems from the fact that too much was promised - in the spirit of liberation - and too few governing capabilities have been cultivated. The ANC government has maintained its dominant political profile (in terms of power and control), but its governing capabilities have largely slipped away. The result is an increasing ideological divide of broken promises.

This is part of a slow evolving process of "black divisions" in the black society - a process where local black communities position themselves in opposition to the local ANC controlled councils. The critical issues in this new confrontation is lack of water, open sewage, lack of housing, roads and schools - not part of the ANC's strong profile.

It seems as if the critical "issues" in society are shifting from the political to the social level - from the all-embracing "struggle" to the all permeating and pervasive smell of open raw sewage.

The ANC is still in the game of eagerly searching for an external enemy - usually the whites - to blame and on which to focus the attention of supporters. However, the real threat to the cohesion of the ANC will not come from outside, but from internal erosion such as black ANC supporters starting to blame the ANC government - like Julius Malema did recently.

The white population has been in a state of constant shock. What they now experience is a massive and destructive distortion between what they were told in 1994 and what has evolved over the past 18 years. They carry the rational fear that things may get worse - much worse! To say that they do not trust President Jacob Zuma is perhaps an understatement. Increasingly they have started questioning the wisdom and analytical capabilities of the former white NP politicians of 1994. To put it mildly, the white population is in a political "no-man's land."

The "new South Africa" is in a survival crisis. The re-election of President Zuma will not solve the crisis or - for that matter - any other ANC candidate. Neither will an excellent performance by the DA at the next general election improve the situation. It seems that the whole political system will have to be renegotiated and this should include all political parties - as the critical issue by 2012 does not seem voting enthusiasm but system failure. The political solutions of 1994 have become the problems of 2012.

What has been evolving in South Africa over the past two decades is an environment conducive to the creation of a dictatorship by democratic means - and time is running out for democracy! 

If there has ever been a time for some radical new thinking, it is now!

Dr Jan du Plessis is Editor and Publisher of Intersearch. This is an edited extract from the Intersearch Management Briefing for August/September 2012. Dr Du Plessis can be contacted at [email protected] 

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