South African Amnesty 2.0: Incomprehensible?

• Author: Kotzé, K.
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/ACTA/2022/a5
• Published date: 05 September 2022
• Date: 05 September 2022
• Pages: 101-118

101

https://doi.org/10.47348/ACTA/2022/a5

South African Amnesty 2.0:

Incomprehensible?

KLAUS KOTZÉ*

The South African democracy faces a crisis of legit imacy and

identity th at locks it into a state of iner tia. The state is provi ng

unable to critically advance the constitutional end s of transformative

democracy. It lacks the strategic concepts and arguments to do so

and has subsequently become embroiled in an existential bat tle for

the soul of the count ry. As a critical cont ribution, this essay evokes

the need for politically expedient approaches and arguments. It

reects on the pa st, on the methodologies employed to br ing about

the unita ry, democratic state, and on the need to look at purposefu l,

albeit incomprehensible, strategies that will allow transcendence

beyond the current impasse.

By and large, South Afr ica sets an example. It is a laboratory for democracy,

and for that very rea son, much like Athens, it will long remain an oddity,

not only in Africa (as the Afro pessimists’ simplistic litany would like to have

us believe) but also in global politics. South Africa is a test case for global

democracy; it is a test ca se for rhetoric; and it is a test case for the relevance of

rhetoric studies in a postmodern democracy.1

I IN TRODUCTION

Concluding his rst State of the Nation address, President

Ramaphosa2 recited musician and activist Hugh Masekela’s

popular song Thuma Mina – isiZulu and isiXhosa for ‘send me’.

Masekela’s message, as taken forward by Ramaphosa’s, provokes

* I nternational relations ocer at the Inclusive Society Inst itute; Honorary

Research A liate: Centre for Rhe toric Studies.

1 Ph -J Salazar An A frican Athens: Rheto ric and the Shaping of D emocracy in South

Africa (2002) at xi x.

2 Cy ril Rama phosa was elected pres ident of South Afr ica in 2019. According

to him, h is leadership st yle is greatly in uenced by the persuas ive leadership

style of Nels on Mandela. As nat ional president he has preferred to convene

stakeholder s, to receive input and there by achieve binding cons ensus. This sty le

has gar nered him prais e but also critique a s a weak and ineective d ecision-

maker. See K Kotz é ‘Cyril Ramaph osa’s strategic presidenc y’ (2019) 7 Defence

Strategic Communications 17.

2022 Acta Juridica 101

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

102 THE C RITICAL RHETO RIC OF Ph-J SALAZAR

https://doi.org/10.47348/ACTA/2022/a5

personal act ion towards national advancement. ‘I want to lend a

hand’, pleaded Masekela, while Ramaphosa implored:

Now is the time to lend a hand. Now is the time for each of us to say

‘send me’. ... Now is the time for all of us to work to gether, in honour

of Nelson Mandela, to build a new, better South Af rica for all.3

Ramaphosa’s appeal takes South Africans back to the years of the

democratic tr ansition – a period of becoming. It was t hen that civil

exchange and national conciliation helped South Africa to emerge

out of an existential and political impasse – a deadlocked situation

from which no progre ss appeared possible – where leaders i magined

and gave meaning to a new order. South Africans a rmed this

order on 27 April 1994. The ability to freely elect a representat ive

government had been a central goal of the liberation movement.

On this rst Freedom Day, South Africans, for the rst time,

together ar med a united national order. Throug h enacting equal

representation, the apartheid order was transcended. Through

‘lending a hand’, the people expressed their collective will, and

thereby installed a legitimate legal and political order. Twenty-

seven years later, South Africa faces another cr isis of legitimacy. If

an electoral majority confers legitimacy, then the 2021 municipal

elections4 – where 54.13% of eligible voters decided not to vote

– again demonstrate the invalidation of the South African order.

How can it be, after the long struggle for democracy, that South

Africans would fail to express their electoral power? This failure

suggests the negation of national meaning. It portends the need

to ‘lend a hand’ towards provoking new national arguments.

In pursuing a critical response to the impending impasse in South

African public aairs, this essay looks back at the democratic

transition to examine possible approaches that can stimulate a way

forward. It takes inspiration from the work of Philippe-Joseph

3 C R amaphosa ‘2018 State of th e Nation Address’ South African Government

16 Februar y 2018, available at https://www.gov.za/speeches/president- cyril-

ramaphosa-2018-state-nation-address-16-feb-2018-0000.

4 T he 2021 municipal elec tions, the sixt h such elections since 1994, saw

a 12.07% decli ne in voter turnout f rom the previous election s in 2016. The

larges t parties, the Af rican Nationa l Congress and the D emocratic All iance,

lost 8.3% and 5. 2% respectively. Smal ler parties, such as t he Economic Freedom

Fighter s and ActionSA, gai ned 2.1% and 2.3% respectivel y, signa lling a new

trend in Sout h Africa towar ds extended mult iparty democ racy. See Independent

Electora l Commission ‘Mun icipal election res ults’ available at ht tps://results.

elections.org.za/dashboards/lge/.

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd