Published in the
Conversation:
Author:
Dr. Vishwas Satgar
If Zuma cast himself as
a climate emergency president and statesman,
February
10, 2016 5.20pm SAST
Post the Cold War and in the age of high finance, the
performance of narrow representative democratic politics has spawned three
types of Presidential politics: (i) populist presidents from Berlusconi, Bush
to Zuma. Policy is made on the hoof, is erratic, and there is no moral and
intellectual leadership except to allow markets to rule (ii) the technocratic ruler
guided by the numbers, markets and keen
to ensure policy-making is about certainty and the right signals. This is about
being a manager of deep globalization. Clinton, Merckel and Mbeki epitomize
this. (iii) then there is the statesman who is visionary, trying to ensure a
home grown master narrative and a strategic class project, carrying a cross
section of social forces and inventing innovative engagements to shape a
globalized political economy. Evo
Morales and Mandela stand out in this regard.
Jacob Zuma’s speech can be statesmen like
if he embraces and articulates the following three priorities. First, he calls
for a new mode of governance to tackle the ecological crises facing the world,
Africa and South Africa. In this regard he actively champions climate emergency
governance as the starkest expression of this crisis, to ensure systemic
adaptation and mitigation. He will not be the first in the world because
threatened island states have already thrown up such leadership but he will
certainly be the first in Africa. This
means the drought narrative is shifted away from being part of a cycle or ‘national disaster’
but rather is cast as part of the new normal of climate shocks that requires a
new paradigm of state practice, governance and citizenship. The drought with
its destruction of agriculture, water challenges, heat waves and pressures on
state capacity is a window into the future. He stakes out climate emergency
governance as a response to this
worsening systemic crisis of capitalist civilization and the need for a deep just
transition to sustain life. Central to this is reaffirming a non-racial
approach to these challenges to unify and ensure the survival of all South African’s.
Second, he affirms a policy shift to
climate emergency governance. This means moving policy in the direction of a new
metric of sustaining life and a low
carbon society. In this regard, he actively calls for transitional policies,
that deepens mass initiative, such as climate jobs, a universal basic income
grant (set at a high level to enable choice), integrated public transport, food
sovereignty pathways, solidarity economies, participatory budgeting at
municipal level, zero waste, socially owned renewables (including feedback
tariffs as part of embedded generation , the lifting on the ceiling of
renewables in the national energy mix and calls for the establishment for a
socially owned renewables parastatal), rights of nature legislation, scaling up
cooperative banking in every locale, a new sustainable water management
framework, a suite of new progressive carbon taxes and the retrofitting of
households, government buildings and private corporations with locally
manufactured renewable energy technology.
At the same time, he announces an end to
fracking and all nuclear deals. He sets a deadline to stop producing coal
and calls on unions to work with
government to ensure workers utilize the climate jobs policy and universal
basic income grant to leave behind dirty industries. A new democratic planning Ministry and mechanism is
introduced which works with local governments and which is central in streamlining
government. It absorbs trade and
industry, minerals, energy, environment,
water, public transport, local government, agriculture and local development
and the finance Ministries. He commits to dismantling provinces (governments,
parliaments and the National Council of Provinces) through a constitutional
amendment and which will be replaced with 3 inter-provincial administrations,
calls for cuts on the spend on the department of foreign affairs, calls for a
new policy on politicians salaries and perks so they are not so excessive and
calls on the public services commission to improve working conditions for
health professionals, teachers, municipal workers and government administrators
as part of a new framework of professionalizing the public sector.
Finally, he announces a revamp of foreign
policy which entails re-priorisiting Africa, instead of the BRICS. Africa is
recognized as the continent that has and will be hardest heat by global
warming. Yet it does not have the necessary finance, technology and
institutional capacity to deal with this. Commitments made by Western countries
to Africa, coming out of COP21, are dismal. Africa is meant to be a zone of
climate chaos. Zuma challenges this calling for an emphasis on developing a just
transition and climate emergency plan for Africa, through the AU, and
realigning all foreign engagements with this imperative.
All of this will not happen because Jacob
Zuma is not a statesmen, the ANC-led Alliance is married to a fossil fuel and
extractivist accumulation path and fixated
on a growth centred version of deep globalization. This has not worked and is the opposite of remaking
society to fit into ecological constraints to survive.. Finally it will take more
climate shocks including more extreme weather events, food crises, water
shortages, heat waves, floods and other catastrophes to wake up the worlds ruling elites and
citizenry to understand we have entered unchartered territory in human history.
We are now officially at a 1 degree Celsius
increase in planetary temperatures since the industrial revolution and are
rapidly heading towards a two degree increase in this century: we need to
think, act and govern differently if we are to survive and ensure future
generations have hope.
Author: Dr. Vishwas Satgar, Senior Lecturer
International relations, WITS. He is the editor of Capitalism’s Crises: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World,
Wits Press, (2015).
Can Zuma’s
SONA Make Him a Climate Emergency President?
Post the Cold War and in the age of high finance, the
performance of narrow representative democratic politics has spawned three
types of Presidential politics: (i) populist presidents from Berlusconi, Bush
to Zuma. Policy is made on the hoof, is erratic, and there is no moral and
intellectual leadership except to allow markets to rule (ii) the technocratic ruler
guided by the numbers, markets and keen
to ensure policy-making is about certainty and the right signals. This is about
being a manager of deep globalization. Clinton, Merckel and Mbeki epitomize
this. (iii) then there is the statesman who is visionary, trying to ensure a
home grown master narrative and a strategic class project, carrying a cross
section of social forces and inventing innovative engagements to shape a
globalized political economy. Evo
Morales and Mandela stand out in this regard.
Jacob Zuma’s speech can be statesmen like
if he embraces and articulates the following three priorities. First, he calls
for a new mode of governance to tackle the ecological crises facing the world,
Africa and South Africa. In this regard he actively champions climate emergency
governance as the starkest expression of this crisis, to ensure systemic
adaptation and mitigation. He will not be the first in the world because
threatened island states have already thrown up such leadership but he will
certainly be the first in Africa. This
means the drought narrative is shifted away from being part of a cycle or ‘national disaster’
but rather is cast as part of the new normal of climate shocks that requires a
new paradigm of state practice, governance and citizenship. The drought with
its destruction of agriculture, water challenges, heat waves and pressures on
state capacity is a window into the future. He stakes out climate emergency
governance as a response to this
worsening systemic crisis of capitalist civilization and the need for a deep just
transition to sustain life. Central to this is reaffirming a non-racial
approach to these challenges to unify and ensure the survival of all South African’s.
Second, he affirms a policy shift to
climate emergency governance. This means moving policy in the direction of a new
metric of sustaining life and a low
carbon society. In this regard, he actively calls for transitional policies,
that deepens mass initiative, such as climate jobs, a universal basic income
grant (set at a high level to enable choice), integrated public transport, food
sovereignty pathways, solidarity economies, participatory budgeting at
municipal level, zero waste, socially owned renewables (including feedback
tariffs as part of embedded generation , the lifting on the ceiling of
renewables in the national energy mix and calls for the establishment for a
socially owned renewables parastatal), rights of nature legislation, scaling up
cooperative banking in every locale, a new sustainable water management
framework, a suite of new progressive carbon taxes and the retrofitting of
households, government buildings and private corporations with locally
manufactured renewable energy technology.
At the same time, he announces an end to
fracking and all nuclear deals. He sets a deadline to stop producing coal
and calls on unions to work with
government to ensure workers utilize the climate jobs policy and universal
basic income grant to leave behind dirty industries. A new democratic planning Ministry and mechanism is
introduced which works with local governments and which is central in streamlining
government. It absorbs trade and
industry, minerals, energy, environment,
water, public transport, local government, agriculture and local development
and the finance Ministries. He commits to dismantling provinces (governments,
parliaments and the National Council of Provinces) through a constitutional
amendment and which will be replaced with 3 inter-provincial administrations,
calls for cuts on the spend on the department of foreign affairs, calls for a
new policy on politicians salaries and perks so they are not so excessive and
calls on the public services commission to improve working conditions for
health professionals, teachers, municipal workers and government administrators
as part of a new framework of professionalizing the public sector.
Finally, he announces a revamp of foreign
policy which entails re-priorisiting Africa, instead of the BRICS. Africa is
recognized as the continent that has and will be hardest heat by global
warming. Yet it does not have the necessary finance, technology and
institutional capacity to deal with this. Commitments made by Western countries
to Africa, coming out of COP21, are dismal. Africa is meant to be a zone of
climate chaos. Zuma challenges this calling for an emphasis on developing a just
transition and climate emergency plan for Africa, through the AU, and
realigning all foreign engagements with this imperative.
All of this will not happen because Jacob
Zuma is not a statesmen, the ANC-led Alliance is married to a fossil fuel and
extractivist accumulation path and fixated
on a growth centred version of deep globalization. This has not worked and is the opposite of remaking
society to fit into ecological constraints to survive.. Finally it will take more
climate shocks including more extreme weather events, food crises, water
shortages, heat waves, floods and other catastrophes to wake up the worlds ruling elites and
citizenry to understand we have entered unchartered territory in human history.
We are now officially at a 1 degree Celsius
increase in planetary temperatures since the industrial revolution and are
rapidly heading towards a two degree increase in this century: we need to
think, act and govern differently if we are to survive and ensure future
generations have hope.
Author: Dr. Vishwas Satgar, Senior Lecturer
International relations, WITS. He is the editor of Capitalism’s Crises: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World,
Wits Press, (2015).
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