The perennial question asked by philosophers is: How a world without rules and morality might look like, where everyone did as they pleased, and that if another person’s life was snuffed out, we would simply shrug our shoulders and move on as if a tragedy of a
violent loss of life by another hand, did not matter.
The ancient philosopher Thomas Hobbes would describe such a situation as “the state of nature”, a state of chaos and anarchy of unimaginable proportion, where only the fittest would survive.
If such a situation were to arise, this would depict an intolerable scenario with the government and its security agencies, such as the police, emasculated, leaving communities vulnerable to the vagaries of uncertain life.
Life would be cheap and unpredictable.
Should differences of political opinions mean the country should forgo its constitutional democracy, hated with a passion by some of our leaders?
The fact of the matter is that wars are easy to foment. All we need to do is engage in protracted programmes of undermining the country’s democratic processes, rubbishing the country’s Constitution, being tolerant and lax about corruption and malfeasance, allowing paramilitary movements to operate freely, as if they were legitimate, turning a blind eye to poor governance, especially in under-serviced areas, which are mainly black areas, appointing corrupt officials to senior government positions, and in some instances, cabinet ministers with no skills for key portfolios.
As we write, serious incapacity in local government has been identified as the weakest link in the country’s three-tier governance system.
Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke has expressed concern about the state of paralysis in local governments.
She decries the fact that despite many warnings about the poor state of governance, recent audit outcomes show no meaningful improvement, stating that the “accounting ecosystem” is below par, and the state of local government remains poor despite a commitment by the role-players to do good.
The infrastructure, including potholes and broken streets, and collapsing cities and towns, depict neglect and years of corruption, looting and sheer incompetence.
Crooked men and women who loot state resources and collapse good governance have yet to face the law, and may somehow be protected by a well-crafted system designed to allow corruption and immorality in high places to thrive unchecked.
Something akin to the state of nature has signs flickering. The evidence is not hard to see.
The country’s major central business districts, including Joburg, Ekurhuleni, and eThekwini, are bursting at the seams, with old infrastructure collapsing because of misdirection of funds, weak governance and poor maintenance, coupled with large-scale incompetence.
Council chambers all around have become centres not of good governance but of instability and political and ideological conflicts – something that should count for nothing for running an efficient government.
Lawlessness has taken root in our governance structures, including extortionists who seem to have a free hand in getting a share in some of the government business transactions.
The 17th century philosopher Hobbes asked a timeless and pertinent question for his day, and ours: What has become of our morality, and what are we to make of the social contract we sealed at the onset of our democracy when we took power to replace the nightmarish apartheid rule of the National Party?
Morality matters. A society that neglects moral values is doomed to fail.
If we don’t avert the trend, we may reach a state of anarchy, with our security system infiltrated by criminal elements, as some reports suggest it already has, with some police officers fingered in corruption and malfeasance.
If, in the name of democracy, we neglect ethics and turn a blind eye to malfeasance, this will become a surest way of escalating our country to a state of anarchy, or even the feared state of nature.
Three years ago, former president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to a jail term for contempt of court.
With that, widespread destruction of business properties in various parts of the country, including KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, ensued.
What did this mean? In part, this reminds us there is a need for the escalation of moral regeneration programmes in our governance systems.
A state of nature, as seen by Hobbes, that must be nipped in the bud.
• Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, an ex-trade unionist and former editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journals
