Ready for a new national identity

It strikes me that we are at present a country desperately in need of its national identity.

During apartheid, South Africa was defined as such. Then came the “miracle years” of Madiba and 1994, and the next decade we held a national identity of the celebratory freedom of the rainbow nation. But this period is largely over. The populace’s rose-tinted tolerance has given way to a harder realism around service delivery, security and cleaner governance. The world’s interest in the Madiba years has waned, and South Africa sits with the broader challenge to develop a longer-term identity.

Now, this is naturally not something that can just be created; a national identity stems from much internal debate, challenges to the status quo and a collective understanding of what holds us together as a nation. South Africa is in the throes of debate at the moment; debate about the right governance path, debate about what our collective morals are, debate about the capitalist/socialist mix and debate about what makes us African. All of these factors make up our national identity, and this is a process that we must go through, lest we flounder in national division rather than national unity.

We’re only at the beginning of this journey now, but it has never been as important. Our national identity is a set of guidelines, like a company philosophy that guides management decision-making. The United States’s national identity is centred on individuality, opportunity and equality. On what should our national identity be centred?

Well, our strengths should filter out of what was so hard-fought during the struggle: tolerance, equality and the principles of ubuntu. For me, the principle of hope should also be part of our make-up, both as a beacon of hope for oppressed peoples of the world and as a beacon of hope of what can be achieved on the African continent.

On those principles alone, one can see that our current leadership structures, from municipalities to the Union Buildings, are not answering the brief. Tolerance of debate and opposing viewpoints is not robust enough. Neither is equality, both in class structures and in access to opportunity. Ubuntu is such a noble premise and South Africa could do with more of it in spades. Collectively, these threaten to dampen some people’s vision of hope.

Whatever the outcome, it is critical that we as South Africa’s people, from the street-sweeper to the captain of industry, enter this debate and add our perspective. South Africa needs a new national identity, a guideline for a new moral, social and governance platform to take us forward for another half-century. What’s important to you? What would you add to Project South Africa?