POLITRICKING | Veteran journalists Tim Modise, Freek Robinson, Ferial Haffajee reflect on SA at 30 years

JOHANNESBURG - Thirty years since Freek Robinson, Tim Modise and Ferial Haffajee were on a panel hosting the historical presidential debate, ahead of South Africa’s first democratic elections, the question of reconciliation still looms large.

The three were amongst journalists who put questions to the country’s founding father, former President Nelson Mandela and the last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, in the lead-up to the 1994 elections, which saw the country’s majority able to exercise their rights to pick who they wanted at the helm of the country.

This week, they join EWN’s Politricking with Tshidi Madia, reflecting on the debate, which was watched by 800 million people around the globe, and the country’s evolution over the past 30 years.

The three remain practising journalists and have watched and interacted with the many changing faces of leadership across all spheres of government. They also have strong views about the country, as it prepares to hold its seventh democratic elections.

“I was sad to see that the word that would best describe the South African mood is not anxious, or the words that I would assume it was actually disappointed,” says Haffajee.

She says people are disappointed that their lives are not more, that opportunities are not greater, adding that there is nervousness over the shape of what the future will look like.

“South Africans, as citizens and voters, should not take their vote for granted and should not take politics for granted. But somehow, many people, when I read newspapers or listen to people like yourself and others who cover politics in South Africa, South Africans tend to think that politics belongs to politicians. I am of the view that individual voters in the country must take responsibility for whatever happens when it's times like these and elections are upon us,” says Modise.

The veteran broadcaster, though, says he doesn’t feel anxious about the future, even though three decades after freedom, the country finds itself once again navigating unchartered waters.

But unlike 1994, when the ballot was going to result in the majority coming into power, this time around, South Africa might see the very same ANC, which has been in charge since those elections, possibly going under 50%, thrusting the country deeper into the world of coalition politics.

Robinson shares Modise’s sentiments about the unease some are currently experiencing.

“[I’m] concerned, and not knowing what's going to happen in future because it's going to be a completely different kind of dispensation because they will be a coalition government that we haven't experienced before,” he says. 

Only the Western Cape experienced a coalition provincial government but has since become a DA stronghold. However, pundits are predicting that this province, is just as vulnerable as KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng - these are key battlegrounds that forecasters believe will not produce an outright winner on the 29 May.

The uncertainty around coalitions, for Haffajee, is a marker journalists should heed, in a bid to cover more than the drama and political theatre that unfolds. 

“[That is] To very closely cover what questions mean for governance, what does it mean for water and electricity, for opportunities, for clean areas… so what does municipal collapse mean and is that what the provinces [will] begin to look like?” she suggests.

Modise and Freek also have varying views on the concept of reconciliation, with Modise suggesting it cannot be achieved without a stable working economic system that caters to everyone’s needs.

“It's difficult to have reconciliation in a country where young people are not in school, or not learning or not being trained and by their millions are unemployed,” he notes.

“You're part of society, yet you are not partaking in whatever fruits are there, in the country, it must be very difficult. So I would think that the better way of dealing with reconciliation is to empower people, give them as many opportunities as possible,” continues Modise.