Betty Mandlazi and Godfrey Silaule (who has, sadly, since died of AIDS)
The previous ANC government under Thabo Mbeki failed to deliver on its promises for social justice in the last decade and a half - failing even to look after the most vulnerable members of South African society: Aids orphans.
When in 1995 Betty Mandlazi couldn't bear to witness the suffering of Aids orphans in the street she took them in. The number of orphans she was looking after grew to 26. Betty needed help to feed and clothe them all and so began to ask for donations. Eventually, with the help of ANC activist Godfrey Silaule, the number of sponsors grew until Betty's Haven was established and now the orphanage has new premises.
The single-storey building is separated off from the rest of a Nelspruit suburb by a 10-metre wide moat of sand. Inside the children are well-fed and clothed. Each child shares a pine bunk and there is a TV in every one of the small bedrooms.
Betty's success shows up the South African government's failure to look after its most vulnerable and to live up to the vision of the Freedom Charter, the document that inspired so many South Africans during the liberation struggle. In one of the sub clauses the Freedom Charter proclaims: "The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the state." AIDS orphans constitute 50% of all orphans and according to the government's own projections only 25% will be looked after by 2015.
As utopian documents go, the South African Freedom Charter is a big deal. It was drafted in 1955 after a nationwide consultation and forms the basis of the South African Constitution (pdf), with the clauses on nationalisation and land redistribution left out. The Apartheid government used the charter to justify the arrest of 156 activists on charges of high treason, including Nelson Mandela himself. And the charter continues to trouble those well-off South Africans who benefited from Apartheid and despised the idealism, values and achievements of the liberation movement. This June, on its 53rd anniversary there will be again be mass demonstrations calling for the spirit and letter of the Freedom Charter to be honoured.
After the uproar at the December Polokwane conference it became clear that there is a huge majority of South Africans who demand strong action on poverty, unemployment and healthcare. This is hardly surprising, as wage rates for workers have hardly increased since 1994, 22 million people in South Africa live in poverty, a quarter of the workforce are unemployed and more than five million South Africans are infected with HIV.
According to Patrick Bond, a journalist specialising in South African affairs, the inadequacies of the South African state to deliver on the promises of the Freedom Charter lie with the neoliberal policies of the present government, which formally began after the confidential signing of an IMF letter in December 1993. In the letter the future South African government, committed itself to privatising and cutting back public spending.
Thabo Mbeki's modest growth, employment and redistribution plan (pdf) for the South African economy set the tone for the economy with social welfare coming a poor second after a "competitive" economy capable of attracting international investors.
But now, the situation has changed with the election of Jacob Zuma as ANC president. The ANC is reviving a decade and a half of thwarted aspirations for social justice and wealth redistribution. There is now a growing fightback against privatisations and neoliberal economics. Strong arguments are being put forward for the state to actively leverage people out of poverty and ill health - arguments for a South African "New Deal" where the rich pay higher taxes and the government spends more on the poor and land reform is on the cards.
If the alliance of the ANC, the trade union movement and the South African Communist party succeeds, there will be no possible excuse for not meeting promises. Perhaps the orphans of Betty's Haven, in addition to loving care, will be able to look forward to sufficient retroviral medicine to enable them live longer, a decent education and reintegration into society.
By Phil Hall
I've republished this article because I found a picture of Betty with Godfry
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