Mbeki warns of ‘receding power of the state’
Former president Thabo Mbeki has warned of the receding power of the state under the administration of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mbeki spoke at the memorial service of ANC stalwart Aziz Pahad in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The former MP and diplomat died earlier this month at the age of 82.
In his speech, Mbeki quoted remarks by Institute of Race Relations CEO John Endres to the Cato Institute.
Endres said in South Africa, the private sector and civil society are solving problems in the growing absence of the state.
"Instead of political currency, a different trend which shapes South Africa's outcome over the medium term. This is the receding power of the state. Its loss of authority and credibility, its inability to translate plans into action,” said Mbeki.
"Growing disconnects between the ruling elites and those they govern, this process will play out over a period of years, but it is already well underway, and I think this assessment is correct.
"What this will lead to in the end is that you will have capital and civil society running the country, and the democratic state will have disappeared. For the democratic state to disappear means that the overwhelming majority of our people, the poor, lose hope because capital and the civil society will not help them."
Mbeki said Pahad’s death came at a difficult time for the country.
"That’s why again I say I feel very sorry that Aziz left us when he did because he was very, very ready to confront that truth and do something about it.
"Therefore, we are losing the possibility for the state to act in the interest of millions of our people who are poor and disempowered, but again, Aziz is gone. He would have been very useful as an activist to play a role in the process of the reconstruction of the democratic state."
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