Failure is not an option as 100-day social compact deadline approaches

President Cyril Ramaphosa is rapidly running out of time to deliver on his promise of a new social compact for SA within 100 days of his state of the nation address early in February.

As the clock ticks down — the 50-day mark fell on March 31 — there is little to speak of the promised broad consultations with the government’s partners in business, labour, civil society, and communities.

Meanwhile, the fuse is burning on the powder keg. Food prices are soaring, unemployment has hit a historic high, experts predict an imminent fifth wave of Covid-19 and supporters of Operation Dudula stalk the streets targeting migrants. Social cohesion seems more absent than ever.

At the same time, our government’s attempt at a diplomatic insertion into the Russia-Ukraine war has done little for its reputation. Every passing day of fighting imperils the wellbeing of the poorest as fuel prices and pending wheat and cooking oil shortages drive rocketing food prices. The peace dividend in Europe is a bread-and-butter issue here.

The credible Household Affordability index produced by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group for March provides a bitter taste of what lies ahead. In February the organisation calculated that seven-member families were already about R900 a month short on meeting the minimum budget of about R5,300 to provide a basic nutritious diet to the household. By March that had increased by another R100. There is simply not enough money around anymorefor these families to consistently put nutritious meals on the table.

The drill-down into other essential food items in the survey shows the prices of basic items have soared year on year, with cooking oil (37%), chicken livers (32%) and butternut (45%), among many other double-digit increases across a range of basic food products. For all food in their household basket the increase year on year was more than 10%, far outstripping inflation.

The Economic Justice & Dignity Group observed that the child support grant is now 26% below the food poverty line and 42% below the average cost to provide a basic nutritious diet for a child. Viewed against such realities it is correct that the social relief of stress grant payment of R350 a month continues for another year. There could be no other option, but even this grant will soon become meaningless without economic recovery and a decline in inflation, particularly for food.

Bear in mind that these numbers are only starting to take in the food price effect of the Russian-Ukraine war, with the real effect still to be felt. If ever Ramaphosa’s promised new social compact for economic recovery and growth were needed it is now.

Days after the president’s state of the nation address minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele promised that “in the coming week” the government would table, through the Government Communication & Information System a “communications and stakeholder engagement plan, to engage society on the government’s new social compact”.

We can find no evidence that this has happened or is happening. We can only hope it is, in fact, on and is being slowly nurtured in conversations and agreements away from the spotlight, and that the failure is one of communication and not of application. There is too much at stake for the latter.

The idea of a social compact might seem trite, but we believe it is foundational to SA’s future, particularly with the challenges we now face. Erin McCandless, an associate professor in the School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Darlene Ajeet Miller, a senior lecturer at the university, wrote earlier on this subject and reflected on research across nine countries, including SA, which showed that social cohesion is a key “tool for addressing issues of conflict, crisis and transition”.

Writing in the context of the state’s response to Covid-19 they pointed out that crises affect communities differently. Lockdowns and their consequences were different in townships compared to suburbs, for example. They argue that policy responses need to acknowledge these differences while nurturing social cohesion and social solidarity.

We agree, in the broader sense, beyond managing Covid-19. That is why the urgency promised by the president in his speech needs to translate into tangible action and engagement with stakeholders and, most importantly, communities of ordinary South Africans.

We are haunted by the spectre of the July 2021 riots and the ever-present fear that these may be repeated, tearing SA apart along racial lines. We therefore cannot be presented with a new social contract that few feel they have been part of building. It will reek of empty rhetoric and it will fail — and for SA now failure cannot be an option.

• Rossouw, a gender and human rights activist, is chief volunteer for Siyabuya.