DAVID JEFFERY-SCHWIKKARD: How do we define democracy? Let us count the ways

What does democracy mean to you?

Perhaps you said, “majority rules”. You would be in prominent company. The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party promises “unfettered parliamentary supremacy” even “without a codified constitution”. Parliament could pass any laws it wants, without any restrictions — even if those laws deprive people of their rights.

But that is not what democracy means to all South Africans. For my doctoral research, I have interviewed members of the ANC about how they think about the law. Many — maybe most — answer that democracy means “human rights”.

These two answers conflict. For parliamentary supremacists, the minority is at the mercy of the majority. For those who believe in human rights, everyone has rights, even if the majority disagrees.

Even here, we meet a further disagreement. What do we mean by “the majority”? In a democracy, how you answer this matters for who is in charge. For MK, this is black people — “the black majority”— whose “cultural and moral values” must be put first.

But you might offer a different answer: that the majority means “most people”. Obviously, most South Africans are black. But equally obvious: black South Africans do not all have the same political views. The views of “most people” can cut across race. Again, the difference is important. If you want to know what most people think, you need to hold an election. If you want to know which African values should decide our laws, MK will tell you.

MK implies our liberal constitution was imposed by “a minority group with an alien culture”. But this is far from the truth. In 1909, 1923, 1943 and 1955, black leaders published “bills of rights” covering all South Africans, irrespective of their race. Liberation leaders elsewhere in Africa, such as Kenya’s Tom Mboya, also advocated democracies based on individuals’ freedoms rather than “racial group rights”.

In 1962, Albert Luthuli wrote that “it will be sufficient if human rights for all are entrenched in the constitution ... I do not cherish such expressions as ‘the all-black government’ and ‘the African majority’. I like to speak about ‘a democratic majority’, which should be a nonracial majority.”

Deeply ironic

These ideas rejected an old European fantasy that a country could work only if it was ruled by a single ethnic majority. This, after all, was apartheid’s logic: white people would have their own country, and black people would have their Bantustans. In contrast, the belief that we are one people — South Africans — who have rights to our freedoms is a local innovation. It has a long pedigree in liberation movements. It is deeply ironic that MK belittles this revolution and instead cherishes a European dream.

Contrary to MK’s confidence, many South Africans believe in human rights — even when those rights that conflict with their personal values. For example, 72% of South Africans in 2015 said that same-sex activities were “morally wrong”. Yet far fewer (21%) believed that sexual orientation shouldn’t be protected in the constitution.

This often comes up in my interviews. You can believe that homosexuality is immoral, and think most South Africans share your view, but still argue that people have the right to be gay. Interviewees explain this position by referring to our history. Apartheid deprived people of their rights and freedoms. The new SA promised “never again”.

MK’s Jacob Zuma recently promised that same-sex marriages would be scrapped in favour of “African law”. But what would MK do if most people — who, in SA, would be mostly black — disagreed that MK’s values should be imposed on everyone? Faced with a choice between majority rule and what Zuma says is African law, which would the MK pick?

At the same rally, Zuma said he “does not understand what the word democracy means” and asked the crowd for a definition. His question is timely. Our recent celebration of the 30th anniversary of our first democratic elections gave us a chance to reflect on what democracy means to us. Is it human rights or majority rules? And how is the majority decided?

• Jeffery-Schwikkard is a PhD candidate at King’s College London.