The Bottom-Line for the Sundays River Valley
Prof. Deon Pretorius
A Point of Departure
The point of departure is that everyone exists in the same community or social system. The sub-systems or sub-communities are interdependent on one another. If the system is ill everyone suffers. If individuals are corrupt the system is corrupt. If people have limited capacity the system is weak. If the system is fragile, it cannot not secure people’s quality of life.
Thus, it is in everyone’s interest that the whole Valley is in a healthy state; that the system is optimized. Theoretically, the optimal condition of the system is equivalent to the sum-total of the optimized / actualized potential of its sub-units. In theory, if there are 66 000 people in the Valley the system will be optimized when all 66 000 people have a reasonable chance to actualize their potential.
Our Greatest Challenge
Thus, the biggest threat to the system and South Africa’s biggest problem is acute structural inequality. That the gap between the rich and the poor becomes too big and there are too many poor people. This potentially hurts everyone.
- If the communities live in poverty the members of the community that work on the farms are unhappy and unproductive. This will eventually threaten the existence of the farms with debilitating strikes and protest action. The farmers may counter by calling on the SAPS, legal and paralegal action but they will only contribute to an endless, vicious cycle going nowhere!
- If the farms are not at least relatively successful they won’t be competitive on international citrus markets and they won’t be able to employ workers and the unemployment rate will be the same as in other rural areas.
- If SANCO and the community leaders resort to destructive protest, chase the farmers from the farms or burn the farms they will have a short moment of victory but then what?
Similarly, if the farmers keep on paying workers poverty wages, and not become appropriately concerned about worker and community wellbeing they will make more money but for how long will the workers accept the exploitation?
The Solution
The solution is to move from a culture or adversarial politics towards collaborative development where all sectors of society understand it is in their own interest to work together.
This will require a mindset shift, news skills to collaborate, patience, facilitation and the transformation of systems and institutions to encourage, foster and sustain cooperation and collaboration