THULI MADONSELA: Government forgets ubuntu in booze ban

There’s an inspiring story of a farmer, who won the Farmer of the Year award five times in a row, which I happened upon recently.

Let’s call him "Pieterson". Asked about his formula for success, his answer was: "I share my best seeds with all the neighbouring farmers."

Puzzled, the journalist asked him if he was not afraid of strengthening the competition, thereby diminishing his own prospects. Pieterson replied that it wasn’t the competition he feared, but rather the cross-pollination between his crop and the weaker crops of his neighbours.

He explained that as bees and birds transport pollen around, weak pollen from his neighbours would diminish the quality of his crop. To ensure the best crop quality, he decided to improve the ecosystem for his crop.

In the Thuma Foundation’s Siyazakhela Enterprising Communities initiative we call that "ecosystem thinking".

Pieterson’s ecosystem thinking is what underpins the ancient African philosophy of ubuntu, anchored in the belief that "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu". It means that a human being is a human being because of other human beings. The theory is that human life thrives in an ecosystem where others are also thriving.

I’m certain that the key to prevailing during Covid-19 lies in embracing ecosystem thinking, especially given the need to ensure all of us play our part in containing the virus.

The government, I don’t believe, is leveraging our ubuntu enough to make South Africans opt in and become a bulwark against Covid-19.

There was no empathy for the traders stuck with liquor stocks. There was no apology, and no explanation

It was clear, as various ministers addressed us last Monday, that their paradigm is far too steeped in command and control. A day after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the sale and transport of alcohol were banned with immediate effect, there was no empathy for the traders stuck with liquor stocks that can’t be sold.

There was no apology. And no explanation why this announcement could not be on Thursday night the previous week. The theory that doing so would have resulted in hoarding doesn’t hold, as liquor sales were already prohibited from Thursday night to Monday morning. But a warning would have saved businesses from buying stock they couldn’t sell, and helped workers.

Having been involved in successful democracy negotiations, Ramaphosa should know that to get everyone to opt in, they must feel there is something in it for them. They must feel that they matter. He surely knows that zero-sum leadership is not sustainable.

This zero-sum thinking might, in fact, be the reason we’ve had such messy Covid-19 responses globally.

Imagine if China had been transparent at the outset in Wuhan. Imagine it didn’t have to take a whistleblower doctor in Wuhan to alert the world to Covid-19. Imagine if China had shared freely its antiviral therapies, personal protection equipment, ventilators and capacity to build hospitals quickly. Had that happened, the world might have responded better to Covid-19.

There is some measure of ecosystem thinking behind the government’s Covid-19 relief effort. We have all been asked to make sacrifices for the common good. The public purse is being leveraged to help those with heightened vulnerabilities in terms of hunger, income and business sustainability.

Ubuntu-anchored ecosystem thinking is what drives the volunteers who have crisscrossed SA, distributing food. Ubuntu also informs the work of doctors, nurses and others.

But is our current ecosystem thinking and strategy enough?

Certainly, sharper ecosystem thinking would help to contain the virus better. Better attention should be paid to tracing, the way South Korea tracked the infection tree of Patient 31. We could also share resources better, making it easier for people to opt in to this mission. This weakness, I believe, is the achilles heel of our Covid-19 response.

For example, when Ramaphosa announced the instant ban on alcohol sales, there was no announcement of a concomitant social and economic assistance strategy targeting businesses and workers affected by that ban.

As it stands, some agencies haven’t even delivered what they were meant to under the original lockdown. It’s clear these matters require more business literacy and social acuity than the current bureaucracy seems to possess.

For the next chapter to look better, the government should pay attention to the ancient African proverb that says: "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."

Pieterson understands this. Our government needs to as well.

If we can gear up our thinking, we will brave the Covid-19 storm, and we can use this experience to free our potential and improve the quality of life for all, as our constitution promises.