Mbuyiseni Ndlozi: South Africans Must Stop Waiting For The State To Save Them

A collaboration between The Common Sense and the African Renaissance Podcast (Thabo Mbeki Foundation). Former EFF MP Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, now a senior fellow at the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, sits down with Gabriel Makin to unpack his 11 Theses on the Call for a Batho Pele Convention. He argues that South Africans traded their agency for the ballot ("we vote, and then we wait"), that local government is sliding into a mafiocracy run by extortion cartels, and that communities must organise to fix their own streets, schools and safety, from monthly contributions and community chapters to an alumni league that maintains public schools in the holidays and a legal unit that sues over abandoned projects. The two then argue it out: liberals and Pan-Africanists, the lean state versus the developmental state, China and Deng Xiaoping, Black Consciousness and the Institute of Race Relations, racism and the 1994 settlement, and whether Bantu education or SADTU is to blame for South Africa's schools. Read the 11 Theses: https://www.bathopeleconvention.org/ Become a member for all the facts and analysis (R99/month): https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/subs... Watch or listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ScOGx3... The Common Sense: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za Chapters: 0:00 Leaving party politics: Ndlozi's new vantage point 4:15 The 11 Theses, Batho Pele and the vote-and-wait trap 19:01 The death of the careerist and the end of the big man 22:28 Community funds, safety and the church roof test 26:23 An alumni league to fix South Africa's 22,000 public schools 30:14 Suing over unfinished projects and a parallel service machine 35:42 Siyazenzela: spaza shops and organising for a cause 39:40 Revolution is the morning after the march 44:28 Black Consciousness, liberals and the lean state 51:16 The Bantu education generation 54:17 Liberals, the left and the spark of the divine 57:15 China, profit for profit's sake and the state's role 1:01:43 Mandela, Luthuli and tea with the Institute of Race Relations 1:07:59 Subsidiarity and the missing alliance in South African politics 1:11:22 Racism, enclaves and the bravery of 1994 1:16:07 Who failed South Africa's schools: SADTU or Bantu education? 1:20:31 Maths literacy and a societal problem in education 1:25:16 Communities, history and a conversation to continue If this was useful, subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss the next conversation.