Khwezi Mabasa | Deepening economic democracy through human rights-centred economic and social policy frameworks.
South Africans commemorate Human Rights Day annually by drawing attention to the historical and political significance of this day. Sixty-nine people lost their lives on 21 March 1960 while demonstrating against the unjust pass laws. This massacre illuminated the apartheid state’s brutality and intensified the need for using armed resistance in challenging the authoritarianism prevalent across society.
The country is ranked highly in several international comparative indexes on democracy and civil liberties, such as Freedom House and the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, yet it performs poorly in essential socio-economic and human development indicators. High levels of socio-economic exclusion, poverty, inequality and uneven spatial development characterise post-1994 South Africa.
They equally coerce governments in less developed countries to adopt rigid macro-economic targets, which focus narrowly on debt containment, attracting private investment and inflation targeting. We need alternative human rights-centred economic and social policy frameworks, highlighting the following points for transitioning beyond a market-led democracy.
In addition, there is a call for more emphasis on the care economy and its relation to expanding social security systems. Social redistribution and transfer interventions are positioned as enablers of multiple livelihood options rather than non-productive expenditure line items. Furthermore, economy-wide labour market restructuring, anchored on emerging technologies or lean business models, has deepened this trend in most cases. Technology and industrial upgrading are presented as benign product market and business operation changes by large corporates. The proponents promote the efficiency, profit and production cost gains associated with these technological innovations.
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