Social Capital and the vision of a 'Home for All'

Social capital is one of the strategies of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape to work towards the vision of a 'home for all'.

The vision

The vision for the Western Cape Province is to create a 'Home for all'. The Premier of the Province, Ebrahim Rasool, explains in many speeches where this vision has its roots and how the Province will work towards achieving the vision. The Provincial Government of the Western Cape wants to turn the Western Cape into a 'Home for All' where the principles of diversity, change, dignity, humanity, respect, community and passion drive the everyday lives of those living in the province.

'The vision of a Home for All is the Expression of our deep wish to build a sense of a shared community in our Province, by putting a value on every citizen and making her or him feel a part of and a contributor to, this place we call "Home". It is about acknowledgement. And it is about creating a collectivity of interests and shared dreams for our future.' - Ebrahim Rasool -

The vision is based on statements by Chief Albert Luthuli. He first coined the phrase "Home for All" in a letter to white voters before the watershed elections of 16 April 1958 Chief Luthuli, President of the ANC said:

'You may have been led to believe that our Congress is anti-white, that it is a reckless organization out to stir up racialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are a serious and responsible minded body of men and women, and our aim, as we have stated many times, is neither White supremacy nor Black supremacy, but a common South African multi-racial society, based upon friendship, equality of rights and mutual respect'

On another occasion Chief Luthuli stated

'The task is not finished. South Africa is not yet a home for all her sons and daughters. Such a home we must wish to ensure. From the beginning our history has been one of ascending unities, the breaking of tribal, racial and creedal barriers. The past cannot hope to have a life sustained by itself, wrenched from the whole. There remains before us the building of a new land, a home for men who are black, white, brown from the ruins of the old narrow groups, a synthesis of the rich cultural strains which have inherited.'

The 'home for all' vision of the Western Cape wants to include all its citizens. It wants to fight social exclusion and promote integration, cooperation, respect and acceptance. The home for all also celebrates diversity in order to overcome cultural, religious and racial boundaries that separate people from each other.

'It must be possible - those are not mutually exclusive identities. The ability to carry many identities at the same time is directly related to the notion of creating "a home for all". Do not force people to choose between identities, but rather let them harmonize their identities.

We have to understand that multiculturalism is not a threat to the world; in today's globalised world that it is in fact beginning to unlock creativity. It is only when different people, different cultures, different religions and different languages combine their strength and interact that you unlock the creative potential.' - Ebrahim Rasool -

The vision is underpinned by eight developmental priorities and the social capital formation is one of them. Therefore, in the following the link between the home for all and the social capital formation will be shown.

Social Capital and the home for all

What can social capital contribute to the vision of a home for all?

Social capital speaks about building linkages and networks, horizontal and vertical. In the academic jargon this is called bridging and linking social capital. Internationally it has been recognized among academics and development experts that those linkages are the ones that lead to change and development. The cooperation between communities, state organs and organisations, linkages to private sector and other organisations are essential to use social capital as a developmental tool.

The bonds that exist inside South African communities are mostly strong and build an important basis for communities. It is the social capital, in the daily life of many South Africans. The problem is that this type of social capital can have negative effects or fewer positive effects if it does not open doors to link up with other communities or other organisations.

In the social capital strategy it is stated that the social capital formation will seek to ensure that the province becomes a 'Home for All' where citizens have a sense of well-being, where there is greater access to opportunities, services and information, where people live in safe communities, where citizens are civic-minded and where strong families present a firm foundation for ubuntu at the community and wider level. This will be done through a collaborative effort between the spheres of government, civil society, labour and business.

For the Western Cape Province , Ebrahim Rasool, explained as follows:

'The first thing that we have got to ask ourselves is what social capital are we competing against, what is the existing residual social capital that pervades the Western Cape and South Africa before we can put a new one in its place. The obvious one is apartheid. That it made Whites bond with each other, Coloureds bond with each other and Africans bond with each other. It made Afrikaans-speakers bond with each other, English-speakers bond with each other, Xhosa-speakers bond with each other and those who speak Kaaps bond with each other. It made the rural area bond amongst themselves in little towns and the city in townships. That is the existing social capital base that we have, that we are working against, that is haunting us now as we try to build a new set of norms, a new set of connections and fashion new glue that can hold us together. But the Western Cape has to go even deeper. We have got to also in the Western Cape deal with the interruptions and destruction of social capital which come from identities that people had in the Western Cape and interruptions in transmission of values that was passed from one generation to the other. We constitute the Province, which has had the longest engagement with colonialism.

What all of this means is that we must make one decisive paradigm shift and that is the shift in relationship, from vertical relations between patrons and clients, to horizontal relations between partners and that effectively is a shift from exploitative relationships that come from vertical ones, to partnership that foster collaborative relationship and that come from horizontal ones. And in this way the State has to reformulate the relationship with its partners and shift it from the vertical to the horizontal.'

In practical terms this means that the government will seek to enhance bridging and linking networks and foster values such as volunteerism and trust in communities but also among the government departments itself. A joint initiative of the social sector departments (Department of Health, Western Cape Education Department, Department for Transport and Public Works, Department of Social Development, Department of Housing, Department of Community Safety, Department of Cultural Affairs and Sports), the Department of the Premier and Treasury will coordinate and scan programmes and projects that are important to build social capital. Only a holistic approach will create an environment where social capital can flourish. The individual departments look at the role of social capital for health, education, housing and so forth and implement programmes around it. Which are the networks and linkages that need to be strengthened to offer particularly the poor and marginalized more choices and opportunities? How can values such as reciprocity and trust be re-established or re-built to care for everyone that is around us?

Some initiatives and projects are already on their way. Under social capital in the PGWC on this website you can find some examples of projects that are linked to the social capital strategy. In addition to the implementation of social capital as a developmental tool, the provincial government also wants to apply social capital as a management tool internally in the provincial government to promote a mind shift of civil servants towards the 'home for all' vision.

Social capital strongly support the vision of a home for all because it seeks to eradicate exclusion and bring people together regardless their background to great networks that have beneficial outcomes for each member of the network.

Do you have any comments or questions? Please send them to cgomulia@uwc.ac.za

Sources:

This summary is based on speeches by the Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the Social Capital Formation Strategy as well as on experience of the social cluster departments in the social capital formation during the past year.