Chairperson, hon members, the well-known definition of a developmental state as developed by Chalmers Johnson, which is premised on his seminal analysis of Japan's very rapid and highly successful post-war reconstruction and reindustrialisation has to be juxtaposed with our own uniquely South African home-made definition that will bear characteristics of who we are, where we come from and where were are going to.
According to Johnson, a developmental state is the one that determines and influences the direction and pace of economic development by directly intervening in the development process rather than relying on the unco- ordinated influence of free markets or market forces. Even if we agree with Johnson's definition, ours will have to be expanded to include an element of what one may call African humanism.
Indeed, I agree with hon Njikelana that South Africa is actually a developmental state in the making, but any development ideology that we seek to follow will have to be in touch with the African reality. Basil Davidson teaches us very clearly regarding this, that instead of building new states from the foundation culture of Africa's pre-colonial states, Africa tried to build new states from the foundation culture of colonial states. So, African independence had not been able to join in its own history and tradition.
The whole of the African continent is in the third phase of the struggle for economic liberation and development. No African country right now has won its economic struggle against poverty; and economic emancipation and development is the most important phase in our liberation struggle. Africa can never be free unless it has achieved economic freedom, and that is a given fact.
Political freedom cannot be sustained on an empty stomach whilst holding out the desperate and humiliating hands of begging. We can never be free unless we have overcome our personal poverty and achieved financial success. But, let us get this very straight: The Asian Tigers and China followed development pathways that did not conform to the Washington Consensus doctrine of free markets. It can be argued here that perhaps that is why they are what they are today.
The destruction of our African values as a result of colonialism accounts for many of Africa's ongoing economic problems. Africa borrowed wrong things from the West. Africa borrowed even the wrong components of capitalism. It also borrowed the profit motive, not actually the entrepreneurial spirit. We borrowed even the acquisitive appetites of capitalism, not its creative risk-taking.
Our kind of capitalism right now assumes that human beings are primarily economic beings. It assumes that human beings will always act so as to pursue their own rational self-interest. In business terms, these principles are mirrored by the pursuit of profits for its own sake and by the assumption that every business exists to maximise its own self- interest. At least, George Soros agrees with me, regarding this.
Poverty as we know it has many faces; one of them is intellectual poverty which has allowed for inappropriate development strategies that are inconsistent with our African culture. We need to ensure that there is an integration of our African belief systems, thought and culture. History shows that significant societal transformation has to be strictly and correctly accompanied by our guided and developed African Renaissance.