Admore Tshuma
Effective mechanisms of addressing socio-economic inequalities: a case study of the South African solidarity tax
This study examines the effectiveness of truth commissions as a mechanism for dealing with past human rights abuses in transitional societies. It focuses upon the TRC process in South Africa which recommended various strategies in dealing with socio-economic inequalities as a means of achieving full reconciliation. This study casts a critical eye over socio-economic rights and evaluates the extent to which sound economic policy is compatible with commitments to promote respect for these. The study is located will examine the notion that reconciliation and democracy cannot be sustained without genuine and effective socio-economic distributive policies. Therefore, it will address the question of the solidarity tax, a major TRC recommendation in response to extreme levels of poverty and an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. The TRC final report (Vol.5, Chapter 8) states that as a means to redress the socio-economic harms initiated by apartheid and currently experienced in post-apartheid South Africa, there is a need, to introduce a solidarity tax. It is proposed that a solidarity tax could be imposed upon business which operated in South Africa during the apartheid period in order to fund development programs as an effective way of lifting the marginalised out of poverty. That way, it is suggested by the TRC Final Report (1998), South Africa will achieve full reconciliation. The research examines this view and analyses the feasibility and form a solidarity tax could take, as well as alternative policies that may be needed to redress inequalities in South Africa. In other words, South Africa serves in this research as a case study in the bigger picture of a world that is fast resorting to truth commissions in dealing with past human rights violations.
The study will be carried out using qualitative methods and secondary data analysis. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted in South Africa with three different groups. They are 23 multinational company official (e.g General Motors, Texaco, Mobil etc), Policy-makers such as parliamentarians and tax authorities, finally, the civil society groups such as the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU). These interviews will be carried out in Johannesburg, Cape Town, KwaZulu Natal, Tshwane (Pretoria) from February to end of April 2010. Snowball sampling to gain access to more interviewees would be used if they are required. Participants will be asked for a one-off interview of 60 to 90 minutes, though they can terminate the interview at any stage. The interviews will follow a topic guide. They will be asked questions about their views, opinions and perceptions on the solidarity tax in fighting poverty. Interviews will take place in public locations or in the participants' offices bearing in mind that most of these will be elite interviews. Documents be used to provide basic background information about the subject under study. Documents will also provide data on socio-economic inequalities, progress of socio-economic policies such as the BEE using secondary analysis surveys, such as the South African General Household survey. The aim is to create an understanding on the potential impacts of the solidarity tax particularly will identify across time levels of unemployment, housing conditions and so on.
Research Interests
Truth Commissions, Socio-economic inequalities, poverty, redistributive policy and recognition, micro-justice and macro-justice policies of redistribution, various means of bringing the economy back into those theories and political struggles that have neglected it.
Profile
I have spent much time working as a political journalist in Britain and Southern Africa. During my time as a journalist I met many African leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Kenneth Kaunda and have had an exclusive interview with the former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith. I have spent time with the London Sunday Times where I specialized on southern African stories, Zimbabwe in particular.
I have lectured journalism students including a brief part-time teaching stint at the University of Bristol where I taught undergraduates poverty and international development. I hold an undergraduate in Journalism, a Masters in Journalism from City University, London.
I am committed to the study of poverty and social justice which probably stems from a personal experience with poverty in southern Africa where I was born and bred. I particularly pay attention on the conceptual controversies of poverty measurement, including the debates about absolute versus relative poverty and direct versus indirect. I am arguing that truth commissions are effective mechanisms of moving troubled and divided society forward.
This is because I believe that dealing with inter-group conflicts of the past is critical to building tolerant societies in countries torn apart by gross violations of human rights and that equality in the distribution of social resources is the foundation of reconciliation achievable through policies such as the proposed TRC Solidarity Tax.
I also argue that much of the tension that is endemic in most troubled nations is rooted in socio-economic inequalities, reflecting the need to overcome the divisions of the past and build a better future, and as such truth commissions are effective in this.