style="font-size:15px;"> Firstly, it is very rare for a developing country to advance economically unless the political leadership in charge is focused. Over the last 50 years we have seen many developing countries – in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia – with high economic growth rates where the benefits of this growth have not been reinvested productively, because the political leadership only looked after themselves or simply lacked the depth to give direction.
In most advanced democracies the democratic institutions are strong and generally independent. Furthermore, politics at municipal level is quite often independent from national politics and municipal leaders are in power because they deliver on local issues, rather than because they hold allegiance to the governing party. In many cases local governments can raise taxes, and are mandated to deliver public services such as education, health, water and energy at a local level.
Italy is an example of a country which has a legacy of poor political leadership. Yet the country’s public service is relatively independent from the ruling political party and is meritocratic. Italy’s public service. Italy’s public service is also ring-fenced – public servants remain in their jobs no matter which party is in power – and this means that high-quality public services can still be delivered even if those leading the country are inept and corrupt or, as is often the case in Italy, there are rapid changes in government.
Furthermore, nongovernmental sectors in Italy – business, civil society, the press and academia – are generally aggressively independent, and continue to function no matter which party is in power. And although the judiciary and the police have been criticised regularly in recent years, there are huge pockets of excellence that, ultimately, compensate for the corrupt elements, and make the overall system function.
How does contemporary South Africa compare? Within the ANC there are obvious differences over policy and the resultant administrative paralysis will continue until the party has its national conference in December 2012. The irony, of course, is that the ANC is a single entity but operates as if it were different parties with different policies. South Africa has poor-quality political leadership and most of the public service and state-owned company sectors are inefficient because they have more often than not become places of patronage for the elite of the ruling party. And because critical appointments are mostly dependent on the ruling party, and sometimes even the faction in control, a change at the top also means a turnover of management. Consequently, the public service in South Africa does not offer a buffer for misguided decisions from inept political leaders. On top of this, every changeover appears to bring in new policies. The implementation of policy is therefore constantly interrupted and in such a context it becomes near impossible to plan for the long term, which is crucial to ensure prosperity.
In South Africa’s case, pockets of excellence in the public service and state-owned companies operate side by side with less effective structures. Such pockets include the Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the Revenue Service, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Some public service departments and state-owned companies may not be centres of excellence, but they function reasonably well – Eskom and Transnet, for instance. There are also centres of excellence among some of South Africa’s regulatory bodies, such as the Office of the Auditor-General. Others, such as the Commission for Gender Equality and the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), are appallingly ineffective.
What counts in South Africa’s favour is that it has many pockets of excellence outside the governmental sphere – which is not the case in many developing countries. Even if the public sector is erratic, the private sector equivalents – providing health care and education, for example – can compete with the best in the world. Furthermore, South Africa has private sector companies, nongovernmental organisations and civil groups that are highly effective – the latter ranging from organisations like the Institute for Democracy in Africa (IDASA) to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
One way for South Africa to ride out the current storm of political uncertainty, at least in the short term, is for the pockets of excellence in the public and private sectors to step into the breach. In the absence of coherent political leadership the centres of excellence in the public and private sectors, as well as in civil society, will have to provide leadership. For example, in May 2010 South Africa’s two largest business organisations, Business Leadership South Africa and Business Unity South Africa, pledged to come up with self-generated initiatives to help government increase electricity capacity. Or Business Leadership South Africa’s initiative to triple the size of South Africa’s economy within a generation. Or their initiative to get CEOs to commit to skills development and more responsible corporate behaviour.
Companies, of course, have to focus on maximising returns for shareholders. However, in our context companies must also be better corporate citizens. Rather than pursuing narrow black economic empowerment, to enrich a few black individuals in the right faction, adopt 100 of the poorest black schools – the benefits will be so much greater.
The investment arms of COSATU-affiliated trade unions have billions in their kitties. This money can, for example, be used to make more ethical and productive investments, rather than funding narrow BEE enterprises. Other COSATU affiliates must follow the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in organising winter schools and bursaries for the children of their members and skills training for workers who have been retrenched.
But what can individuals do?
Efforts such as the launch of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) by prominent South Africans are crucial to defending our democratic rights. Furthermore, it is crucial that individuals and nongovernmental organisations continue to express their outrage at the proposed media tribunal, which would allow the state to regulate the media, and the information bill, which would in practice hinder public awareness of official corruption and wrongdoing.
The instinctive reaction of many who care about their country is to turn inwards at a time such as this. However, what South Africa needs right now is for individuals to become more involved in their communities, whether it is sitting on school boards, attending the meetings of local municipalities (and challenging the councillors there) or supporting community organisations and charities. Ideally, we want government to actually do its job, but this kind of public mobilisation can fill the gap when government fails.
Furthermore, individuals who are members and supporters of political parties must hold their leaders to account. ANC members should do more to make their party more responsible; members of opposition parties must do more to make them more relevant.
Lastly, in the absence of responsible political leadership, corporate, civil and church leaders must fill the vacuum.
Beeld, 1 October 2010
ANC must spring-clean, nothing less
These are unsettling times. Among both black and white South Africans there is a paralysing feeling of anxiety, drift and imminent collapse. This in itself damages the economy because many, especially in the public sector, feel that their hard work will be cancelled out by those greedily eating away scarce public resources. There is a choking sense that the current generation in government may not have the ideas or political will to lead us out of this malaise.
Many supporters of the ANC also wonder whether we will be struck by that curse of African liberation movements – the failure to improve the lot of the widest number of people and to create a better and caring society. This is a cataclysmic shift in the political climate. Are there any solutions?
There are new task teams, calls for more debate on morality, new laws . . . But with no urgent amendment of the electoral law to allow citizens to elect their representatives directly, rather than for party leaders to choose them,
