A heat wave in winter
It has been said that the road to hell is sometimes paved with good and noble intentions. It is, however, indisputable that the devil never acts or directs actions in good faith. But this is a story best left for another day.
For now, let us focus on the most urgent matters of the moment. Our land burns and the anger that has been simmering for quite some time is now erupting in fits and starts across the length and breadth of our municipalities. Leadership and analysts are groping for reasons why and all kinds of possible explanations have been bandied around. Some of the explanations are credible, others utterly cynical and laughable.
For instance, the current global economic crisis is a very peripheral reason for the current discontent that is finding its expression in the form of violent protests. After all, as far back as four years ago, protests of this nature were occurring and it was partly in response to the accompanying grievances that Project Consolidate – that long-forgotten rescue package for municipalities – was implemented. No sooner had the project folded up than the municipalities retreated back to their seemingly incorrigible waywardness.
The 2011 Local Government elections? Those angry people burning tyres and engaging in street battles with the police have not quite mentioned elections or given any strong indications that they want to punish some politicians through an electoral process, at least not just yet. What they have shouted loudly and clearly is that they are sick and tired of being taken for granted. They are tired of empty promises, corruption and a largely indifferent municipal leadership that has become oblivious of the mounting suffering that millions of people are enduring as a result of the unresponsiveness by government.
A third force? My two cents worth of investigation has revealed that the current turmoil is indeed the work of a third force, which is a potent formation comprising of ordinary citizens who as I have already pointed out above have had enough of government shenanigans.
This citizens’ revolt is hardly surprising, because even the village idiot has taken the informed position that government has indeed failed or refused to deliver. Organised civil society has in the past tried with little success to give an early warning to municipalities about widespread feelings of alienation of citizens from their local authorities owing to poor governance practices. Responses from government have ranged from indignant defensiveness to derisive dismissal of claims of the existence of any grievances. The irony is that a huge section of our municipal leaderships across the country holds the rather warped and arrogant view that they wield the monopoly of understanding of what the public wants and requires of them. We have encountered municipal leaderships that believe that communities should be kept ignorant, because if they are informed about their role in a participatory democracy, it would be tantamount to inciting them to irrationally demand things that are untenable. Of course we beg to differ in the strongest possible terms.
It is awfully condescending for leadership to hold communities in such utter contempt. When people are amply informed about their roles, duties and rights, when municipalities are transparent about decision-making processes and they genuinely facilitate people’s participation in the budgeting process and they hold regular sessions to give progress reports regarding on-going projects and programmes, then communities are very understanding about what is possible, given the budgetary constraints.
However, they will buy none of these if in the same breath there are allegations of corruption, wanton wastage of public resources and generally injudicious expenditure that reeks of impunity. For instance, at a time when government is encouraging (or is it coercing?), the rest of us to tighten our belts in the current economic slump, it is terribly imprudent for its departments and cabinet ministers to be adding to their fleets of expensive cars at the public expense. In fact, it is not clever to act surprised that people are exhibiting such anger at poor service delivery from the same government that is likely to hide behind the excuse of ‘insufficient funds’.
The bottom line is that government is failing to listen to the people, including civil society. Government’s formal structures for public participation are ineffective. They hold local politicians miserable captives. The only avenue for people to air their grievances is regrettably through street protests. The problem with this is that criminal elements are taking advantage of decent people’s legitimate grievances and bringing such initiatives into disrepute.
By the way, the only reason criminals appear to be firmly in control of the country is because our criminal justice system is hopelessly inadequate. Our commitment to the principle of human rights seemingly applies only to criminals who repeatedly rape, murder and rob, while families of their victims continue to pay taxes for the former to be maintained in state ‘guesthouses’ if they are ‘unfortunate’ enough to be arrested and convicted for their crimes.
The success of a learning process is demonstrated by the ability to change for the better. Our seemingly good intentions have not yielded the desired results. We appear stuck to poor governance and a flawed criminal justice system.
For now, let us focus on the most urgent matters of the moment. Our land burns and the anger that has been simmering for quite some time is now erupting in fits and starts across the length and breadth of our municipalities. Leadership and analysts are groping for reasons why and all kinds of possible explanations have been bandied around. Some of the explanations are credible, others utterly cynical and laughable.
For instance, the current global economic crisis is a very peripheral reason for the current discontent that is finding its expression in the form of violent protests. After all, as far back as four years ago, protests of this nature were occurring and it was partly in response to the accompanying grievances that Project Consolidate – that long-forgotten rescue package for municipalities – was implemented. No sooner had the project folded up than the municipalities retreated back to their seemingly incorrigible waywardness.
The 2011 Local Government elections? Those angry people burning tyres and engaging in street battles with the police have not quite mentioned elections or given any strong indications that they want to punish some politicians through an electoral process, at least not just yet. What they have shouted loudly and clearly is that they are sick and tired of being taken for granted. They are tired of empty promises, corruption and a largely indifferent municipal leadership that has become oblivious of the mounting suffering that millions of people are enduring as a result of the unresponsiveness by government.
A third force? My two cents worth of investigation has revealed that the current turmoil is indeed the work of a third force, which is a potent formation comprising of ordinary citizens who as I have already pointed out above have had enough of government shenanigans.
This citizens’ revolt is hardly surprising, because even the village idiot has taken the informed position that government has indeed failed or refused to deliver. Organised civil society has in the past tried with little success to give an early warning to municipalities about widespread feelings of alienation of citizens from their local authorities owing to poor governance practices. Responses from government have ranged from indignant defensiveness to derisive dismissal of claims of the existence of any grievances. The irony is that a huge section of our municipal leaderships across the country holds the rather warped and arrogant view that they wield the monopoly of understanding of what the public wants and requires of them. We have encountered municipal leaderships that believe that communities should be kept ignorant, because if they are informed about their role in a participatory democracy, it would be tantamount to inciting them to irrationally demand things that are untenable. Of course we beg to differ in the strongest possible terms.
It is awfully condescending for leadership to hold communities in such utter contempt. When people are amply informed about their roles, duties and rights, when municipalities are transparent about decision-making processes and they genuinely facilitate people’s participation in the budgeting process and they hold regular sessions to give progress reports regarding on-going projects and programmes, then communities are very understanding about what is possible, given the budgetary constraints.
However, they will buy none of these if in the same breath there are allegations of corruption, wanton wastage of public resources and generally injudicious expenditure that reeks of impunity. For instance, at a time when government is encouraging (or is it coercing?), the rest of us to tighten our belts in the current economic slump, it is terribly imprudent for its departments and cabinet ministers to be adding to their fleets of expensive cars at the public expense. In fact, it is not clever to act surprised that people are exhibiting such anger at poor service delivery from the same government that is likely to hide behind the excuse of ‘insufficient funds’.
The bottom line is that government is failing to listen to the people, including civil society. Government’s formal structures for public participation are ineffective. They hold local politicians miserable captives. The only avenue for people to air their grievances is regrettably through street protests. The problem with this is that criminal elements are taking advantage of decent people’s legitimate grievances and bringing such initiatives into disrepute.
By the way, the only reason criminals appear to be firmly in control of the country is because our criminal justice system is hopelessly inadequate. Our commitment to the principle of human rights seemingly applies only to criminals who repeatedly rape, murder and rob, while families of their victims continue to pay taxes for the former to be maintained in state ‘guesthouses’ if they are ‘unfortunate’ enough to be arrested and convicted for their crimes.
The success of a learning process is demonstrated by the ability to change for the better. Our seemingly good intentions have not yielded the desired results. We appear stuck to poor governance and a flawed criminal justice system.