by Pemy Gasela and Bonginkosi Masiwa

Since a developmental state and a developmental society are best served by progressive and constructive engagement by all stakeholders, it is important to periodically evaluate the roles of the different parties in local governance issues in South Africa. With the advent of developmental local government seven years ago, civil society is positioned to provide critical and constructive feedback to government on problem areas and what works well. The rationale for participation by civil society groups is that policy can be changed and impacted on to promote developmental government. Non-government organisations in South Africa are expected to play a major role in ensuring that citizens participate in issues of governance and service delivery. In addition, some NGOs assist ordinary citizens and people in power to gain access to accurate information in order to make the best decisions. The fact that numerous municipalities throughout the country have been partnering with community-based development NGOs is an indication that there is space for increased efficiency in the delivery of services through a collaborative and concerted effort.

The seminar hosted by Afesis-corplan on 23 March 2007 was primarily aimed at providing a platform for deliberations on the nature of state civil-society relations, particularly in a transformed, yet transitionary post-apartheid context. As one of the speakers, Ebrahim Fakir pointed out, “Post-transition contexts often create a bewildering array of challenges, ones that are impacted on by the changing nature of relationships between social and political actors, power relationships and the instrumental terms and platforms on which actors in post-transitionary contexts engage with each other”.

Some of the key issues the seminar aimed to address included:

• Evaluating the current state-civil society relations and municipality-civil society relations.
• Questioning whether civil society had a positive impact or contributed meaningfully to the actual transformation of local government.
• Exploring whether there is a common vision between civil society and local governments. Are there shared main developmental aims and objectives?
• Assessing whether civil society had any impact in terms of impacting government policy.
  Exploring whether NGOs and local authorities are advancing the same agenda as spelt out in the people’s freedom charter of 1955 and further endorsed in the RDP document that the people shall govern.

Makoma Lekalakala is a South African Women’s Rights Activist and works for the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), which is a social movement rooted in Johannesburg. Her presentation focused mainly on the different types of aid that NGOs were receiving, namely, solidarity and humanitarian aid provided by either the government or international donors. Solidarity aid has no conditions tied to it, and humanitarian aid is usually attached to the state or donor’s policies. Makoma suggested that humanitarian aid is not appealing to civil societies as it comes with conditions, and can be used to advance political agendas.

Professor Leslie Bank heads the Fort Hare University Institute of Social and Economic Research (FHISER) in East London. His presentation focused on the role of NGOs in the apartheid and post-apartheid era in South Africa with specific focus on service delivery. Bank explained how the NGO environment has changed since the 1980s. The collapse of communism has created a space for pluralism and indeed a need for more voices and opinions. There has been a shift of funding from projects to programmes, and NGOs are now more constrained by projects governed by donors and government. According to Bank, NGOs are drawn away from the local communities towards the political field.  The “professionalisation” of NGOs has made it difficult to distinguish them from private consultants. NGOs are becoming mere agents for service delivery. The close relationship between government and NGOs can either strengthen constructive engagement or compromise the existence of the NGOs. It can be argued that a constructive engagement between the NGOs and government can only be articulated and achieved when the state is penetrated into society and when civil society organisations are truly representative of and represent their constituencies’ interests. However, it has become increasingly evident that NGOs are not as representative as they claim to be, and in some cases are not representative at all.  For this reason, NGOs tend to be referred to as weak and lacking power.

Ebrahim Fakir who is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), is also a political analyst and has worked as a Researcher at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). Fakir has also been attached to the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg. In his presentation, Fakir described how NGOs have evolved from the period pre and post 1994. In the 1980s, the relationship between the organised public space that campaigned and worked against apartheid (what others refer to as “progressive civil society”), and the apartheid state was relatively straightforward. There were contradictory impulses in the way that anti-apartheid civil society engaged with the apartheid state. In part, civil society organisations engaged with the state to the extent that was necessary. The anti-apartheid civil society structures played a significant role in the demise of the apartheid state and in bringing about democracy to the majority of South Africans. However, in the post-apartheid era most civil society groups emerged as the "new left" community/social movements. The emergence of the “new left” movements intended to create alternative structures of power. NGOs should rather assist the people on the ground in understanding that participatory democracy is not an event but a process. Moreover, civil society should not be short-sighted and view its role merely as an oppositional one; it should appreciate that engagement does not automatically render it complicity with decisions and political trajectories that it may ultimately and eventually reject. Engagement simply means contesting spaces and contributing ideas and should in fact enhance, strengthen and promote engaging actors’ autonomy, independence and confidence .

Mukelani Dimba is the Acting Deputy CEO and Training Consultant of the Cape Town based Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC). His presentation largely focused on citizens’ rights to accessing information. Access to information is needed to ensure accountability. The role of civil society as “watchdogs, lobbying, sharing expertise and experience, thus they can play a role in ensuring service delivery and accountability”. However, this can only be done if one is informed and knowledgeable about one’s rights and responsibilities. Government cannot ensure accountability in service delivery without the assistance of NGOs and civil society organisations. Information is power and those who hold it are able to influence policy and force the delivery of services to the people.

The seminar provided a welcome opportunity to reflect on and interrogate the role of NGOs in developmental local government, and was well attended particularly by post-graduate students from the University of Fort Hare. Participants agreed that organised civil society can influence and assist the government on issues of service delivery and the promotion of democracy. However, NGOs need to know their rights and responsibilities as citizens and watchdogs of the country.

The Local Government Transformer, April/May 2007