Reviewing 2010: Governance Issues and Events
By Peter Kimemia
The year 2010 was the second year of the Zuma administration and therefore marked the immediate post-honeymoon period during which its performance was undoubtedly going to be under severe scrutiny. It was also the year that South Africa played host to the rest of the world during the World Cup soccer spectacle. It was an eventful year that saw promises being broken left, right and centre by the political leadership and more new ones being churned out in equal measure. Allow me, therefore, to take you down the short memory lane and outline some of the key events that shaped our lives for better or worse during 2010, the year that was.
TAS: A dance around Mt Sinai
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Department was the author of most of the ‘great expectations’ at local government level. After telling all and sundry that our local government was in shambles, the department, like a seasoned Sangoma cobbled up what it told to everyone who cared to listen that it would be the antidote to the near complete collapse of municipalities and outright dismal service delivery performance. For good measure and supposedly for dramatic effects the way out was dubbed the Turn Around Strategy (TAS) and had the heroic requirement that each municipality would be expected to craft one by the end of March 2010. I am not sure how many municipalities managed to put together a respectable document that could pass as a draft strategy, let alone a TAS. It is indisputable, however, that we needed a general TAS a couple of years ago – testimony to the fact that in spite of all the good intentions, Project Consolidate which had been implemented only some four odd years earlier had largely been a flop. So, to many in civil societies and the general public, a credible intervention however belated was a welcome initiative. After all, what government presented as an honest self-review was informed by a collection of submissions, research reports, write-ups of civil society seminar proceedings as well as newspaper opinion pieces. It was an eleventh hour subtle acknowledgement that repeated claims by government that all was well in local government was totally misleading. Critics had been right all along, but government had stubbornly resisted the ‘unsolicited’ counsel to act before things went out of hand.
So, it was a good idea to contemplate TASs for municipalities and the process looked good on paper, but in practice, as is the case with our numerous policy frameworks, there is always a disconcertingly huge schism between intent and practical application. A primary point made in the analysis of the state of local government in 2009 was the reiteration of the crucial importance of participatory processes that reflect multi-stakeholder inclusion in governance and development. However, this important element of the TAS was promptly set aside and technocratic solutions quickly enjoined to ensure that the strategy documents were produced merely in line with the set deadlines. Chances are that in cases where municipalities came up with strategy documents, such ‘blueprints’ are not reflective of broad consultation and participation of the general public and other stakeholders. It is business as usual, government talked to and with itself and made feeble attempts to legitimise the process by informing a few stakeholders of its intentions and then went ahead to craft TASs, or contract consultants to do so. In our view, government elected to pass on a grand opportunity to turn a page and re-write the script. Unfortunately, it is not entirely ‘sharp’ to do more of the same thing and expect different results. The good intentions (if there were) have seemingly only managed to pave our way to a governance hell. We executed the TAS badly and the tragedy of it all is that we will, while it is back to business as usual in the municipalities, live for another couple of years under the illusion that we are turning around while in actual sense we are paradoxically on an aimless trek around Mt Sinai which adds no value to our desire to reach Cannan.
Amendments to the Municipal Systems Act
Still for the benefit of the consumers of public services at the local level, some useful suggestions were made towards the amendment of the Municipal Systems Act. The amendments sought to streamline municipal governance by, among other things, addressing the dicey question of political party office bearers holding positions in municipal administrations. Theoretically, the removal of such characters from the management structures of our municipalities should enhance fairness and impartiality in the conduct of municipal affairs. Other elements under review in the Act sought to ensure the appointment of qualified and competent Municipal Managers and Senior Managers directly accountable to them, requiring that councilors be surcharged for wasteful expenditure as well as the preclusion from appointment of employees fired elsewhere on account of verifiable misconduct. The downside to the propositions was that they offered no relief for municipalities already under leaderships mired in the kind of mess that the amendments were intending to fix. Clearly, though the proposals are positive, they may be fatally constrained and unable to unravel the political culture that informs the prevailing challenges in municipalities. Some of these can only be sorted out through pragmatic political directives and decisions. The attendant political costs should not hold us captive to practices that are evidently ruining municipal governance.
Draft Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Bill
This piece of legislation was meant to help resolve contentions regarding the role and place of traditional leadership under the democratic dispensation. The Bill gives recognition to the institution of traditional leadership as an organ of the State with a role to play in the country’s governance. However, it is still not yet that clear even among senior bureaucrats as to what role the traditional leaders should be playing. There are also concerns over the entrenchment of gender inequality and the added complication to the land reform question. Overall, democracy is much the poorer under this law and women will be worse off in spite of the rhetoric counseling otherwise. We are still in the high seas regarding how to cobble-up a harmonious working relationship between the two sets of leadership that exist in some of our rural areas, without redefining democracy to the detriment of citizens and subjects as Mahmood Mamndani would caution.
Political Shenanigans and Cold-Blooded Eliminations
In national governance, our terrain has been characterised by what Richard Pithouse rightly views as an upsurge in xenophobic and ethnic politics, social and religious conservatism, trade union militancy and the emergence of vibrant poor people’s movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo “who have questioned both the economic and political basis of the liberal consensus.” Our frustration with the spiraling crime has led us to contemplate militarising the police services to disastrous effects on human rights and marginal improvement in overall safety. None of these trends can be adjudged as being positive and although some were as a result of long-term processes, they certainly became more prominent in 2010 as people started comparing the rhetoric of change as expressed by the new Zuma administration with their experiences on the ground.
But perhaps a more worrying trend that gained prominence in 2010 was the blatant entrenchment of corruption and its more ominous concomitants; an attack on the independent media and the more bizarre culture of political assassinations. Both of these have no place in a democracy and should never be countenanced. It is in this context that the general harassment of journalists and the specific intention to change the laws in order to curtail access to information is viewed as an affront to good governance. While it is good to demand accountability and ethical conduct all round, it is foolhardy for government to muscle into law provisions aimed clearly at shrinking the democratic space and restricting reportage on its excesses and sleaze. The officially stated aim of reigning control over rogue journalists and the protection of individual rights is just a façade to mask the political elite’s desire to illegally stoop pretty at the feeding trough without the unnecessary irritation of being exposed. Those applauding government for its ‘foresight’ and unflinching desire to protect public interest will have a rude awakening once the state has had its way on this one. In any case, the ‘public hanging’ of the Scorpions (the precursor of the Hawks) was ostensibly done in public interest, but there is no prize really for guessing who profited most from the misadventure. Over the past year, the sustained attack on the media has also coincided with increasing spates of repression against social movements struggling to keep the plight of the poor at the centre of the national agenda. In effect, the ruling elites while rhetorically extolling the virtues of a social democratic agenda has been busy denigrating the same for all intents and purposes. The dubious prospects of sliding into full political authoritarianism can, therefore, be said to have improved quite significantly over the past year.
While the hosting of the Soccer World Cup extravaganza was a resounding success and testimony of just how much we could achieve if we put in a decent effort, some of the more nasty offshoots surrounding the organisation of the event included a few assassinations that had to do with rent-seeking skirmishes over tenders and outright corruption. Following the murder of Mbombela’s Speaker, Jimmy Mohlala for blowing the whistle against corrupt deals around the construction of the stadium in the municipality, 2010 saw the deaths of SACP’s Dumisani “Bomber’ Ntshangase in June and that of politician James Nkambule in October. In terms of politically motivated murders, Mpumalanga seems to be in pole position – a dubious distinction that is slowly creeping into other provinces including the Eastern Cape where a businessman and Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran, Mthunzi Nkonki was murdered in Duncan village for exposing alleged corruption in the Great Kei Municipality. The latest person to express fears for his life, as reported by the Daily Dispatch in late November, is the former acting Municipal Manager of the same municipality, Malawana Mkhohlakali, supposedly over allegations of mischief around the same tenders that appear to have done Comrade Nkonki in. The North West province reportedly saw the murder of trade unionist Moss Phakoe who was allegedly murdered for exposing fraud in the province’s drought relief projects. All these examples point to a firm determination by the corrupt to protect their turf whatever it takes, even if by effecting what they regard as the ultimate solution – permanently eliminating the ‘irritants’. There is real cause for worry –attempts at honesty in the management of public resources are being rewarded with violent deaths and our criminal justice system is seemingly not eliciting the requisite trepidation in the minds of the perpetrators of these vices. Already as confessed by Minister Pravin Gordhan government is investigating pilferage of public resources to the tune of a whopping R25 billion. This wanton leakage of public revenue is facilitated by and benefits ravenous politically connected individuals. We are neck-deep in the sludge of crony capitalism – the woefully destructive type.
Party Hopelessly Not Coping
At the beginning of the year we hoped that we would get something very positive to report regarding our political parties and prospects for slightly even political contests in future elections. Unfortunately, people’s hopes in the likes of the Congress of the People (COPE) were dashed in the most dramatic fashion. The tragi-comical intra-party duels that obtained in the party right from the beginning of the year reminded one of the Julius Malema’s derisive dismissal of COPE as “a group of angry people” during the party’s formation. Accusations of impropriety and undemocratic tendencies between the party heavy weights; Mosioua Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa and the numerous sojourns to the courts must have left Luthuli House a little dismayed with just how quickly the presumed competition was collapsing and denying them a chance for some decent political brawls in future elections. Seemingly, while the Cope leadership was happy to continue coping with what is being dished out by the ANC, they evidently cannot cope with each others’ guts. At last check, Cope had split straight down the middle and Phillip Dexter and Onkgoposte JJ Tabane (who had just resigned from the Party) were at each others’ necks over who was to blame for the failure of the Party to Cope. Sometimes intelligent people do some really darn things. My informed suspicion, though, is that Cope was done-in by characters whose greed for power and the allure of opportunities to dispense patronage so huge that they were not averse to acting like the fabled idiots who went to hunt, but had to abort the mission after they disagreed over who would take what. For effortlessly running themselves down, they disappointed even the ANC!
Not to worry, though, for the ANC because one of the interesting nuptials that happened in the Western Cape involved the Independent Democrats (ID) of Patricia de Lille and Helen Zille’s Democratic Alliance (DA). This political Alliance should be viewed as a positive development if it can offer a credible competition to the ANC. Our opposition parties have been giving the grand old ANC a bad name; a beneficiary of a monolithic system devoid of any political competition to write home about. How about we see an even broader opposition Alliance that gives the ANC a wake-up call ahead of its Centenary celebrations? The starting point should, however, be the internal democratization of all these pretenders to the throne followed by a thorough review of the parties’ ideologies and policies in order to arrive at mutually acceptable positions. To avoid the drama of the ‘nights of long knives’ and to help save the politicians from themselves, conduct electoral primaries that involve ordinary voters to determine who the leaders of such an outfit would be. It’s more complex than this, of course, but you need to start listening to other people as well! Please help make the ANC to work better for All or provide a better option. This is one of the ways by which we can contain the mounting arrogance, corruption and unresponsiveness to peoples’ grievances. It is your democratic obligation.
Signing off
Finally, its Christmas again……a time when besides beseeching you to do everything practically possible to stay alive and protect others, we equally urge the revisiting of the spirit of giving, caring, having a sense of what is enough and spreading goodwill all round. Perhaps this can buoy us into a new year, 2011, of better governance practices with minimal avarice (if it must exist), less violence and a host of new opportunities for all. Merry Christmas!
The year 2010 was the second year of the Zuma administration and therefore marked the immediate post-honeymoon period during which its performance was undoubtedly going to be under severe scrutiny. It was also the year that South Africa played host to the rest of the world during the World Cup soccer spectacle. It was an eventful year that saw promises being broken left, right and centre by the political leadership and more new ones being churned out in equal measure. Allow me, therefore, to take you down the short memory lane and outline some of the key events that shaped our lives for better or worse during 2010, the year that was.
TAS: A dance around Mt Sinai
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Department was the author of most of the ‘great expectations’ at local government level. After telling all and sundry that our local government was in shambles, the department, like a seasoned Sangoma cobbled up what it told to everyone who cared to listen that it would be the antidote to the near complete collapse of municipalities and outright dismal service delivery performance. For good measure and supposedly for dramatic effects the way out was dubbed the Turn Around Strategy (TAS) and had the heroic requirement that each municipality would be expected to craft one by the end of March 2010. I am not sure how many municipalities managed to put together a respectable document that could pass as a draft strategy, let alone a TAS. It is indisputable, however, that we needed a general TAS a couple of years ago – testimony to the fact that in spite of all the good intentions, Project Consolidate which had been implemented only some four odd years earlier had largely been a flop. So, to many in civil societies and the general public, a credible intervention however belated was a welcome initiative. After all, what government presented as an honest self-review was informed by a collection of submissions, research reports, write-ups of civil society seminar proceedings as well as newspaper opinion pieces. It was an eleventh hour subtle acknowledgement that repeated claims by government that all was well in local government was totally misleading. Critics had been right all along, but government had stubbornly resisted the ‘unsolicited’ counsel to act before things went out of hand.
So, it was a good idea to contemplate TASs for municipalities and the process looked good on paper, but in practice, as is the case with our numerous policy frameworks, there is always a disconcertingly huge schism between intent and practical application. A primary point made in the analysis of the state of local government in 2009 was the reiteration of the crucial importance of participatory processes that reflect multi-stakeholder inclusion in governance and development. However, this important element of the TAS was promptly set aside and technocratic solutions quickly enjoined to ensure that the strategy documents were produced merely in line with the set deadlines. Chances are that in cases where municipalities came up with strategy documents, such ‘blueprints’ are not reflective of broad consultation and participation of the general public and other stakeholders. It is business as usual, government talked to and with itself and made feeble attempts to legitimise the process by informing a few stakeholders of its intentions and then went ahead to craft TASs, or contract consultants to do so. In our view, government elected to pass on a grand opportunity to turn a page and re-write the script. Unfortunately, it is not entirely ‘sharp’ to do more of the same thing and expect different results. The good intentions (if there were) have seemingly only managed to pave our way to a governance hell. We executed the TAS badly and the tragedy of it all is that we will, while it is back to business as usual in the municipalities, live for another couple of years under the illusion that we are turning around while in actual sense we are paradoxically on an aimless trek around Mt Sinai which adds no value to our desire to reach Cannan.
Amendments to the Municipal Systems Act
Still for the benefit of the consumers of public services at the local level, some useful suggestions were made towards the amendment of the Municipal Systems Act. The amendments sought to streamline municipal governance by, among other things, addressing the dicey question of political party office bearers holding positions in municipal administrations. Theoretically, the removal of such characters from the management structures of our municipalities should enhance fairness and impartiality in the conduct of municipal affairs. Other elements under review in the Act sought to ensure the appointment of qualified and competent Municipal Managers and Senior Managers directly accountable to them, requiring that councilors be surcharged for wasteful expenditure as well as the preclusion from appointment of employees fired elsewhere on account of verifiable misconduct. The downside to the propositions was that they offered no relief for municipalities already under leaderships mired in the kind of mess that the amendments were intending to fix. Clearly, though the proposals are positive, they may be fatally constrained and unable to unravel the political culture that informs the prevailing challenges in municipalities. Some of these can only be sorted out through pragmatic political directives and decisions. The attendant political costs should not hold us captive to practices that are evidently ruining municipal governance.
Draft Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Bill
This piece of legislation was meant to help resolve contentions regarding the role and place of traditional leadership under the democratic dispensation. The Bill gives recognition to the institution of traditional leadership as an organ of the State with a role to play in the country’s governance. However, it is still not yet that clear even among senior bureaucrats as to what role the traditional leaders should be playing. There are also concerns over the entrenchment of gender inequality and the added complication to the land reform question. Overall, democracy is much the poorer under this law and women will be worse off in spite of the rhetoric counseling otherwise. We are still in the high seas regarding how to cobble-up a harmonious working relationship between the two sets of leadership that exist in some of our rural areas, without redefining democracy to the detriment of citizens and subjects as Mahmood Mamndani would caution.
Political Shenanigans and Cold-Blooded Eliminations
In national governance, our terrain has been characterised by what Richard Pithouse rightly views as an upsurge in xenophobic and ethnic politics, social and religious conservatism, trade union militancy and the emergence of vibrant poor people’s movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo “who have questioned both the economic and political basis of the liberal consensus.” Our frustration with the spiraling crime has led us to contemplate militarising the police services to disastrous effects on human rights and marginal improvement in overall safety. None of these trends can be adjudged as being positive and although some were as a result of long-term processes, they certainly became more prominent in 2010 as people started comparing the rhetoric of change as expressed by the new Zuma administration with their experiences on the ground.
But perhaps a more worrying trend that gained prominence in 2010 was the blatant entrenchment of corruption and its more ominous concomitants; an attack on the independent media and the more bizarre culture of political assassinations. Both of these have no place in a democracy and should never be countenanced. It is in this context that the general harassment of journalists and the specific intention to change the laws in order to curtail access to information is viewed as an affront to good governance. While it is good to demand accountability and ethical conduct all round, it is foolhardy for government to muscle into law provisions aimed clearly at shrinking the democratic space and restricting reportage on its excesses and sleaze. The officially stated aim of reigning control over rogue journalists and the protection of individual rights is just a façade to mask the political elite’s desire to illegally stoop pretty at the feeding trough without the unnecessary irritation of being exposed. Those applauding government for its ‘foresight’ and unflinching desire to protect public interest will have a rude awakening once the state has had its way on this one. In any case, the ‘public hanging’ of the Scorpions (the precursor of the Hawks) was ostensibly done in public interest, but there is no prize really for guessing who profited most from the misadventure. Over the past year, the sustained attack on the media has also coincided with increasing spates of repression against social movements struggling to keep the plight of the poor at the centre of the national agenda. In effect, the ruling elites while rhetorically extolling the virtues of a social democratic agenda has been busy denigrating the same for all intents and purposes. The dubious prospects of sliding into full political authoritarianism can, therefore, be said to have improved quite significantly over the past year.
While the hosting of the Soccer World Cup extravaganza was a resounding success and testimony of just how much we could achieve if we put in a decent effort, some of the more nasty offshoots surrounding the organisation of the event included a few assassinations that had to do with rent-seeking skirmishes over tenders and outright corruption. Following the murder of Mbombela’s Speaker, Jimmy Mohlala for blowing the whistle against corrupt deals around the construction of the stadium in the municipality, 2010 saw the deaths of SACP’s Dumisani “Bomber’ Ntshangase in June and that of politician James Nkambule in October. In terms of politically motivated murders, Mpumalanga seems to be in pole position – a dubious distinction that is slowly creeping into other provinces including the Eastern Cape where a businessman and Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran, Mthunzi Nkonki was murdered in Duncan village for exposing alleged corruption in the Great Kei Municipality. The latest person to express fears for his life, as reported by the Daily Dispatch in late November, is the former acting Municipal Manager of the same municipality, Malawana Mkhohlakali, supposedly over allegations of mischief around the same tenders that appear to have done Comrade Nkonki in. The North West province reportedly saw the murder of trade unionist Moss Phakoe who was allegedly murdered for exposing fraud in the province’s drought relief projects. All these examples point to a firm determination by the corrupt to protect their turf whatever it takes, even if by effecting what they regard as the ultimate solution – permanently eliminating the ‘irritants’. There is real cause for worry –attempts at honesty in the management of public resources are being rewarded with violent deaths and our criminal justice system is seemingly not eliciting the requisite trepidation in the minds of the perpetrators of these vices. Already as confessed by Minister Pravin Gordhan government is investigating pilferage of public resources to the tune of a whopping R25 billion. This wanton leakage of public revenue is facilitated by and benefits ravenous politically connected individuals. We are neck-deep in the sludge of crony capitalism – the woefully destructive type.
Party Hopelessly Not Coping
At the beginning of the year we hoped that we would get something very positive to report regarding our political parties and prospects for slightly even political contests in future elections. Unfortunately, people’s hopes in the likes of the Congress of the People (COPE) were dashed in the most dramatic fashion. The tragi-comical intra-party duels that obtained in the party right from the beginning of the year reminded one of the Julius Malema’s derisive dismissal of COPE as “a group of angry people” during the party’s formation. Accusations of impropriety and undemocratic tendencies between the party heavy weights; Mosioua Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa and the numerous sojourns to the courts must have left Luthuli House a little dismayed with just how quickly the presumed competition was collapsing and denying them a chance for some decent political brawls in future elections. Seemingly, while the Cope leadership was happy to continue coping with what is being dished out by the ANC, they evidently cannot cope with each others’ guts. At last check, Cope had split straight down the middle and Phillip Dexter and Onkgoposte JJ Tabane (who had just resigned from the Party) were at each others’ necks over who was to blame for the failure of the Party to Cope. Sometimes intelligent people do some really darn things. My informed suspicion, though, is that Cope was done-in by characters whose greed for power and the allure of opportunities to dispense patronage so huge that they were not averse to acting like the fabled idiots who went to hunt, but had to abort the mission after they disagreed over who would take what. For effortlessly running themselves down, they disappointed even the ANC!
Not to worry, though, for the ANC because one of the interesting nuptials that happened in the Western Cape involved the Independent Democrats (ID) of Patricia de Lille and Helen Zille’s Democratic Alliance (DA). This political Alliance should be viewed as a positive development if it can offer a credible competition to the ANC. Our opposition parties have been giving the grand old ANC a bad name; a beneficiary of a monolithic system devoid of any political competition to write home about. How about we see an even broader opposition Alliance that gives the ANC a wake-up call ahead of its Centenary celebrations? The starting point should, however, be the internal democratization of all these pretenders to the throne followed by a thorough review of the parties’ ideologies and policies in order to arrive at mutually acceptable positions. To avoid the drama of the ‘nights of long knives’ and to help save the politicians from themselves, conduct electoral primaries that involve ordinary voters to determine who the leaders of such an outfit would be. It’s more complex than this, of course, but you need to start listening to other people as well! Please help make the ANC to work better for All or provide a better option. This is one of the ways by which we can contain the mounting arrogance, corruption and unresponsiveness to peoples’ grievances. It is your democratic obligation.
Signing off
Finally, its Christmas again……a time when besides beseeching you to do everything practically possible to stay alive and protect others, we equally urge the revisiting of the spirit of giving, caring, having a sense of what is enough and spreading goodwill all round. Perhaps this can buoy us into a new year, 2011, of better governance practices with minimal avarice (if it must exist), less violence and a host of new opportunities for all. Merry Christmas!