The values and popular culture of the National Peace Accord are still very much alive. It would be foolhardy and disastrous to clip its wings, argues Glenn Hollands
ALTHOUGH the nation is over the hurdle of national elections, it would be irresponsible to take the existing (relative) calm for granted. In fact, any move to dissolve the National Peace Accord before the end of 1995 would be dangerously shortsighted.
The peace accord eventually succeeded in capturing the imagination of most South Africans. The values of the accord, manifest in the image of the doves and the popular culture of “peace and negotiations”, are still alive and are a critical unifying force in many communities.
For all the difficulties encountered with bureaucracy of the secretariat and the directorate, the accord still has the unique ability to elicit the trust of a range of people, from streetwise comrades to small-town police constables and business leaders.
The labour movement, students, civil servants and other powerful sectors have already signalled that they are not given to enduring patience when their interests are not served in the new South Africa. Many groups in civil society still do not have automatic access to mechanisms for conflict resolution and reconciliation.
The new constitution enshrines rights such as free speech and free assembly. In general, our society is not accustomed to dealing with and making space for these rights. The exercise of civil rights in an open but polarised society generates a potential for conflict which was previously restrained by state repression.
Municipal elections will be held in 1995 and will bring with them the tensions of civic life in transition and competition for local power and privilege.
The validity and relevance of the peace structures must not fall prey to political expediency. Our new political leadership has inexplicably missed some important lessons in history if they think that the state, and in particular the state they have inherited, can cope with violence monitoring and dispute resolution while retaining and building its credibility.
This is not to say that the structures of the National Peace Accord (NPA) should not be rationalised. In retrospect, the recent expansion of the peace structures into the field of development and longer-term reconstruction was probably unwise, considering that the RDP is already faced with a vast choice of (sometimes competing) delivery mechanisms.
However, NPA workers are uniquely well placed to carry out peace education and continue promoting the ethics of the accord. A national network of volunteers backed by a minimal bureaucracy could do this and continue the critical monitoring and dispute resolution work of the NPA.
The NPA will also have to account for its reputation as an expensive and sometimes wasteful operation. Just how wasteful and expensive is anyone’s guess.
The National Peace Directorate says that overspending was in the region of R35-million, with more than R18- million spent on unforseen election costs. Regional peace structures submitted budgets totalling R80-million for the period April 1 1994 to March 31 1995.
A total national allocation of R45-million was forthcoming and individual regions received a percentage of their original budget. Considerable horsetrading was then necessitated between regional directors and the National Peace Secretariat regarding operational/ running costs. In particular, there was confusion about the responsibility and terms for paying for the services of election monitors and the equipment they required.
In the regions that had budgetary shortfalls there is considerable dissatisfaction with the explanation for the “overdraft”. This is based on the perception that the secretariat did not meet its commitment to cover certain costs nationally.
Few regional executive members have a comprehensive understanding of NPA finances and this is hardly surprising. Until very recently, peace committee budgets were centrally controlled, which made operations easy for regional and local committees but imparted little financial responsibility.
The Department of Home Affairs had overall responsibility for staff administration, but some staff members were seconded from the Department of Justice and office leasing was handled by the Department of Public Works. Vehicle pools included “free” government garage vehicles but were supplemented by costly hired vehicles. The allowances paid to “voluntary” peace workers ranged from subsistence and transport to an hourly rate for monitors and in some cases payment for merely attending meetings.
The full explanation for NPA finances will only emerge when the figures released by the national secretariat have been reconciled with the unanswered questions of local and regional peace committees.
The NPA staff would therefore be ill-advised to try to sell the entire peace empire to the new government without acknowledging the need for severe streamlining and more financial discipline. However, rationalisation entailing the retrenchment of workers in the Western Cape and, most alarmingly, the Wits-Vaal area would be a foolhardy and potentially disastrous exercise.
The government of national unity should make a clear decision on: (a) whether it requires the services of the NPA structures at all; and (b) what sort of price tag it is prepared to put on these services (this will inform the extent of restructuring and rationalisation that needs to happen).
Priorities for peace spending must be the responsibility of the local and regional peace committees that do the work. Local peace structures will in turn need to become more self-sufficient — and by implication rely more on voluntarism — and less dependent on the political leverage of top secretariat officials.
The accord must be retained for its symbolic and unifying function and for the authority it lends to various operational codes. Only a simplistic and cynical reading of the peace accord can lead to the conclusion that it becomes obsolete after democratic elections.
Glenn Hollands is national co-ordinator of the Black Sash’s peace structures portfolio