A new Idasa report highlights ministries which have=20 tabled new laws, and those which haven’t, reports Eddie=20
IF Vaclav Havel were judge, Nelson Mandela would=20 triumph. The playwright and premier of the Czech=20 Republic believes that reconstruction in his country is=20 not about replacing socialism with capitalism, or=20 poverty with wealth, but “about truth, how to purge a=20 society of past lies and rebuild people’s faith in the=20 autonomous, integral and dignified human I”.
Now a study shows Mandela’s Cabinet is strong on=20 promoting truth but poor on improving basic living=20 conditions. The Justice Ministry is by far the most=20 prolific in Parliament — steering a total of nine=20 bills to revamp the intelligence services, set up a=20 truth commission and create human rights watchdogs onto=20 the statute books — while the Education Department=20 failed in its first year to do anything new in the=20
But most South Africans, it seems, would want to take=20 issue with this charismatic pair of presidents. A=20 survey of voters expectations at the time of the=20 freedom election indicates citizens wanted a new=20 government to first address education, violence, jobs=20 and housing and only then worry about issues like race=20 relations and minority rights.
A new survey of 61 laws passed in parliament between=20 May 1994 and May 1995 shows Justice Minister Dullah=20 Omar to be the busy body in government while Land=20 Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom directed the largest and=20 most substantive legislation through parliament.=20
‘But when people voted last April, it seems that these=20 issues were of only minor importance to them. Asked=20 what was the most important issue for the government to=20 address, only three percent gave race relations,=20 discrimination, minority rights or equality as their=20 first or second choices,” says a report on the survey=20 conducted by the Institute for a Democratic South=20 Africa (Idasa).
“Land restitution — the subject matter of arguably the=20 year’s most substantial piece of legislation — was=20 cited as important by only 0,3 percent of voters. And=20 while Reconstruction and Development Programme-related=20 initiatives have been uppermost in the concerns of most=20 voters, surprisingly only four of the 61 Acts passed=20 are directly linked to the RDP.”
The Parliamentary Information and Monitoring Service=20 (Pims), set up by Idasa as a watchdog over the=20 performance of our new MPs, acknowledges that a range=20 of measures are required in areas outside Parliament=20 for reform to be effective. But legislation is an=20 important barometer of effective governance and, in=20 this regard, the survey conducted by Pims reveals the=20
* In the period between 26 May 1994 and 18 May 1995,=20 61 bills were passed by Parliament. This, incidentally,=20 is far fewer than those passed by the old regime. In=20 1993, 213 laws were passed. The figure for 1992 is 151.
* Another 11 Acts were designed to change or create =20 new institutions. Nine new commissions have been set up=20 by Parliament including those concerned with truth and=20 reconciliation, land restitution, human rights,=20 intelligence services and judges.
* Five Acts were concerned with increasing levels of=20 accountability in government and the quasi-government=20
* Eleven of the Acts were solely technical in that=20 they did not make substantive changes to policy or law.=20
Although Idasa’s survey at the time of the election=20 found that 30,5 percent of voters rated violence as the=20 country’ most burning issue, this is addressed directly=20 by only one relatively minor piece of legislation, the=20 Fund Raising Amendment Act of 1994. This now allows=20 victims of violence to be compensated for psychological=20 and material damage.
There were no laws passed relating to job creation even=20 though this came second on the list of voters’=20 priorities with 22,1 percent saying unemployment was=20 the most important issue for the government to address.=20
Housing was the voters’ third most pressing concern,=20 listed as a top issue by 11 percent of those surveyed.=20 One law passed since the elections, the Housing Second=20 Amendment Act, addresses this problem eliminating red=20 tape and allowing direct payments to individuals for=20 housing needs.
Education came fourth in the survey with eight percent=20 of respondents saying it should be the new government’s=20 first priority — and the ministry responsible comes in=20 for a lambasting from Parliamentary Whip.
“Not one of the 61 Acts passed came from the Education=20 Department,” the newsletter says. “The Education=20 Department is conspicuous by its absence from the list=20 of government departments that have had new laws passed=20 since the freshly elected MPs first got down to work.”
Lincoln Mali, press officer for the Education Ministry,=20 is quoted as defending the department by saying it has=20 been preoccupied with the “massive administrative=20 undertaking” of merging 16 old education departments=20 into one, “something not faced by any other=20
A separate study conducted by the Centre for Policy=20 Studies (CPS) in Johannesburg confirms the findings=20 presented in the Pims newsletter — but debunks the=20 conventional wisdom that the masses are becoming=20 impatient with the failure of Mandela’s government thus=20 far to deliver on jobs, housing and security. =20
A summary of the CPS survey, written by Steven Friedman=20 and published in the latest edition on Optima magazine,=20 confirms that land redistribution does not rate as a=20 priority among the majority of black South Africans=20 despite the popular notion that unequal land ownership=20 is one of the government’s most pressing problems. “By=20 far the biggest concern is for clean and accessible=20 water,” says the report.
“On education, the overwhelming concern is for a return=20 to disciplined learning and teaching: people under 35=20 who may themselves have taken part in the pupil=20 protests of the 1970s and 1980s share this view.”
Friedman says the CPS study, designed to test the=20 attitudes of black people who were not likely to enter=20 into the new elates that are forming in the country,=20 found the “high expectations” theory to be flawed on=20 two grounds. Firstly the researchers found a wide=20 diversity of opinion among the “masses” who are “not=20 nearly as monolithic as populist rhetoric would have us=20
“Secondly, the image of the ‘masses’ as impatient and=20 unwilling to recognise constraints is at best=20 oversimplified, at worst wrong. There is certainly=20 widespread disappointment at the post-election pace of=20 change, but the sorts of changes for which most groups=20 hope are not fanciful.”
The CPS survey entitled Voices of a New Democracy was=20 conducted by researcher Craig Charney with respondents=20 from 13 focus groups, eight of them from urban areas in=20 Soweto and the East Rand and five from rural areas in=20 the North West Province and the Northern Transvaal.