reshuffle
Gaye Davis
GOVERNMENT plans to radically revise the Reconstruction and Development Programme could face a backlash — not so much against what has been decided, but because of the lack of consultation which preceded it.
Deputy President Thabo Mbeki is to appoint a task force to oversee the re-allocation of the RDP’s projects, programmes and staff to various line-ministries. His representative, Thami Ntenteni, said this emerged from a meeting between Mbeki and outgoing RDP minister Jay Naidoo on Tuesday. The task force would have to work fast: “We expect to see some movement after the Easter weekend,” he said.
Ntenteni said that as the decision to close the RDP office, hand the fund over to the finance ministry and shift its responsibilities to departments was a presidential one, complaints about a lack of consultation were not relevant.
But there are rumblings within the African National Congress, its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions, and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) about the way the decision was arrived at. RDP staffers were thrown into confusion and uncertainty about their futures with last Thursday’s “bombshell” announcement that the RDP office was to be closed: this week they were questioning the suddenness of the move and asking whether a phased approach would not have been wiser.
“The decision may be the right one, but how was it arrived at? There needs to have been discussion — and there wasn’t,” an ANC national executive committee member said.
It had been crucial to find a better way of co-ordinating the RDP so that it amounted to more than a fistful of presidential lead projects. However, there were concerns that the new move could see the development and social aspects of the RDP getting lost and fiscal policy and economic growth concerns, while important, becoming overly dominant.
“These things needed to be part of a debate and were not,” the source said. “The lack of consultation will be taken up from many quarters, by NGOs and the alliance. There are real pressures on government, but there is also ongoing frustration about consultation, transparency, and where we are going.”
There was a lack of clarity this week whether Mbeki would assume political responsibility for the RDP. Naidoo’s director of communications, Mandy Jean Woods, referred queries about the RDP’s future to Mbeki’s office, as he was the “new chief”. But Mbeki’s spokesperson, Ricky Naidoo, denied Mbeki’s responsibility extended beyond overseeing the re-allocation of programmes.
Gavin Lewis, editor of the independent newsletter RDP Monitor, said it was critical the RDP had a political head. “Not all line departments have been transformed into vigorous development bodies,” he said.
He believed the decision was a case of “office politics gone mad”, negotiated between Mbeki and Mandela behind closed doors at the last moment. “If they had thought it through, a transitional plan would be in place,” he said.
“What will happen to NGOs supposed to access funds through the RDP office? Who must they approach?”
Naidoo instructed staffers to say he would not be giving interviews until he assumed his new portfolio — he replaces Pallo Jordan as minister of posts, telecommunications and broadcasting — on Thursday. His communications staff were this week fielding calls from provincial RDP offices seeking clarity on their future.
In one of his last acts as RDP chief this week, Naidoo launched South Africa’s first post-apartheid census, scheduled for October, on which R365-million will be spent to provide the data necessary for detailed RDP planning.
The Central Statistical Service is one of the parastatals which falls under the RDP office: its relocation, as well as that of the Central Economic Advisory Service and myriad other functions of the RDP office will be thrashed out by the task group.
These include the core functions of project management, development planning and facilitation, and the co-ordination of international aid grants.
Mbeki reassured employees by saying at the weekend that as they had been employed to administer the presidential lead projects, and that these would continue, their jobs were secure. But staffers this week were uncertain whether they would be able to remain in the same locations or faced transfers.
Naidoo’s problem was that his job was to tread on the toes of every minister. For a junior minister with a trade union, rather than ANC, background, this proved problematic. Line ministries continued spending on their core functions and it rapidly became clear there was a need for aligned, integrated strategies for development that involved all of government, rather than just a section of it.
Naidoo took lots of undeserved flak: departments, rather than the RDP ministry, were often responsible for lack of delivery.
Foreign observers have read Naidoo’s transfer as a demotion and a sign that the RDP has failed. They questioned whether Mbeki, if he took over as political head of the RDP, would be able to deliver. “It’s a big test for him,” said one source. “He seems to have problems dealing with what he has had to do in the past.”
“It’s not about the failure of the programme or the office,” said RDP spokesman Connie Malusi. “Programmes are on track. There have been time lags in terms of negotiating our way around treasury rules and developing capacity at provincial level, but concrete projects have been implemented.”
While line departments are already in the process of taking on responsibility for various RDP functions, there is a general view that for a development plan as ambitious and unprecedented as the RDP to succeed, it will need to be overseen by someone with political clout.
This could be ideal for Mbeki, who has yet to be seen to make his mark. As deputy president, he is overshadowed by Mandela: his achievements are seen as the president’s.
Highly regarded as an astute politician, he has been criticised for surrounding himself with poor advisers. But his recent appointment of people such as Frank Chikane and Luci Nyembe — definitely not pushovers — has been welcomed.