Marion Edmunds
A NUMBER of African National Congress ministers are trying to breathe new life into the Masakhane Campaign by making Deputy President Thabo Mbeki its new figurehead. Mbeki will promote payment of rates and taxes, as part of the drive to create a “new patriotism”.
A representative from the Constitutional Development Ministry, Mpho Msmane, said Mbeki would be taking political responsibility for Masakhane, although the programme would be driven from within the Constitutional Development Ministry under Minister Valli Moosa. The second thrust of the campaign, he said, was to persuade provincial premiers to drive the campaign regionally from their offices. Meetings with premiers are under way.
The Masakhane campaign, launched last year, failed to convince citizens to pay their rates and taxes. It was a campaign planned and driven by former housing minister Jo Slovo, constitutional development minister Roelf Meyer and minister without portfolio Jay Naidoo, all of whom left their portfolios, leaving Masakhane in the hands of their successors.
Msmane believes the first launch of Masakhane created a national profile for the campaign, and now was the time to really bring its message home. He said that the media had mistakenly emphasised the payment of rates and taxes as the only element in the campaign. There were other strategies.
“It’s about teaching people civic responsibility,” he said. “It’s about ending the Eighties culture of destroying state assets because they were part of the apartheid system. It’s about telling people that they must report on criminals for the sake of the community. It’s about teaching people to take ownership of their communities.”
Documents on the revitalisation of the campaign urge officials to put the payment of rates and taxes in the right context. Other aspects that need to be introduced are social partnerships between communities, businesses, civics and municipalities, and the promotion of local economic development. The document concludes with these words: “Masakhane is a call to all South Africans to build the country through unity and solidarity. There should be efforts towards dealing with previous divides by developing programmes … that will promote the new patriotism. Racism and ethnicity have to be eradicated through a new consciousness and value system that promotes equity and justice.”
Payment of rates and taxes, however, is crucial to empower newly elected local governments to deliver the services the ANC promised in the 1994 elections. The momentum for the revitalisation of Masakhane has its origins in Shell House’s policy unit.
Although decisions have been taken behind the scenes, a memorandum is being drawn up on the campaign for Cabinet approval. Msmane said a great deal of consultation with communities needed to take place before the revitalisation campaign was officially announced.
Independent Reconstruction and Development Programme monitor Gavin Lewis believes Mbeki will be flogging a dead horse: “I just don’t see this campaign working unless they have a secret formula … or perhaps they set measurable targets for the provincial premiers and say they must answer to Mbeki should they not reach the targets. Otherwise it just becomes a woolly feel-good picture. The previous campaign failed; the picture of non-payment is a dismal one.” [Pic: Thabo Mbeki]