Shenanigans and infighting in the provinces have led the ANC to consider restructuring regional government. Marion Edmunds reports
The African National Congress in central government is increasingly worried about the ability of its comrades in the provinces to deliver. So much so that strategic thinkers in the higher ranks are starting to think that the only way to meet election promises is to curb provincial autonomy drastically.
Current discussions are still at an informal level, but ANC ministers have made plain their disillusionment about how provincial governments are operating. Few ministers and senior officials would speak on the record this week about such concerns. The train of thought, though, was hinted at by Constitutional Development and Provincial Affairs Minister Valli Moosa.
We would have to take a very hard look at how to reorganise the administration in order to ensure government services are delivered in the most efficient manner, he said. Clearly at this stage the question of a greater role for national government departments in provincial administration should be on the agenda.
Alongside such strategic thinking, the ANC and its partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, agreed at their summit earlier this month to set up a task team headed by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and backed by the partys policy chief, Tito Mboweni.
The team, which doesnt yet have a formal brief, is expected to look at improving the public service. Many believe it should go further, and examine ways to restructure the state, to tailor it for ANC delivery. It is difficult to get a straight answer on the teams ambitions but it is taken for granted that if the ANC gets a two-thirds majority after 1999, it will amend the constitution to entrench the changes it wants.
The recent release of the governments provincial audits by Public Service Minister Zola Skweyiya provides a convenient springboard for such initiatives. The reports, drafted by public service head, Dr Paseko Ncholo, exposed a litany of incompetence, corruption and mismanagement in provincial government.
The reports did not name individual ANC leaders, but they damned the collective reputation of provincial governments politicians and public servants. What Ncholo exposed, party leaders have long feared: that with the provinces in their current chaotic state, it could become impossible to maintain party and government unity, let alone improve on delivery.
And the questions now facing the ANCs strategic thinkers and constitutional experts are frightening: Can we afford the provinces? Are we able to govern them? How do we harness them? Can we get rid of them?
The provinces response to the Ncholo reports that they were politically motivated, and painted the picture far darker than it really is suggests they are painfully aware of governments intent. It is becoming clear to them that their independence will hinge on their ability to implement central governments game plan.
The starting point for the rethink is that the provinces cannot simply be dissolved. The existence of provinces is anchored in constitutional principles that cannot be amended.
An enormous amount of time, energy and money has been spent trying to make the system work. The interim Constitution gave birth to nine small political empires, two bearing the stamp of opposition parties: provincial identities are starting to become real, even within the ANC, and central government would have difficulty reversing the tide.
But the problems posed by the provinces failings are legion. The collapse of national policy implementation in health and education; bruising battles of ego like those in the Northern Province and the Free State rebound on the party at national level.
The almost daily exposure of provincial scandals is leaving the electorate with the impression that it is being ruled by cats even fatter than their Nat predecessors. Clearly the party goes on, as it did before 1994, this time presided over by unhappy but often powerless ANC premiers, tangled in nets of patronage.
In many instances, the problems are not of the provinces making. Look at what they inherited: dead wood, a dearth of skills and capacity, homeland egos and ethnic networks that can paralyse administration in provinces such as the Northern Province. Central government is asking them to run when in many cases they are barely able to crawl.
Attempts are now being made by provincial task teams to remedy such problems. They do not, however, command much enthusiasm from Cabinet members. Public Service Minister Zola Skweyiya said this week that his ministerial colleagues had been reluctant to lend some of their better people to help the provinces. Several party pundits suggest this indicates a swing in national ANC leadership against investing in provincial rule.
There are also signs that the partys centrist faction a comparatively small group is exploiting the provinces mishaps to promote local government. Their aim is to reduce provincial government, sandwich it between strong municipalities and mega-cities that deliver, and a mighty national government that devises the plans. Another suggestion is to reduce the provinces to regional administrations, cutting off their political heads, and turning them into delivery machines.
The political independence and waywardness in the provinces worries the ANC more and more. Through the battles between the ANC national executive committee (NEC) and grassroots ANC members in the Free State, the Northern Province and Gauteng, the ANC has experienced, firsthand, the disadvantages of allowing the creation of nine empires beyond the grip of the centre. The provinces have created turf for new heroes, which grassroots members build up to suit their own needs, not necessarily those of the ANCs ruling elite. It is getting more difficult to rein in provincial governments.
The Director of the School of Public Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Dr Mark Swilling, believes that politics is as much of a problem to the ANC as the provinces lack of capacity. I think there is a fairly good chance of the ANC losing its majority in Gauteng to a coalition of opposition parties, and a chance of the ANC NEC losing out to people it does not favour, in some provinces, he said.
The emergence of provincial leadership of this sort is an international trend that many governments which have adopted neo- liberal economic policies are struggling with. They have found strong leftward shifts at provincial and local government level.
The Cabinet sat on the Ncholo reports for months before making them public. And with good reason: the reports signal the start of a long, possibly bitter, struggle.
CAPTION -Gang of nine: Provincial premiers are losing the faith of their national colleagues. photo: eric miller/i-afrika
BLURB – Clearly the party goes on, as it did before 1994, this time presided over by unhappy but often powerless ANC premiers