Barry Streek
The leading role of development in South Africa has to lie with the state, not with the private sector, African National Congress MP Ben Turok has written in a new book.
The ANC had always assumed that a strong state apparatus would be required to establish a democratic system and that “the state will play a major role in the economy.
“In the RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme], the conception was for a `strong developmental state’,” Turok writes in Beyond the Miracle, Development and Economy in South Africa, published by Fair Share, a project of the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape.
Turok, the author of eight other books on development and an outspoken critic of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, stops short of directly criticising the government’s economic policies, but emphasises that South Africa’s transition to such a transformation presents a greater challenge than the miracle of the country’s political transition.
Transformation of conditions in South Africa required a strong developmental state that was wholly interactive with civil society and accountable to it with both state and society contributing to the creation of a people-centred and people- driven democracy.
The book also includes a chapter, based on an article published in the Mail & Guardian in 1996, in which he argues that people- centred development “is not possible without popular participation and this means the proper recognition of NGOs”.
Turok wrote that it was “quite unacceptable that NGOs should be in difficulties at present. The RDP placed enormous store on their participation, and the ANC continues to stress the importance of civil society involvement in development.
“Too often bureaucrats find it easier to work without the NGOs and often complain about the time-consuming effort required for consultation. This is not good enough and we cannot go back to the old system where government institutions laid on projects without gaining the consent of the supposed beneficiaries.
“People-driven development is on everyone’s lips these days but it will not happen without the NGOs.”
Turok admits that the restructuring of the public service, and harnessing it behind government objectives, is proving to be enormously difficult.
He also says that “the pursuit of economic growth without the simultaneous pursuit of development will lead to a dead end for this government. This issue is now well understood internationally and the principle of combining growth and development is beyond question.
“Given the kind of private sector we have inherited, few would question that the leading role in development must lie with the state.
“It is clear that private enterprise and the free market will not allocate the resources needed to democratise the economy. Even the most convinced defenders of the market will concede that the drive for private gain may conflict with the public good. Furthermore, the inherited structural problems require strategic planning, led by the state.”
While the increase of exports was vital to economic growth, especially as a foreign revenue earner, the prioritisation of exports over concerns about the domestic economy “arouses some concern”.
Turok adds: “Our economy is still weak and vulnerable. A great deal of attention still has to be paid to ensuring that jobs are created, and the economy is protected from external shocks brought on by exchange rate swings, the loss of export markets, and rapid shifts in capital movements.
“Overcoming the large disparities in skills, the inefficient utilisation of resources, and the classical conditions of underdevelopment under which large numbers of people live, can only be achieved by a highly targeted development programme as was envisaged in the RDP base document.”
Political appointments at the highest levels in the public service and in a range of non-state bodies and commissions accompanied the historic changes in the political system, but “it soon became apparent that the replacement of white by black faces was only the start of the process of removing the system of white privilege and democratising the country”.
The pressure from the masses in the townships, urban and rural, continued to bear down on the ANC and the government and the imperative of delivery was ever present.
“Some ministers are bolder and more innovative than others and have been able to create new jobs, even if they are temporary, raising questions about whether government is innovative enough as a whole. The challenges are different in each ministry, but the broad parameters are universal.”
While the public regarded the ANC as the political voice of government, people blamed the government for grievances.
He concludes by saying that transformation “will come about through the creation of a strong developmental state founded on principles of democracy, justice and an abiding culture of human rights”.
Turok is constrained by his loyalties to the ANC and his position as an MP, but the book will certainly be regarded as challenging to the government, particularly its financial leadership.
ENDS