President Thabo Mbeki’s state of the nation address next Friday, outlining the government’s agenda for the year, should be used as a kind of ceremony of national renewal. The pattern has been to trumpet government’s achievements, and give out that all is proceeding according to plan. Instead, the accent should be on burying the mistakes of the past and tackling the mountain of unfinished government business. On jobs, crime and HIV/Aids, South Africa needs a departure, a new vision — not soothing assurances that everything remains on track.
A report in this edition of the Mail & Guardian underscores government’s patchy record on Mbeki’s speech last year. Unforeseeable events like the September 11 attack and world recession obviously played their part, but too many measures flagged for action have not materialised. Obvious examples are the Immigration Bill, public service reform, the law on traditional leaders and the sale of state assets. Decisions must be made and driven on key initiatives stalled for political reasons, including land tenure reform and a proposal of an allembracing social security net. Mbeki is known to be concerned about the delivery record and lack of co-ordination of the government. He should spell out in some detail how he plans to create “joined-up government”, to use the British phrase, and how his administration is to be galvanised into more energetic follow-through on policy commitments.
More is needed than a ritual restatement of the government’s (admittedly impressive) achievements in stabilising the macro-economy and plans for micro-economic interventions to spur growth. The African National Congress has hinted at a more inclusive quest for growth, drawing in business and labour.
What does it have in mind, and what are the parameters of the envisaged debate? Is our threadbare industrial strategy to be revisited? Given the deepening “strike” by foreign investors, how does the government plan to stimulate domestic investment? How much flexibility is there on the deficit and inflation? What can the unions be offered to temper their blanket resistance to private involvement in the public sphere?
The government has cited adverse market conditions for last year’s privatisation delays. But markets, certainly in the transport and telecommunications sectors, look unlikely to pick up even in the medium term. This cannot mean indefinite heel-dragging on the listing of Telkom and other high-profile initiatives. Mbeki needs to spell out when, and under what conditions, government will take the leap.
Then there is the gathering tidal wave of the HIV/Aids epidemic, which received a single glancing reference in Mbeki’s speech last year. He and his health minister, under mounting pressure at all levels of government and within the ruling alliance, have to find a way out of the hole they have dug for themselves on this issue, and particularly on the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs for all raped and HIV-positive pregnant women. If there is to be a shift it should logically happen before next Friday, the deadline for the filing of the government’s response in the Treatment Action Campaign case.
But the state of the nation address would give Mbeki a platform for a clear, unambiguous commitment to a new and morally defensible drugs policy.
Top-class damage control
The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has once again shown she is a class act. Her receipt of the diamond tiara, or Ischolo, was difficult to defend. She got it from a leading light on the diamond board, who is also close to De Beers, a company which dominates the industry in South Africa and worldwide. And she got it for a song.
There are two explanations for her behaviour. One is that the minister was unaware of the tiara’s value, the other that she knowingly received what amounts to a gift. According to our sources, it was worth at least R80 000, as opposed to the R6 000 she paid. The subsequent scramble by her office and the dealer for explanations of the types of diamonds used only made her look sillier and guiltier.
All of which was over quickly. Now, in the light of these revelations, she has sought to extricate herself from scandal by donating the piece to a jewellery education project and by calling for an independent assessment of the tiara’s value. This is top of the range damage control — the only flaw being her decision to refer the matter to the Public Protector. As we have opined before, this watchdog has proved itself consistently ineffectual and wary of criticising the government.
Though she would no doubt deny it, Mlambo-Ngcuka’s damage control is a tacit admission that she erred. The saga shows that far from losing credibility, government representatives earn brownie points if they admit they slipped up. Many of the minister’s colleagues, especially the president, should take note.
It is often said that praise from the press can be a burden for government officials, whose colleagues scorn any warm words from the dreaded media. The Mail & Guardian‘s annual Cabinet score-card is a case in point. Sorry, minister. For now, your A grade remains intact.