They came to Parliament this week to show that in the past 10 years the good had far outweighed the bad in South Africa.
In the week of the opening of Parliament, Cabinet ministers spent much time trying to convince diplomats and the media of the government’s achievements and sought to show that controversies — such as its handling of the HIV/Aids epidemic and its relationship with Zimbabwe — paled into insignificance when compared with the vast improvements it had made to the lives of South Africans.
At stake was not only the image of the government but the future of individual ministers, many of whom were worried about whether they would make it into the next Cabinet. After the elections, scheduled for April 14, President Thabo Mbeki, who is likely to stay on in the job, will appoint a new Cabinet.
There was much nervous joking by ministers and deputy ministers about whether they would be back to present Parliamentary briefings later this year. Minister of Education Kader Asmal said some ministers had already prepared dossiers on their departments’ work, to smooth the handover to a possible successor.
To improve their coordination and avoid duplication of their work, Mbeki had grouped ministries into clusters, which were meant to work together on key government programmes and initiatives, like social development.
While some clusters were working well — as evidenced by the work done by the health and social development ministries in providing clinical health services and social assistance to those infected and affected by HIV/Aids — it has been difficult to rate their overall efficiency.
And, questions have been raised about how well the different ministers are working together.
At one of the briefings palpable tensions emerged between Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya. First, Tshabalala-Msimang forced Skweyiya to talk when he would have preferred to wait. She later forced him to address her as comrade Manto when he called her by her first name.
Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi intervened when Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi used a briefing to complain that the Cabinet had scrutinised his regulations on migration control in an unprecedented manner. Moleketi insisted that Cabinet proceedings are never discussed in public and effectively shut Buthelezi up.
But personalities aside, ministers sought to prove that the government was on track and trumpeted their achievements.
Among these were that more than 900 new clinics had been built or upgraded since 1994, that thousands of young doctors had been sent to rural areas to perform community service, and that access to health facilities for the poor had improved. There was also the promise that by next year patients would be able to buy medicine at drastically reduced prices.
It was also pointed out that assets to the value of R50-billion had been transferred to poor households since 1994 through housing and land reform programmes. Since 1994 1,8-million hectares of land had been transferred to 137 478 households. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said that by the end of last year it had supplied basic water to more than nine million rural people.
The Department of Education boasted about introducing a new curriculum, ensuring that no child studied under a tree, providing greater access to education, redressing the racially based funding formula of apartheid education, providing nutrition to primary school children, upgrading the qualifications of teachers and transforming higher education.
Other plans included abolishing school fees in the poorest 40% of schools and exempting some orphans from the payment of school fees.
In foreign affairs, South Africa had led the way in creating a new vision for Africa, captured in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. South Africa had also led in helping in conflicts in several war-ravaged African countries, including Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
However, Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota was quick to assert that ”we are not singular do-gooders throwing our money into Africa”, and he insisted that other African countries were also pulling their weight in efforts to bring peace to the continent.
But the government had its Achilles heels and ministers resorted to fury and bluster when faced with issues from which they have not been able to disentangle the country.
The government had sought to portray itself as in touch with the developments in Zimbabwe and more concerned about the declining economic and political situation than anyone else. But its efforts to encourage dialogue between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had yielded very little.
This week Mbeki again said the parties were in discussion and was for the umpteenth time contradicted when both sides said they were not aware of such talks.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also defended a ruling by the Zimbabwean Supreme Court effectively subjecting that country’s journalists to government control. A seemingly annoyed Dlamini-Zuma said journalists would not have complained if the same law had been enacted in Britain. ”If it was Britain you would accept it, as you accept anything that comes from the [United Kingdom]. I don’t see how the law wanting journalists to register translates to control itself.”
But some of those who have been baffled by South Africa’s strange but rather firm stance got a better sense of it when Dlamini-Zuma chatted to them after the briefing.
”Whereas the rest of the world thinks the Zimbabwean issue is about human rights, South Africans have contended that it is a land issue. If Robert Mugabe had not confiscated land from some farmers, you would not be asking all the questions you are asking,” she said.
Tshabalala-Msimang did not miss the opportunity to provide all manner of excuses why the government had acted so late in deciding to provide treatment to HIV/Aids-infected people.
Only 2 000 of the country’s 20 000 doctors were ready to implement the anti-retroviral treatment programme; and time was needed to make sure traditional medicines were not ignored in the battle against HIV/Aids, she said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the SABC, Mbeki battled to explain why he was not speaking with more compassion on the issue of Aids. Instead he asked why other diseases, such as diabetes and tuberculosis, were not being discussed. ”There is a reluctance to talk about the general burden of disease in South Africa,” he said.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana insisted the economy had created two million jobs since, 1994, ”whether you would believe it or not”. He said nothing about the number of jobs lost in the same period, estimated by trade unions to be more than half a million.
But on April 14 voters will have their day when they decide whether today is an improvement on yesterday or whether they deserve better.