It is a demanding time to be a Cabinet minister. With President Thabo Mbeki pressing hard for progress on major initiatives in economic development, service delivery and social welfare, departments are working to a rigorous, and very public, timetable.
Mbeki’s May 21 State of the Nation address was — as many pointed out at the time — uncharacteristically short on theoretical exposition and literary allusion, focusing instead on a detailed implementation programme for the policy approach developed over 10 years of African National Congress government.
Beginning his final term in office not with a ringing announcement of principles, but a timetable, Mbeki staked his legacy on the ability of his executive to deliver improvements in economic growth, service delivery, and social supports, without weakening a macroeconomic platform constructed at considerable political cost.
A regularly updated breakdown of the ”programme of action” outlined in Mbeki’s speech is available on the government website, and with its first set of targets already having fallen due, it is an easy task for the media, analysts and opposition parties to match promises to performance.
According to Joel Netshitenzhe, the policy coordination chief in the Presidency, the legislative and policy framework is no longer the centre of attention as ”the accent shifts to implementation and more implementation”.
He says that the idea of the programme of action evolved from the regular bi-monthly reports of Cabinet clusters instituted last year. After the April national elections, Mbeki decided that the reporting should be done in the public domain.
”We have decided to lay everything open so that members of the public know what needs to be done, who does it and when it should be done.”
Netshitenzhe insisted that while the programme would ensure that ministers are kept on their toes all the time, the aim was not to embarrass them, but to improve efficiency.
”Cabinet will obviously identify constraints where there are some, decide what needs to be done and have discussions about clearing the hurdles to meet the deadlines. It is not a punitive system,” he said.
Eugene Mokeyane, Director General in the Department of Public Enterprises and co-chair of the Cabinet economic cluster, reckons he now spends around 30% of his time working toward the programme’s project plan.
”Everyone has a sense of the seriousness of this,” he told the Mail & Guardian. ”It is extraordinarily complex, detailed work, and we’ve contracted a number of services out because there is no way we could meet some of these deadlines using our own staff.”
Mokeyane concedes that some deadlines will be missed, but he is enthusiastic about the potential of the project-management approach to deliver rapid progress.
Some departmental officials, however, protest that the timetable is unrealistic, and takes little account of capacity limitations affecting their day-to-day work.
”Our relationship is fairly good, but it is easy for [the Presidency] to come up with suggestions about what we should be doing, because they don’t have to have the same involvement in basic issues as we do,” one official involved in several interdepartmental projects said.
Others suggested that presidential policy advisers operate in a vacuum, and are under no pressure to account for the viability of their ideas.
Mbeki’s staff, however, point out that ministers agreed to the deadlines at a Cabinet lekgotla, and suggest that it is an unprecedented level of public and executive oversight that may be making some uncomfortable.
”Public scrutiny is very important,” says Alan Hirsch, who is responsible for economic policy coordination in the Presidency. ”I don’t know anywhere else in the world where this approach is taken. It is new, it is not perfect, and maybe some people didn’t realise that they would have to explain in public, but I think it is working.”
Hirsch characterises changes in the functioning of the Cabinet as a cultural shift, saying Mbeki felt that greater emphasis on oversight would make more productive use of Cabinet time.
Some commentators, however, have cautioned that policy debates should not be abandoned for a narrow, technocratic assessment of implementation. The ANC’s union allies have mixed feelings about the programme, with one labour representative saying that implementation problems sometimes stem from flawed policies and that it isn’t enough to simply insist on timetables.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) economist Neva Makgetla said there was much that was encouraging about a timetable, but raised serious concerns about the direction of the economy.
”We support the idea that policy coordination happens through the Presidency, not just the Treasury, but we are worried that there still isn’t a plan to restructure the economy in a way that will create jobs.”
Judith February, political analyst at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, suggested that creating the public perception of a government that is hard at work played a role in the release of the programme of action. She added that its progress would be affected by variables such as levels of competence in the different ministries.
February warned that the debate about government policies should not stop.
”There needs to be constant engagement between civil society and government about the appropriateness of government policy.”
Cops don’t jump
South Africa’s crime fighters are apparently not as quick to jump at President Thabo Mbeki’s command as some of their colleagues elsewhere in the government. August’s deadline for the appointment of a special joint task team to apprehend the country’s top 200 criminals has lapsed without comment or explanation.
Attempts by the Mail & Guardian to ascertain progress was met with only confusion about which was the lead agency. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, police and Scorpions each referred to the other for answers.
Only the Scorpions’s Makhosini Nkosi has anything to say on the subject: ”Some progress is being made with regard to meeting the deadline set by the president. However, due to considerations of protocol and due process, I’m unable to comment any further.”
The M&G understands there may be a turf battle between the different agencies with some questioning whether there is a list of the 200 most-wanted criminals. It also begs the question whether one of the agencies had not been over-eager and given the president an undertaking without consulting the other agencies on whose cooperation the success of the operation depends.
With such uncertainty, it would call into question another ambitious target to reduce contact crime by 7% to 10% a year. — Rapule Tabane