The peer review system established under the African Union cracks the mould of continental politics. For the first time, African leaders agreed to submit governance to internal and external checks and balances.
Recently South Africa tabled its first self-assessment report at a meeting in Kliptown — the venue at which the Freedom Charter was drawn up.
The report is a joint document of civil society and government. It will later be assessed in July by the AU’s country review team led by Professor Adebayo Adedeji.
Prevention of intra and inter-state conflicts
- No widespread social conflict and where it occurs, incidents are isolated. Potential problem areas included:
- stark income and asset inequality;
- the protests over service delivery;
- conflict between immigrants and locals;
- violence against women and children; and
- South Africa lived at peace with its neighbours, though locally owned mercenary companies fuelled conflicts across the continent.
Constitutional democracy
- South Africa had held three free and fair national elections in 12 years.
- Trust in the Independent Electoral Commission is high.
- The system of government is clear; but systems of representation do not always function optimally.
Promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, civil and political rights
- Apartheid-inherited inequalities and disparities hamper the realisation of constitutional rights.
- Rural communities have difficulties exercising rights to safety, equality and political participation.
- Domestic and farm workers cannot enforce health and safety measures or job security.
Separation of powers
- Separation of powers is firmly entrenched in the Constitution.
- Courts are independent and have gained international recognition with their landmark decisions.
- Judges are protected against arbitrary removal from office; but there are no laws or codes to deal with misconduct.
- The report deals with controversial new laws affecting the judiciary. Certain submissions regarding aligning the courts and judiciary and Constitution have raised concerns that these may may negatively affect the independence of the judiciary.
- The party list system made MPs accountable to parties, not citizens.
Fighting corruption
- Corruption is a challenge.
- Anti-corruption agencies are often under-resourced.
- The report said: ”There was substantial disagreement amongst stakeholders regarding the inclusion of ongoing corruption trials.” After dispute the report highlighted Travelgate, but excluded Oilgate.
Promotion and protection of the rights of women
- Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s appointment as Deputy President is significant.
- Women constitute 45% of Cabinet; while more than one in three MPs are women.
- Seven of 10 main political parties had achieved a 30% quota of woman on party lists by 2004.
But:
- women face higher levels of unemployment and are paid less than men who do the same work; and
- women and girls are disproportionate victims of serious crimes, including domestic abuse and trafficking.
Macroeconomic policies to support development
- The economy has moved from stagnant to sustained low growth.
- there is broad agreement that policy formulation is rational, sensible and transparent.
But:
- Growth is unequal and unshared.
- There is concern about the independence of Statistics SA; and concern about lack of poverty statistics.
- There is concern about the use of narrow definitions of unemployment in policy-making.
- Business said taxes were too high; labour said they were too low.
Governance and public finance management
- There are good laws, but serious implementation problems.
- Severe skills shortages prevent service delivery and spending.
- Government annual reports were PR rather than accountability documents.
HIV and Aids
- The report sets out the legislative framework of Aids management and says the government has policies and plans for the infection, treatment and care phases of the pandemic. But, it states:
- that the response from the government to HIV and Aids ”could be made clearer”;
- that business, government and civil society need to work in concert; and
- ”mixed messages have led to confusion and mistrust about treatment”.
- The NGOs that spearheaded the focus area were: The Institute for Democracy in SA (democracy and good political governance); SA Institute for International Affairs (economic management and governance); African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (corporate governance); Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (socio-economic development)