The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) has expressed ”dismay” at the African National Congress’s (ANC) succession debate focusing on the personalities of President Thabo Mbeki and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
”The PSAM believes that debate should be refocused on the protection of civil and political rights and the progressive realisation of social and economic rights in South Africa,” its director, Colm Allan, said in a statement on Thursday.
He said the PSAM, which is based at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, does not normally comment on political parties’ internal decision-making, but felt obliged to ”restate the fundamental right of all South Africans to social accountability”.
Public office-bearers are obliged to explain their performance and take corrective action when it does not realise people’s basic rights within the country’s available resources.
However, neither Mbeki nor Zuma has demonstrated consistent commitment to these rights and obligations while in office, the PSAM charged, accusing them of:
- pursuing a macro-economic planning agenda that enriched a small elite at the expense of the poor;
- endorsing and pursuing the ”wasteful” application of public resources;
- perpetuating Aids-denialist views;
- denying the existence of conflicts of interest and the misuse of public resources in the arms deal; and
- perpetuating contempt for rigorous parliamentary oversight.
They have also both presided over the creation of a centralised state apparatus, which has stifled debate of policy objectives and eroded public accountability, the PSAM said. ”This process has placed a disturbing amount of decision-making power and control in the hands of the Presidency.”
The PSAM suggested that concerns be refocused on achieving basic rights, in particular the right to social accountability. ”Far too many politicians and government officials continue to flaunt their constitutional obligations to transparency and accountability, thereby compromising the delivery of services to those who need them most,” said Allan.
Polokwane
A total of 4 075 voting delegates are expected to descend on the sleepy northern city of Polokwane in Limpopo from Sunday to Thursday for the ruling party’s five-yearly conference that will be dominated by the contest between the two men.
While no one is writing Mbeki off, Zuma is the front runner, having secured about 60% of votes in the nine provincial branches as well as the full backing of the youth and women’s leagues, all of which send voting delegates to Polokwane.
He also has the support of the ANC’s two powerful leftist allies — the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party.
Mbeki, who also ran the government on a day-to-day basis as deputy to Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999, has guided the country over a period of non-stop economic growth in the 13 years since the end of whites-only rule.
But while his record has earned him international respect, his autocratic manner along with a tendency to centralise power has won him many domestic enemies — not least Zuma, whom he sacked as deputy president in 2005. — Sapa, AFP