Thursday, November 6, 2008

The world as we know it is coming to an end

The world as we know it is coming to an end. Barack Obama has taken over the White House. Global capitalism is facing the worst crisis in its history. Millions across the world face losing their jobs. A young man who by his own admission has trained at the feet of Nelson Mandela has been propelled onto the center stage.

Few expect that he will be able to effect great change immediately. The constraints of the American economic and political system will limit him in the same way as it has always limited others before him.

His election however does bring with it a strong message of hope at a time when the world most desperately needs it. For the past eight years, the international reputation of the United States has steadily declined. Obama's election signals that ordinary people can make a difference when they exercise their democratic vote. It also moves issues of race and racism onto another level. No longer will people of colour have to submit to the prejudice that they are inferior. No longer will they in turn be able to pigeon-hole all white people.

Not only does Obama epitomise the fusion of black and white, he also brings into the equation an Arab- Muslim dimension that potentially could help subside present-day hostilities. His name Barack derives from the Arabic word baraka which means blessings.


His refreshing and easy connection with millions of people in his country and across the world paves the way for a symbiotic relationship which may just release fresh energies of ordinary people as the world struggles to deal with a crisis of unprecedented proportions.


We in South Africa are so insular that we spend a great deal of time bemoaning our fate rather than carefully examining our strengths and weaknesses. The United States has lived through at least eight years of terribly poor leadership but has come back fighting for the ideals envisioned by their founding fathers. Obama's election creates the kind of space in the world for those with fresh ideas to come forward without fear.

His election is also an indication that citizens want their leaders to lift them beyond themselves. They want their leaders to provide a moral compass and create a context within which they can help create a decent and respectful life.


After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the East-West divide, the world has endured a period of unfettered change that has left greater poverty and spiritual dislocation.



In South Africa, our Obama stepped into our lives during this time. Not only did Nelson Mandela lift us beyond ourselves, he also inspired Obama and countless others around the world. Strangely we seem to have forgotten that we have been blessed with a legacy of great leaders – Luthuli, Smuts, Tambo, Sobukwe. Mandela who took this legacy to its greatest heights is 90 years old this year and perhaps not too long away from leaving us. Either we recognise that this legacy has today been championed by one of the most important countries in the world or we miss this moment and tie ourselves up in internecine warfare.


The weekend's national convention in Sandton contains within it the possibilities of both paths. It is too early to say which path will dominate. It depends on how those who were part of the national convention conduct themselves over the next few months. It also depends on how creatively the ANC responds to this unexpected upheaval. The world as we know it is coming to an end.



Old ways of dealing with this new situation is not going to advance the quality of life much. Terror Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa as well as the existing opposition parties will have to realise that they too can be left behind by the groundswell of change that is taking place. They may garner 15 to 20% of the vote next year and secure seats in parliament for loyal party members but will they have understood that we are living in a time of the internet, and an economic and spiritual crisis that cries out for something wholesome and different.

The South African electorate is not as unsophisticated as many may want to believe. Those who characterise this national convention as purely the response of petulant losers will find they have misread the signs of the times. The convention leaders must also remembers that people are aware that they were in positions of leadership during the past 14 years when the floods of change swept through the country. In a short space of time, they have played a part in dashing the hopes of many who fought alongside them.



Some South Africans have benefited from the end of racism but many can be seen scratching in bins for food. They say they scratch for food and clothes that people throw away in order to feed and clothe their families. There is no stronger indictment against this democracy. In a land of plenty, millions eat very little daily.



Lekota and Shilowa made some of the right noises this weekend when they spoke about the need for respect, their commitment to family values and non-racial inclusivity. However they are a loose group of individuals that have yet to forge an identity. They will have to bear in mind that large numbers of the South African electorate has experienced Obama's direct and simple appeal. They also carry within themselves the memory of the grandness of Tambo and Mandela. Rudeness, insults and uncouth conduct will not win many votes. Constantly excluding sections of citizens from public life also does not bode well for democracy. Empty promises will not fall favourably on the voters ears. Both they and the ANC will have to come to terms with the fact that the world as we know it is coming to an end. What lies ahead is unknown. The only message that will make any impact is one of hope and change expressed through respectful personal conduct.


However weakly organised they might turn out to be, there is a great chance that South Africans may decide to give the new kids on the block their protest vote. The ANC will have to shift from sticking to positions and conduct that do not resonate with large numbers of South Africans. By calling them "the black DA" and "counter-revolutionary", they may further unleash the groundswell of disappointment and anger that is definitely simmering below the surface. If it chooses to use this unexpected turn of events to recognise fully the feelings that have emerged and respond to these creatively, it may yet undermine those who have broken away


Both the ANC and the new group will have to come to terms with the fact that the world as we know it is coming to an end. What lies ahead is unknown. The only message that will make any impact is one of hope and change practically demonstrated through respectful and thoughtful personal conduct. No one person has the answer to the difficulties confronting us. There is a desperate need for political space that will give a wide range of South Africans the opportunity to help solve the many challenges facing us.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Signs of the Times

The atmosphere at the national convention in Sandton this past weekend was festive.
Small South African flags, placed on the chairs in the hall, were waved about happily.
Young volunteers wore yellow t-shirts with the word volunteer printed in large letters across their backs. They were polite and courteous with many of them admitting that they had never been part of a political organisation.
All around there were smiling, happy faces as if the crowd was part of an evangelical church gathering. When a lone priest delivered the opening prayers, there were a few cries of “Oh Jesus” and “Hallelujah” rising from the audience of over 5,000. The organisers pegged the official attendance at 6,300 based on registration figures.


It was unclear what exactly was happening. Were people so happy because they had stood up in defence of Thabo Mbeki? Were they so happy because this was a chance for them to have access to power? Were they happy because they could express their pent up political frustrations?

Numerous interviews with many who had attended gave some clues to the answer. Some had come as individuals who had quietly supported the ANC over many years, had wished for its success without being members and now disappointed in the organisation for numerous reasons. Others had come as part of ANC branches that had broken away because they no longer felt their voices were heard. Then there were those who came from opposition parties who felt the convention offered a space for South Africans to speak together and potentially hear one another as they so often failed to do in parliament. Interestingly common to most of those interviewed was the offence they took to the utterances of Julius Malema, the Youth League President.
A number of women who were ANC voters said that they were being challenged by their sons and daughters to explain how they could support a party that allowed a young man to be disrespectful to their elders. They also did not know how to explain to their adult children why they would vote for somebody who was promiscuous.

The organisers of the national convention appear to have successfully read the signs of the times South Africans are living through. Listening to the delegates representing each province, it emerged that there was great concern about joblessness, crime, poor health services and poor education. At the same time, there was major concern about morality, good leadership and decent respectful conduct. There was also a growing call for a reorganisation of the electoral system to allow citizens to elect their leaders directly rather than through a party. A cynic could argue that this suited the leaders of the convention since it would allow for the possibility that one of them could in the future contest the presidential elections. There was no doubt however that this call resonated strongly with those present. They no longer felt connected to those whom they had elected into power and blamed the electoral system which placed power in the hands of political parties. (See the article that follows at the end of this week for a fuller explanation of this.)

Compared to Polokwane in December last year where the tension was high, this was a gathering of like-minded individuals largely motivated by a desire for change. Guest speaker, Dr Barney Pityana perhaps best captured the driving force present when he said: “Deep down our people seek peace and strive for the affirmation of their humanity.”

They spontaneously sang ‘happy birthday” when they heard it was the 80th birthday of Gatsha Buthulezi, the leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party and repeated this when Nils Flaaten, the delegate representing the views of the Western Cape, disclosed that it was his birthday.

Besides these high doses of feel-good impulses, the superficial discussions in the hall gave little indication of how this initiative would offer a fresh approach to the enormous challenges South Africans face.

There were some important indicators of the conventions direction:
• A new party would be launched on December 16 this year and contest next years election
• This party would lobby for electoral change
• It will place strong emphasis on reaffirming traditional family families and encouraging ethical and respectful conduct.
• It would campaign for the constitution to be respected.
• It would direct its appeal to the youth across the racial divide.


While it may be committed to these lofty ideals, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. The proceedings this weekend placed on display potentially serious difficulties that this grouping will have to overcome. Most of those who formed part of the preparatory committee do not have a history of working closely together. They share in common their past membership of the ANC. That is about all. The only two who have been in a close working relationship is the former Defence Minister, Terror Lekota and his former deputy, Mluleki George. Mbhazima Shilowa is the former premier of Gauteng. Hilda Ndude from the Western Cape is a former activist turned business woman. Anele Mda from the Eastern Cape is a young woman who works as a personal assistant to one of the Eastern Cape Youth Commissioner. Phillip Dexter is the former treasurer of the South African Communist Party. Willie Madisha is a former Cosatu president and Lyndall Shope is a former activist and civil servant.
Their strength lies in the fact that their ethnic backgrounds are diverse. There is no danger that they could be accused of being representative of a particular ethnic group. But their challenge will be to give substance to the feeling of hope that they have engendered when they brought so many people together.

It is too early to say whether they will be successful. Shilowa’s declaration at the close of the meeting that they are ready to win the next elections cannot be taken seriously. Most other prominent leaders who participated in the deliberations were more realistic. A number of leaders who were prominent in the eighties such as Thozamile Botha, Danile Landingwe and Mkhuseli Jack were far more realistic. They admitted that it would be a hard slog to build a new party and that their intention was more to create an opposition to the ANC and pressure it from going in the wrong direction.

It is too early to tell whether their efforts will change the political landscape in the country or whether they will dwindle into just another small opposition party.

They may be fortunate however to benefit from reading the signs of the times correctly. However weakly organised they might turn out to be, there is a great chance that South Africans may decide to give them their protest vote. The ANC will have to shift from sticking to positions and conduct that do not resonate with large numbers of South Africans. By calling them “the black DA” and “counter-revolutionary”, they may further unleash the groundswell of disappointment and anger that is definitely simmering below the surface. If it chooses to use this unexpected turn of events to recognise fully the feelings that have emerged and respond to these creatively, it may yet undermine those who have broken away. Thus far, it has failed to understand that this is not just a group of angry people who want their positions. This is a group of people who have correctly read the signs of the times. And it is this more than anything else that will pose the greatest challenge to the ANC.

Ends

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Monday, September 29, 2008

Manuel did not resign on principle

It appears that Manuel did not resign on principle. When asked by Mbeki to travel to Washington, he had tabled a resignation letter because he believed this to be what was technically required for the change-over. He had exacted a promise that the change would be seamless.
He was on a flight between Washington and New York when the news of the cabinet resignations hit the press. It is unclear who pushed the button from the President's Office. The president's spokesperson, Thembo Maseko, was unaware of the release of the news. And in that short time when Manuel was on a plane, South Africa was in limbo. Fortunately some of the major investors had been informed earlier of the possibility of unfounded rumours and did not react. Who gave the instruction for the button to be pushed?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

To do the right thing for the wrong reason is treason

The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
- T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral



By Zubeida Jaffer*

The rifts run deep. Half of Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet have chosen to follow him out of the door leaving the country in a state of uncertainty. When parliament sits tomorrow, the resignations of 10 cabinet ministers and 3 deputy-ministers will hang like a dark cloud over the installation of a new president.
Zuma and the deputy-president of the ANC, Kgalema Motlanthe, expected to fill Mbeki’s shoes, will have to demonstrate strong leadership in the next few days to bring calm to the nation. This is a crisis that can be managed but it could also exacerbate the tensions within the ruling party which last weekend’s National Executive Committee sought to reduce.

While some of the resignations were expected, the resignation of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, came as a bolt from the blue. Over the past week, there have been consistent indications that he would remain in his post. He has clearly taken a stand on a matter of principle, risking the reactions of the markets to show his personal dissatisfaction with the way Mbeki was removed. At the same time, he put the new leadership on the back foot. They have had to approach him cognisant of the fact that they will not easily be able to change the country’s economic direction. While Zuma’s allies may not like Manuel, they will not be able to ignore the fact that the markets only stabilised when his spokesperson said he was still available for reappointment. No amount of shouting or protesting from them will alter this reality.

Some ministers are resigning because they feel they need to make space for the new president to have the freedom to create his own cabinet. Others are profoundly disturbed by the way in which Thabo Mbeki was treated and have had enough of the internal wranglings within the ANC. Essop Pahad, Minister in the Office of the President, has not only resigned from cabinet but also as a member of parliament.
When Mbeki fired Jacob Zuma three years ago on 14 June 2005, he could not have imagined that he had set in motion a chain of events that would bring about his own demise and that of many in his cabinet colleagues.
At the time, his stand sent a strong signal that the South African government would act against corruption without fear or favour. This was well received on the continent and abroad. He was prompted to act after Durban High Court Judge Hillary Squires had found Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik guilty on all charges on 2 June 2005.

He sentenced Shaik to 15 years in prison for fraud and corruption and further found that the two men had had a "generally corrupt" relationship.
At a special joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament, there was no cheering or jeering when Mbeki announced that he was firing Zuma. The silence suggested he had struck at the discord brewing deep down within the organisation. T S Eliot, in his celebrated play, Murder in the Cathedral wrote that “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.” Through the silence came a faint hint that the president was doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
In retrospect, this marked the beginning of a revolt within the ANC that culminated in his ousting at the Polokwane conference in December last year. Mbeki was roundly defeated losing his position of head of the ANC to Zuma.
Despite this defeat, fresh charges were brought against Zuma soon after the conference, propelling the ANC into a circus of conflicting forces for most of this year.

Zuma supporters not only waged a relentless campaign against the judiciary but also took the unprecedented step of saying that they were prepared to “kill for Zuma”. This has threatened to drag the country back into its pre-1994 mode.
Earlier Zuma’s conduct during a rape trial also set back the gains of the country’s women’s movements. He was found not guilty but succeeded in doing enormous damage by elevating chauvinistic male prowess to new heights. He further set back the country’s education campaign around safe sex when he admitted to having unprotected sex and taking a shower afterwards as a precaution.

Then came a second judgement that changed the political scene.
In his ruling on 12 September, 2008, Judge Chris Nicholson agreed with Zuma that the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority(NPA) to bring corruption and other charges against him in December, shortly after the Polokwane conference, was invalid and unconstitutional because the NPA had not given him a chance to make representations.

He emphasised that this was not a finding on Zuma’s guilt or innocence and the NPA could press charges afresh.
He drove a nail in Mbeki’s coffin when he said claims of a political conspiracy were perhaps not as far-fetcthed as some believed.

Suddenly the judiciary was hailed as fair and independent. Judge Nicholson was described as “progressive” and not “anti-revolutionary”. Zuma and his supporters felt vindicated. Then Mbeki and his cabinet decided to appeal against a section of the judgement and all hell broke loose.

By the time the National Executive Committee(NEC) met a week later on Friday morning, Zuma’s view not to remove Mbeki but to call for an early election did not hold sway. He had to settle for a consensus position. By Saturday afternoon, the NEC had decided it would recall Mbeki and by Sunday night, he announced his resignation through a live television broadcast.

The ANC’s handling of the weekend’s developments has shown a level of sophistication comparable to its conduct during the negotiation period and immediately thereafter. There was none of the shrillness of weeks gone by. Mbeki, in his televised address to the nation, conducted himself with great dignity, quietly retiring into history.

So it seemed until Tuesday when the resignations were announced. At the same time, Mbeki has gone to the Constitutional Court to challenge aspects of the Nicholson judgement. Ironically, Mbeki may be the winner in this round. By exiting with grace and not digging in his heels as he did pre-Polokwane, he has earned considerable respect at home and abroad. This has released him from the strain of being the punching bag for every difficulty experienced by his cabinet. The focus is now no longer on him. It is firmly on the new leadership and more specifically on Zuma and Motlanthe. Their day has come and all that follows will fall squarely on their shoulders. They need to move quickly to firm up Trevor Manuel’s appointment as Finance Minister and accelerate whatever plans they may have for a new cabinet. Ideally they would have wanted to attend to this detail after the elections in six months time. The resignations however remove this luxury. They will have their work cut out over the next few days.


There remains considerable scepticism that the firing of Mbeki had anything to do with bringing unity in the ANC. Instead there is a strong feeling that the events witnessed spoke more of revenge than healing. It was more about effectively ending all prosecution against Jacob Zuma than anything else. If it were about unity and healing as the secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe said, the NEC would have had to act against both men. Instead those who wanted the charges to go away, won the day.
The country may yet count the costs of one man doing the right thing for the wrong reason and another allowing others to do the same.

Ends, Cape Times 24 September, 2008

• Zubeida Jaffer, journalist and author is Honorary Research Associate at UCT’s Centre for African Studies. See http://zubeidajaffer.blogspot.com/.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

ANC will prevail if it listens to its constituency

Thabang Motsohi.
STRATEGY CONSULTANT.

It is ironic that as we approach election time again, people increasingly begin to reflect on, and in many ways question, the performance of the ruling party and its accountability to its constituency.

The leadership battle that has dominated party activities, pre and post Polokwane, threatens to tear it apart as we prepare for the next election. If the widespread and violent contestations for nomination on the party list are an indicator of the deteriorating crisis, then the ANC voters have legitimate reasons to look for alternative beneficiaries of their precious votes.

In so many constituencies, people of high integrity and who command respect and support in their communities, are threatened with violence and even death for seeking to be nominated on to the party list. This is the preserve of those that are close to the party leadership. They are motivated by self-enrichment and seek political power to distribute patronage and control.

The situation begs the question: Does the electoral system and the ANC governance structure and practice serve the democratic mandate and interests of its voting constituency?

Last Sunday on Interface, J Duarte stated that the ANC is assured of at least 60% voter support. This was so presumptuous, it could have been laughable were it not naïve. We need to show more respect for the intelligence of the voting public.

Many voters are increasingly voicing frustration and disillusionment at what is happening within the party. Zubeida Jaffer in her recent article, Star 15th Sep, proposes formation of a direct representation party as an option.

Some people believe that this is a very attractive option. It would have a very high potential for success provided it is a mirror image of the ANC and it adopts its principle and policy strategies with the exclusion of the following:
• Nomination on the electoral list must be decided by the constituency on the basis of the most preferred candidate,
• Participation in the decision making of the party must be by members only. Any alliance partners shall be excluded from this role.

Clearly if the ANC adopts constituency based electoral system and limits its relationship with the alliance partners, the need for such a party will fall away.
Dear Zubeida Jaffer,

I am interested in your good column "Disaffected voters….." in today's Cape Times. This is because there is one other single "burning" issue which will qualify for inclusion in any burgeoning new party manifesto. It is to address the land question in a fresh and simple way so as to finally put an end to the disgraceful levels of poverty and unemployment which rack this country. Here is how the South African Constitutional Property Rights Foundation [SACPRIF] describes how the tax system has to be changed:-

A New Free-Land Tax Haven: South Africa's Double Dividend

When an apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head he founded the law of gravity, an algebraic formula which describes the force with which objects hit the ground.

This law impacts not only on all things that fly through the air but to ageing body parts, sport, and industry and to all things bright and beautiful in between.

There are also natural laws of human behaviour which are governed by algebraic formulae. For instance the law which defines the best conditions for creating new jobs is, ironically, to stop taxing work, profits, interest or value added tax because they raise the cost of employment, capital and trade. They destroy jobs.

A further negative of these personal taxes is that they generate high unused land prices which are unaffordable to most. It is trite to say that the poor must have land to survive if they have no job. Yet in SA today the average price of an urban plot is, incredibly, R400 000 and for a rural small–holding R750 000.

So the best way to create jobs, either in the towns or country, is to cancel all taxes on work, savings and trade and replace them with a single land tax. This is the natural law of job creation. It is an orthodox fiscal intervention and endorsed by Nobel Laureates in economics



A free-land and tax-haven can be South Africa's double dividend.

Details of how one can support this are available on our website www.sacprif.org in the booklet "A Creative Solution to Unemployment and Poverty."

Regards, Peter Meakin





Registered Professional Valuer

Chairman SACPRIF Management Committee

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Can the ANC rescue its tarnished image?

By Zubeida Jaffer*



ANC president Jacob Zuma has acknowledged that the greatest challenge for his party in the upcoming elections would be getting people out to vote.
An internal ANC survey has found that it may lose its majorities in at least three provinces – the Western Cape, the Northern Cape and Gauteng.

A major fall-off of voters in the next election does not augur well for democracy. While the ANC may technically continue to secure the overall majority nationally, further erosion of the voter base will dent the broad legitimacy it requires to rule effectively.

The divisions within its own ranks already present a problem. Polokwane demonstrated however that the party was able to navigate these difficulties successfully. Unfortunately, the tensions appear to have further intensified around the Zuma trial and the present finalisation of lists of those who will qualify for party seats.

While it appears to be consumed by these difficulties, many of those who have been staunch ANC voters are being lost by the way.

Both in Gauteng and in the Western Cape, there are informal discussions about the range of options open to those who have traditionally voted ANC. The first impulse appears to be to stay away from the polls and to show disaffection by not voting.
The second impulse is to encourage voters to go to the polls and spoil their ballot papers. The third is to vote for one of the opposition parties. The fourth is to form a single-issue party to campaign for direct representation and to call on all ANC voters to voice their disapproval of the party’s performance by voting for this party.

Some are arguing that staying away from the polls will amount to a passive action that will do little to strengthen the democratic process. Spoiling the ballot papers in turn, while more active, will not be a wake up call for the ruling party since it will be difficult to differentiate between genuine spoiling and protest spoiling.

Voting for the opposition parties appears to be finding little support. Some argue that their vote should go to the Democratic Alliance (DA) or the Independent Democrats (ID) since these represent the parties with the greatest chance for growth. Others argue that a vote for one of the smaller parties, such as the UDM, will be a vote for encouraging more voices rather than less.

The difficulty most disaffected ANC voters have with the opposition parties is that they have not been able to draw to themselves significant black support essential for ensuring a non-racial future. The ANC remains the party that holds the attraction for the black community across the ethnic divide. It cannot be denied that this capacity is an essential ingredient for securing national political stability.
The fourth option circulating through the corridors of disaffection will require considerable courage since it requires open, public organisation. The idea under discussion is to form a party to campaign for electoral reform. This party will call for leaders to be directly responsible to the electorate at the next elections in 2014. Committed strongly to non-racialism and upholding the constitution, it will call on the government to hold a referendum to establish whether or not South Africans want to elect their president and their local members of parliament directly.

Those punting this idea argue that there is something fundamentally flawed with the present electoral system. It was adequate for the transitional years but needs to mature into a system that will address the growing gap between the elected and the electorate. The present system gives overwhelming power to the political parties. The power should be placed firmly with the people. If leaders were answerable to their constituencies, they would arguably have been aware of the rising tide of xenophobia a few months ago and at least have expressed the frustrations facing their communities.

There are many good leaders in the ANC. Unfortunately they have to give more of their time to keeping the party rather than the public happy. This is as a result of the electoral system all South Africans fashioned at the negotiation table. Is it not time to consider what reform is required to deepen the democracy so many sacrificed so much for?

The present political fluidity, while scary, does provide an opportunity for robust debate and creative intervention. In true South African spirit, the debate is taking place at many different levels. How these discussions will be expressed through concrete action within the next few months will be of great importance to the public.

The ANC could rescue its tarnished image if it reads the mood properly and acts in a boldly imaginative way. Zuma has urged the three alliance partners to campaign together and stress the achievements rather than the failings of the government. He particularly urged members at an election workshop in Johannesburg to speak out about how the ANC plans to resolve issues of crime and HIV/Aids. This has all been done before and will hardly be an imaginative way to enthuse voters.

What has bordered on the imaginative is his statement a few weeks ago that he will only serve a five-year term and put in place an open process for the election of the next ANC leader. It would be amazingly imaginative if he could say that during his time, he will commit himself to driving the process for electoral reform.

He would forever be imprinted in the hearts of all South Africans if he could urge his party that it would be better for him not to stand for the position of president within the present political climate. Like Mbeki in the run-up to Polokwane, he and those around him are ignoring the fact that his candidacy is contributing to the development of a serious political crisis. The party’s own voters perceive it as leading the way in creating institutional instability. Its own voters are having difficulty in voting for a party that is elevating the fortunes of one man above the good of the party and the country. In terms of both the ANC and the South African constitution, the president of the ANC does not automatically have to be the president of the country. If Zuma could find the wisdom to hold back and ask his supporters to put forward an alternative presidential candidate who will appeal to South Africans broadly, he will forever be held in high esteem as one who put country and nation first above personal ambition.

This act together with a commitment to electoral reform and institutional stability will go a long way to address his challenge of bringing voters out to the polls next year.

Ends

*Zubeida Jaffer, journalist and author, is presently an Honorary Research Associate at the UCT’s Centre for African Studies. See www.zubeidajaffer.co.za.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Mnquma Municipality in the Eastern Cape


A Case Study:

Mnquma Municipality in the Eastern Cape
Overcoming serious local government challenges
April 2008



Introduction
More than 100kms from East London lie three rural towns that make up the Mnquma municipality. Butterworth, Ngqamakhwe and Centane – small towns that were part of the old Transkei – are at the core of this municipality that includes villages such as Mente, Ntenza and Gwadana.

Two years ago, this area won the dubious honour of being declared the dirtiest municipality in South Africa. At the same time, it was plagued with ongoing political instability that culminated in the burning down of a small newly-built mayor’s office in Butterworth. The arsonists have yet to be arrested.

At the Governance Summer School held in Somerset West in March this year, officials from this area reported that not only had they stabilised the area politically but had also led a clean-up campaign that had ended Mnquma’s notoriety as the dirtiest municipality in the country.

The Governance Summer School was convened by three provinces – the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape – and brought together politicians and officials from local and provincial departments to examine issues of leadership.

Mnquma was chosen as a case study presented to the gathering and generated considerable interest. How did this municipality which serves over 200,000 people turn the corner? Has it turned the corner?

Profile
According to Census data (2001), the total population is approximately 297 663 people. 99% are Xhosa speaking Africans. The remaining 1% of the population includes English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sesotho speaking people. More than half (54%) are women. The number of households comes to about 75 410.

In the Eastern Cape, Mnquma is one of the municipalities with the highest levels of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. About 40% of all households have no income and need subsidy arrangements for survival. About 27% have incomes less than R9600 a month. Mnquma suffers from serious infrastructural backlogs:

- 66% of households do not have access to electricity
- 29% of households have no access to piped water while only 7% has piped water either in their dwelling or in their yard. About 11% access water through community standpipes and 38% from rivers
- Only 12 percent of households have access to flush toilets
- More than half (54%) do not have access to sanitation services
- 2% of households have a telephone, 2% have telephone and cell phone in their home and only 16% have cell phones, 34% use public telephones and 27% use other means
- 92% of all roads are gravel whilst 8% are tarred

The Council comprises 61 councillors serving 31 wards and has a staff complement of approximately 460.

Background
Before 2000, each of the rural towns in this vicinity had their own municipality. Butterworth for example was a municipality with a council and town clerk supported by three heads of department. These entities provided basic services and some planning but did not see themselves as having a broader developmental responsibility.

When the towns and the surrounding countryside and villages were amalgamated into a single municipality in December 2000, the new elected local leadership found that they had inherited a completely bankrupt municipal entity. They further discovered that many years of workers retirement deductions had not been paid into the appropriate funds. As a result, the local work-force, uncertain of the changed local environment in the year 2001, led aggressive protests against the mayor, his councillors and newly-elected top officials. Workers drove managers out of their offices. They blockaded entrances to local government offices with graders and other municipal vehicles.

At the time, the present mayor, Councillor Mabone William Duna, served on the executive of the municipality. He had served five years as a member of national parliament and had returned to his local constituency and been elected as a local councillor. He described the situation at the time: “In 2001, we found an institution run by bureaucrats,” he said. “There were no offices to accommodate new councillors and the town clerk was essentially the CEO. There was tension between these officials from the old order and the incoming councillors. We were uncertain about our different roles and were also faced with a scarcity of resources.”

Before the disputes arose over the workers pensions, the new executive progressed steadily. The present Speaker of Council, Mbulelo Thenjwa, was then elected Executive Mayor of the newly constituted Mnquma Municipality. He had previously worked with a rural development agency in that region for 20 years and immediately initiated an Urban Renewal Programme as well as an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) as required by the Municipal Systems Act (MSA) of 2000. These early efforts to put systems in place were derailed when tensions started over the pension dispute.

This crisis dragged on for two to three years and paralysed service delivery. By the time this was settled, the March 2006 local government elections loomed in the distance and slowly a new tension emerged between those who held positions of leadership and those who were keen to oust them and take charge. The mayor was in dispute with the deputy mayor who was in dispute with the speaker. As a result, the newly appointed municipal manager, Ngamela Pakade, was suspended. Also driven from his office was the human resources manager, Mthalo Mzimasi. Against this backdrop, service delivery stalled.

Once the new council was elected and installed, the acting municipal manager, Sipho Mengezeleli refused to work with them. There was general ill-discipline with the mayor and speaker being insulted by staff. The towns were deliberately dirtied with refuse being dumped in the streets. Service delivery was put on hold as water pipes were broken into, electricity poles cut, potholes left unattended and refuse uncollected. Ex-councillors encouraged people not to pay for services. The population of Mnquma was gripped in this administrative logjam.

Dealing with the problems
The first step taken in response to the challenges in 2001 was to bring new councillors and old bureaucrats together in a series of workshops. At the time, there were few full-time councillors. Initially there were only six which was later increased to ten. They had to squeeze into a tiny office to hold their meetings.

The initial workshops were held to find ways to accommodate everybody’s fears. In the process, some of the old order bureaucrats resigned or asked for early retirement. The councillors could then consider how they were going to build a new team. They immediately set out to find a new municipal manager and suitable human resource and administrative managers. While this process was underway however, there were growing rumblings amongst workers. Once again, they were feeling threatened that they would be expelled or dismissed by the new managers. They articulated their feelings of unease by once again demanding that monies be paid to them and not over to the pension fund.

It was difficult for the officials to handle this situation and cope with the other daily demands of setting up the municipality.

When Mthalo Mzimasi, a former teacher, was appointed as human resources manager, he found an unruly situation. He realised that it would be no use hauling workers up for disciplinary hearings for toyi-toying and locking out councillors. He recognised the fear of change running through the workforce. There were lots of rumours of new managers coming in to fire workers and deprive them of their livelihoods. He too was pushed around and was forced to vacate his office and decided to proceed cautiously. The first thing he did was to make contact with some union leaders and ask to meet with them. When they eventually met with him, he was slowly able to ask them to consider working with him to solve the pension pay-out problem. A committee was set up and endless meetings were held which were long and tiring. Mzimasi familiarised himself with the dynamics of change management practices which over time brought about cooperation. At the same time, on instruction of the mayor and his councillors, he also worked on instituting proper recruitment procedures and finance procedures. The issue of the unpaid pensions however dominated the municipality. The call for monies to be paid out immediately grew stronger leading the municipality to finally call in the help of the provincial authorities in Bisho.

They decided to make an intervention in terms of Section 154 of the Municipal Act which allowed such action when a municipality was in trouble. With the assistance of the province, a settlement was finally brokered amicably over many months. The municipality owed R30m in arrears to the pension fund. It agreed to pay this off in staggered payments over a number of years. These monies came directly from the municipal budget. Bisho also eased the load when it agreed to pay R10m owed by the apartheid government.

Mayor Duna, in his simply furnished small office at the Mnquma municipality was frank about the difficulties they had encountered. “I would say for much of 2001 to 2005 we were dealing with these internal issues. The old order bureaucrats wanted to maintain a hostile relationship with the councillors so that they could not function and everything would revert to the way it always was,” he said. “And we had no experience or understanding of governance. We were grappling with this arrival of the animal called a municipality, struggling to put it into its proper context and trying to determine the roles of the councillors. Within this confusion, no service delivery took place.

Unfortunately too, once these initial problems were nearing solution, a new set of political tensions emerged in the run-up to the 2006. Power struggles between the mayor and speaker paralysed the municipality and there was not much that could be done other than to prepare and fight it out at the polls. After the local government elections in March 2006, the newly-elected mayoral committee had to elect a new mayor. Councillor Duna was elected by 18 to 10 votes. The former mayor, Councillor Mbulelo Thenjwa was elected speaker. They agreed, through discussions with all councillors that a deputy mayor would not be appointed, thus reducing the possibility of reliving the tensions they experienced. By this time too, they were clearer about the roles of councillors and council officials. The mayor and his new team understood that they had to create enough space for the administration to function with independence. The only way they could do that was for them to work as a team and not give opposing instructions.

“We were keen to put together a team of bureaucrats that could help us steer the ship in the right direction,” said Mayor Duna.

At last the municipality appeared to have reached a point of stability. Little did they know that the fall-out of the election results were to have consequences. A group of assailants attacked the new municipal head office and set it alight. They managed to escape and remain unknown. At the same time, ex-councillors encouraged people not to pay for services and once the new council was installed, the acting municipal manager refused to work with them. The staff was unruly and deliberately dirtied the streets with refuse.

Against this backdrop, the suspended municipal manager, Ngamela Phakade, was returned to office. The charge against him levelled by the then deputy mayor was dropped. The charge was that he had usurped his powers when he fired a colleague. When Phakade was first appointed in 2002, he had walked straight into the mess of the transition. Now as he returned, he once again tumbled into drama. A lawyer by training, he joined the municipality from the law faculty now part of the newly restructured Walter Sisulu University. He comes from a younger generation of professionals eager to leave a positive legacy of progress. In his small office, with a rather large desk that takes up all the space, he explained that the crisis was precipitated by the fact that 50 percent of the 61 councillors were not returned to office. “This is something that the national department of local government has to give attention to. It creates enormous tension and it could result in a loss of skill that has been developed over a term.

This time round however he was in a strong position because of the united leadership. “The mayor supports me and does not interfere. The speaker has no interest in being mayor and the chief whip has no such aspirations.”

They instructed him to go to the courts and bring those to book who had committed the disturbance. Not only had they dirtied the towns but they had engaged in looting. Two trucks were stolen that were fortunately tracked down in Lesotho and recovered. The former deputy mayor still refuses to move from a municipal house and he too has been taken to court, the outcome of which has still to be decided.

The tough action calmed the situation and allowed the municipality to give serious attention to winning back the confidence of the people. One of the first things that they did was to show the people that they were prepared to lead by example.

They went on a big drive to clean the towns. The mayor and all executive members personally went into town to clean up. A two-day cleaning campaign helped to begin to restore confidence that perhaps the municipality was serious this time.

They also introduced regular communication with communities through the community radio station called Khanya Community Radio Station.

The appointment of a new CFO also helped to begin reverse the distrust. Coming from the Buffalo City Municipality, Noluthando Ntshanga found a backlog of audits. At the same time, she initiated an outreach programme to communities to hear what they wanted. They were reluctant to pay their bills and she wanted to understand why. They complained that often they received bills late or not at all. The 10,000 statements that the municipality was supposed to send out often did not reach homes.

She decided to invest in new automated machine that could quickly print, fold and seal statements. These were then posted in good time and resulted in more people paying their bills. By September 2007, she was able to set up a big tent in town and host an awareness day calling on people to come and pay up on the day. They came forward and R100,000 of outstanding monies were collected. “We had to be creative,” she said. “People had to see that the municipality was changing,” she said.

There was no quick fix though, said Municipal Manager Phakade. “The people have been subjected to dysfunctionality,” he said. “Most have lost hope and now have to be won over to be involved in governance,” he said.


Signs of hope
For the first time this year, the annual financial statements required by National Treasury were completed on time. An asset register has been set up as required by law and is being maintained.

They have started the process of valuing properties as required by law. This exercise should bring in additional revenue. A newly appointed firm of accountants (made possible through grant funding) has helped them comply with the production of monthly statements on the 10th day of each month as legally required.

They reached their 4 percent target of increased revenue collection and hope to meet their target of 20 percent in five years time. “In 2000, when Mnquma was born, it was created as a financial entity expected to run on its own resources,” said Mayor Duna. “At the time, this felt like a challenge that seemed insurmountable. But now with a stable team, it has become manageable,” he said.

The speaker clearly understands that his role has to be neutral. To help build trust, he has introduced a snap debate at every council meeting encouraging all political parties to initiate discussion not on the planned agenda. Most importantly he has led the process of enforcing personal discipline which the leadership believed would be the first step to reviving effective organisation. Through collective discussion with all councillors, they have drawn up documents that clearly define what is expected.

They have gone as far as to define what was considered appropriate dress for councillors attending formal meetings. Men cannot come dressed “as if they are about to do the garden” and women “must not expose their bodies in an undignified way”. The dress code makes interesting reading.

Further if a councillor does not a attend a standing committee meeting without an apology (to be signed by the chief whip and approved by the speaker), they will have R500 deducted from their salary. If he or she does not attend a council meeting, R1,000 is deducted. If councillors arrive 15 minutes late, they have to remain seated in the public gallery.

Progress within the Human Resources department made it possible to move its manager to Community Services. He had led the process of reviving the department and was now called upon to assist with a seriously neglected area – cleansing, traffic, security, fire services, libraries and primary health services. Cleansing continued to be a top priority with increased attention being given to landscaping.

This year attention has been given to lawlessness around traffic. In Butterworth, two senior traffic officers have been employed, four more will soon be employed and as an immediate intervention, 10 traffic wardens were employed to patrol the town.

When recently visited, the central town definitely exuded a sense of cleanliness and order. In surrounding townships, however there was still uncollected dirt heaps dotted around. Four roads have been built and repaired during the past year but residents continue to complain about potholes which damage their vehicles. “We do not have the resources to tackle everything at once,” said Phakade. “But we are aware that this is something that must be attended to.” A new hall for the use of traditional leaders will soon be completed within a business centre complex outside the town. This is part of their efforts to work more closely with the chiefs and
headmen to circumvent problems. The recently adopted Intergovernmental Framework Act has eased difficulties in this regard since it gives guidelines as to how municipalities should consolidate other spheres of influence in the communities.

The municipality initiated the business complex about a year and a half ago with the assistance of Nedbank and Old Mutual. The insurance companies have developed a package tailor-made for this locality. It is a pilot project that will insure cattle, mielie fields and houses. If the project succeeds, it will be extended to other rural municipalities across the country. The development of these business facilities is part of the realisation that people must have access to services where they live and not have to travel to Buffalo City in East London and spend their earnings there. “Local economic development is central,” said the Speaker Mbulelo Thenjwa. “What we had here was a false economy,” he said.

The growth of the economy also depends on responding to the needs of the middle income people. The municipality has successfully made an arrangement with the Eastern Cape Development Corporation to sell more than 400 houses that people are presently renting from them. Once this is done, the new owners will have to pay rates and this will improve the municipality’s balance sheet.

An audit of the needs of SMME’s is underway in an effort to identify how best to given appropriate support. Recently, the municipality opened a business information centre to give effect to this work.

In the next town, Centane, the Development Forum has identified land to start growing plants from which to make essential oils in demand locally and internationally. “Since we have resolved our internal problems and focused our attention on service delivery, numerous retail shops have returned to the town,” said Councillor Thenjwa. A new shopping mall is also under construction.
“Hopefully we will see a stage when the local leaders will graduate fully to a commitment to development not contaminated by political differences,” he said.

Two years after the 2006 elections, councillors and bureaucrats no longer bury their heads in shame when they have to attend provincial or national meetings. They are now often called upon to share their expertise instead and asked how they had reversed their fortunes.

Lessons
All of those interviewed listed some or all of the following lessons.

The most important breakthrough was creating a collective leadership and eliminating tensions between top officials. The mayor, the speaker and the chief whip have to cooperate and not work against one another.

It was important to not rush into a situation but first understand the importance of developing a team. Through the experiences here, they learnt that it was not always good for a leader to move in the fast lane leaving most others behind. There must be investment in a team and time given to keep that team together.

The local leadership often did not understand the legislative framework nor the true limitations of constitutional capacity. Once they followed the legislation to the letter and accepted the capacity constraints, they were able to plan better and lead more realistically.

Every effort has to be made to ensure that councillors and staff understand their different roles and that they stick to a clearly-defined job description. A strong human resources operation was crucial in firming up lines of division and ensuring compliance to roles. It was disastrous when an administrator wanted to be a politician or a politician an administrator.

Besides the municipal manager, the skills levels of the human resource and finance manager made a huge difference to building a stable administration. All municipalities need to give immediate attention to getting the best people to fill these posts.

Understanding rights in terms of the constitution was also very crucial. Leaders needed to show that they respected the terms of the constitution, understood it and were prepared to try to live according to it. Only then was it possible to urge the people to demonstrate similar respect minimising space for misbehaviour.

Every effort must be made to improve financial management which is the bedrock of any municipality. The community was not interested in paying their bills when they witnessed mismanagement.

In appointment of staff, it has helped removing all political interference and concentrating only on skills. Skilled staff have been recruited even if they came from other provinces or municipalities breaking the tendency to employ only locals.

Similarly with tender processes, politicians were strongly discouraged from interfering in any way with administrative procedures. Constant reminders of the code of conduct that spells out this separation was important.

It was important to identify quick-win projects which could be translated into a longer term programme – for example, the two-day cleaning campaign must move into ongoing planned landscaping.

Conclusion
There are strong indications that there has indeed been a turn around in this troubled municipality. The energy and commitment of the local leadership and top officials interviewed are without doubt impressive. The strength of their recovery however will depend on a number of factors: Will they be able to maintain unity amongst the leadership team? How will they cope with the tensions generated by the next local government election? They are discussing the possibility of instituting a risk committee which will appoint a risk manager to anticipate potential problems and this may ensure improved readiness for the difficulties of an electoral period.

If they are able to reach their increased revenue target of 20 percent within five years, this should be a good indication of prolonged success. Will they retain able staff and attract new staff on a consistent basis? Will they be able to minimise the disgruntlement still present amongst some sectors of the workforce?

Most of all will they stimulate the kind of local economic effort that would lift this municipality out of poverty? The municipal manager’s contract ends in 2012 and he hopes to leave an institution that is running in accordance with all the principles of corporate governance as required by the local government laws. “It is all about giving people confidence to take local initiatives,” he said. “We do not want people who are beggars.’

This municipality is moving in the right direction and deserve every bit of provincial and national support. It will be very unfortunate if the local leadership slacken their efforts and let go of steering this ship forward. Firm and consistent leadership over the next five years will be the most important ingredient that will ensure a tangible improvement in the lives of the local people.

Zubeida Jaffer
Journalist and Honorary Research Associate
Centre for African Studies, UCT

Special thanks to Fundile Feketshane, the office manager in the mayoral office, for facilitating this research. His inobstrusive efforts speak loudly of a growing understanding of the necessary separation of roles between political office bearers and municipal staff in Mnquma.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Boesak strikes a chord

CAPE TIMES 1 AUGUST 2008

Dr Alan Boesak spoke deep into the heart of South Africa’s political uncertainties when he delivered the annual Ashley Kriel Memorial Youth Lecture this week.

The Great Hall at UWC, overflowing with more than 2,000 people, broke into rapturous applause when he warned against the kind of democracy “where we have the vote but are bereft of our voice, where the dreams of the poor have become the blanket of the rich and where justice for the poor is a line in a slogan but not the song of our hearts.”

The hall began filling up nearly an hour before the meeting was due to start and by the time it started, people continued flowing in attempting to find available space in the aisles.

He struck a chord with the audience of mainly former UDF activists when he said that for many who had sacrificed everything, “politics in South Africa has become a strange and frightening space” where people are “tragically estranged from the movement they love.”

The annual lecture jointly organised by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation(IJR) and the University of the Western Cape, attracted a cross-section of people from different communities suggestive of the non-racial character of the earlier movement launched 25 years ago. In the audience were also groups of young people from the schools in Bonteheuwel and surrounds where Ashley Kriel lived.

For the first time in five years, the local ANC leadership attended the event en masse. Seated in the front rows were not just the new Premier, Lynne Brown but a number of her political associates such as Skwebesi Swatsha(check), Garth Strachan and Max Ozinsky. Their attendance appeared to give recognition to the fact that they could not ignore the groundswell of anti-ANC sentiment in the province. It was also an opportunity post Ebrahim Rasool to be on display as a new leadership grouping.

Many of those who were present at the meeting privately admit that they do not see their way clear to vote for the ANC in the forthcoming elections. They were not attracted to any opposition party and would choose to stay away from the polls. Some argued that it was not a good idea to encourage people not to vote because this weakened democracy. But the foremost question for them was who do they vote for if they disapprove of the ANC’s conduct?

Dr Boesak did not mince his words when he spoke out against corruption, the lack of leadership accountability and the efforts of a few to squander a proud legacy crafted by many ordinary people across the country.

There was wild applause when he criticised the recent behaviour of some leaders who encouraged people to kill for the movement. “Not only is such talk totally out of place in our democracy, it is a shameless abuse of positions of trust, and shows a shameless abuse of positions of trust.”

Speaking out against ethnicity and racialisation of society, he brought the focus straight back to the original vision that had driven the democratic forces that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black or white.”

“In the final instance judgement will be given, not in terms of whiteness or blackness, whatever the ideological content of those words may be today but in terms of the persistent faithfulness we are called to in this struggle,” he said.
Judging from the applause, the thread of non-racialism remained a strong impulse amongst those gathered.

Interestingly Boesak did not single out any political leader except making cursory reference to Jacob Zuma not approving of the cry to kill.

Yet his critique of the post-Mandela leadership was apparent in his consistent message that South Africa’s problems were not predominantly ethnic. “Our problem is a problem of betrayal of the poor, of a loss of faith in the people, of a loss of vision for the nation. It is a problem of disconnectedness with the people, of greed and hunger for power, of self-deceit and mindless arrogance,” he said.

It would not do the speech justice to say it was vintage Boesak. It was and it wasn’t. It was in the sense that he referred to extracts of his speeches made 25 years ago. But it wasn’t in the sense what was on display was a much-less ego-driven Boesak. It was a perfectly crafted speech and a piece of oratory that will not be lost in the dustbins of history. He is a Boesak now that has come through his own pain and appears to have transcended his personal challenges to become again the voice of a non-racial vision for this country. Those who dominate the political discourse have pushed that vision deep down into a dark well of obscurity. Instead the attention of the nation is on which faction will win the election, what will this mean in terms of positions dished out and attacks heaped against the judiciary.

The mood at the gathering was a strong indication that there are many that are crying out for a refocus on the vision that had released the energies of thousands across the country. It will be interesting to see if Dr Boesak will be prepared to play this role on a consistent basis, not as a party-political figure but as a gifted orator that will keep the nation’s mind focussed on the direction in which it must move.

He has articulated a sentiment which is uppermost in many minds. By doing so he has strengthened the hand of those who opposed to the kind of ethnic mobilisation that we are seeing. “There are those who seek to establish levels of suffering, levels of pain and levels of disadvantage and upon that falsehood try to build new levels of privilege,” he said. “And no matter how they go about it, it always ends up with levels of colour. To narrow down our Africanness to an ethnic dimension, “Africans” becoming “ethnic” Africans is not only humanly degrading, but historically untrue and politically offensive,” he said.

Interestingly he encouraged his audience not to lay blame but suggested that the answer to the current difficulties “lies within ourselves.” “We can either succumb to the politics of delusion or we can stand up for the politics of hope,” he said. He called on South Africans to believe in themselves and trust their dreams of justice. “Our problem is forsaking our spirituality and forgetting our faith,” he said.

He spoke strongly against the mood of despair gripping the country. “Too many of us are despairing, mourning the loss of what we thought we had, bemoaning our democracy, blaming others and forgetting our own responsibility. “Let us wake up from mourning and unite this nation.”

He received a standing ovation from the crowd at the end of his speech. Not only had he not lost his ability to connect directly with the hearts and minds of South Africans but on display were flashes of political maturity lifting him out of the past years of self-pity. He too appeared to have ended his period of mourning and was now calling on others to do the same.

He spoke of a second chance, an opportunity to give substance to “the dreams we once had.” It is not immediately clear whether he was referring here to the Polokwane phenomenon or whether he was referring to the mood in the country to forge something different, to find ways to reclaim closed political spaces. It is too early to say. The incisiveness of the speech and the large audience that poured into the hall does suggest that what we are seeing here is a sign of a civil society crying out for revolt.