Nelson Mandela used to comfort himself in his cell by recalling the words of the poem, “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley: “…It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
South Africans are the masters of our national fate; collectively able to determine the direction and the success of our future. Why do we make it so difficult for ourselves? And when will we insist on our politicians doing what is necessary for our country to flourish, or throw them out?
Most political parties in our country want essentially the same thing: a good start in life for our children; decent housing; decent health care; safety for all with far less crime and the Constitution and Rule of Law operating to protect us; a social safety net for those who cannot compete; and opportunities for all to achieve their full potential. If we all want these good things, why have we so far to go?
The answer must surely be that civil servants at every level and their supervising politicians are failing. We go out of our way to make a dog’s breakfast of even the simplest matters. Even if the solution smacks us in the face, we do not grabit.
Take our children’s education. No-one – not politicians, parents, teachers or children – wants inferior education. So why tolerate lagging education standards, with mathematics and science rated worst in the world? Our education spending exceeds most other countries. Our children are not intellectually inferior (except those stunted by malnutrition). Our parents mostly do their best. Many teachers are dedicated, doing a decent day’s work. But where is the accountability? Schools that fail; teachers that fail, do not pay the price. When are useless teachers fired? And where is the recognition for teachers who perform superbly?
What of our municipalities? Can you believe that only 18% of 263 municipalities received clean audit reports for the 2015/2016 financial year before the municipal election? Only one Metro, Cape Town, received a clean audit. Only one council in Gauteng, the DA led Midvaal, received a clean audit. 80% of councils in the Western Cape, governed by the DA, received clean audits, while in the next best province, Kwa-Zulu Natal, only 18% received clean audits. R16.8 billion was irregularly spent by councils.
The voters took some remedial action, replacing ANC governments in a number of councils, but some egregious examples of financial misgovernment occur in councils with huge ANC majorities.
The Auditor General refers to the incapacity of mayors and accounting officials, repeating what has been said for two decades. Why does the ANC not ensure that the people it elects to important office and the officials they appoint are at least vaguely capable of running councils with budgets of billions of Rands? Why allow this financial mess to get worse?
Municipal officials are well paid and if jobs were seen not as a reward for party loyalty or personal loyalty or recognition of family members, but as essential tools to efficient and honest government, we could fix the situation: Fire the bums and get some competent people to do the work properly.
Don’t accept that there are not competent people available. There is not a huge national surplus of competent, qualified and experienced people, but if you go looking for them, many are there. Sitting as part of a panel interviewing applicants for very senior positions in the largest municipal utility company in South Africa, I have been impressed at the calibre and the qualifications of the well over a hundred applicants, overwhelmingly black, available. Don’t tell me we haven’t the human material to staff municipalities. Just forget about politics and cadre deployment, and go for competent professionals.
Competence is certainly in short supply in the cabinet. It seems not to be a requirement for ministers. This is a tragedy; irrespective of who is in power it is essential that those who rule us are efficient, capable and honest.
We have one of the largest cabinets in the world, backed up by hordes of deputy ministers doing little. Some know what they are doing. Some are honest, qualified and capable of doing the job but many are qualified only by their support for President Zuma and their closeness to the presidential friends, the Guptas. When last was a minister fired for doing an incompetent job? It is necessary only to mention someone like Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini to make the point. There are many others. Why not get rid of the bums and replace them with fit for purpose appointees?
Then we come to our country’s mineral wealth. There is surely almost no-one who does not want our mineral resources to be used for the benefit of the people in terms of jobs provided; of taxes paid both by employees and profitable mining companies to enable the government to do the social spending that we need; and investors to invest in the further development of the industry. Ours is the richest mineral endowment of any country, yet we continually slip down the table of mining countries.
This is directly attributable to government policies, not least the latest Mining Charter promulgated by the Gupta approved Mosebenzi Zwane, woefully under-equipped to be minister of Mineral Resources. He and the president, supporting him, are between them doing immense and totally unnecessary damage to this important industry. Are there no economically literate cabinet members who are prepared to speak out to save our mining future?
The solution to all this lies in the hands of the voters. We are entitled to the best. When are we going to insist that we receive it?
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand.
This article first appeared in The Star.
