IS SOUTH AFRICA BECOMING A CENTRALISED OR DECENTRALISED DEMOCRACY? AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS PERSPECTIVE
This was written on the 20 July 2009
The recent pronouncements on Co-operative government have resuscitated the almost buried debate on the nature of our governance system as it relates to the powers and functions of sub-national governments and the concomitant intergovernmental relations system. Whilst the current igniters seem to be focussed on the local government capacity related issues, it is the long term management of South Africa’s democracy issues that are igniting an inquest into the real intents of the emerging centralisation tendency.
The South African constitution establishes South Africa as one sovereign democratic state founded on values that include the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law as well as a multi-party system of democratic governance. The constitution further constitutes government as national, provincial and local spheres that are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. The mere mention and practice of political representation determined through quasi-independent franchise mechanisms in sub-national jurisdictions makes our governing system to be inherently federal in character though not in form.
The current constitutional injunctions on the conduct of intergovernmental relations seem to have been designed to insulate the country against possible abuse by electorally dominant political coalitions. These coalitions can either be numerical, resource endowed and class defined or a combination of the above with the poor being vulnerable recipients of contestation effects. The pre-Polokwane centralisation of political power and the Western Cape post 2009 election happenings should teach us that constitutional guarantees are in fact designed to protect society against the electorate and not the elected; because elected officials reflect the collective will of an electorate.
The fact that in the pre 1994 constitutional negotiations the subject of provincial powers and functions almost deadlocked the proceedings should be instructive to the sensitive manner in which the state should approach this subject. The nexus of RSA’s representative democracy is that it mediates the often underplayed regional rigidities manifesting themselves in forms of ethno-regional commonalities such as language and low key gentrification on the basis of predominantly racio-class commonalities.
The country has now accepted that South Africa’s democracy under the ANC (at least as a result of emerging evidence on what actually informed the 2007 Polokwane palace revolution) is in safe hands because the only dictatorship the ANC can manufacture is that which is driven by the electorate as opposed to those that have individuals a prime architects. Dictatorships alien to the ANC will be disabled first by the ANC’s own internal democratic processes before the populace has its bite at it. It is therefore expected of ANC leaders to accept the realities of in-country splits in terms of governing mandates.
One of the not so much celebrated results of the processes leading up to the historic 2007 ANC leadership change is the restoration of in-ANC constituency based democracy that returned the power to determine jurisdictional cadre deployment thus entrenching the almost melted provincialism characteristic of the RSA polity. Logic would therefore dictate that this benefit should also accrue to society in general, because for as long as the ANC remains a dominant political party in South Africa, its personality and changing emotions will always instruct the political arrangements of society in the sub-region.
It is therefore important for government to manage how it communicates the issue of reviewing Provincial Government and interventions in the local spheres of government. Centralisation of political power has joined the absence of the rule of law as fundamental considerations for foreign direct investment in a country. With the current global economic meltdown investors are increasingly paying attention to the political management of economies, with a particular focus on sub-national ‘governments’ as primary units of democratic expression. The global decentralist movement has continuously been gaining premium because of the failure of centrally managed political economic decisions by either governments or recession responsible private sector multi-national firms.
It is our hope that the “toe the line speak” is not some euphemism representing an intent to obfuscate the emergent vibrancy of our democracy. Cooperative governance is both an art and science in diplomacy, policy intents should as a rule be facilitated outcomes as opposed to pronounced limitations. The Zuma Administration has thus far accumulated sufficient decentralist points for potential draw downs by sub-national entities intent on approaching global markets to fund our infrastructure backlogs in a shrinking economic base.
The risk of making the country to degenerate into highly centralised government machinery accountable to centrally elected political elite becomes greater in conditions of national emergency. Our so-called local government emergencies should not be used to propel commandist governance tendencies that have monuments to prove their failure. The absence of precedence to deal with the capacity challenges in our municipal system of government should be seen as test to our resolve to make spheres of government distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. In any case Polokwane only directed government to initiate a White Paper process on Provincial Government .We must always remember that society’s practical interface with government is always at the local sphere of government.
For us to understand the new constitutional paradigmic dictates we have to reinvent ourself as a society and discard the often development economies preferred centralist vocabulary. The legitimacy of any path we administratively choose lies in the degree to which our choices yield sustained performance.
The recent pronouncements on Co-operative government have resuscitated the almost buried debate on the nature of our governance system as it relates to the powers and functions of sub-national governments and the concomitant intergovernmental relations system. Whilst the current igniters seem to be focussed on the local government capacity related issues, it is the long term management of South Africa’s democracy issues that are igniting an inquest into the real intents of the emerging centralisation tendency.
The South African constitution establishes South Africa as one sovereign democratic state founded on values that include the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law as well as a multi-party system of democratic governance. The constitution further constitutes government as national, provincial and local spheres that are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. The mere mention and practice of political representation determined through quasi-independent franchise mechanisms in sub-national jurisdictions makes our governing system to be inherently federal in character though not in form.
The current constitutional injunctions on the conduct of intergovernmental relations seem to have been designed to insulate the country against possible abuse by electorally dominant political coalitions. These coalitions can either be numerical, resource endowed and class defined or a combination of the above with the poor being vulnerable recipients of contestation effects. The pre-Polokwane centralisation of political power and the Western Cape post 2009 election happenings should teach us that constitutional guarantees are in fact designed to protect society against the electorate and not the elected; because elected officials reflect the collective will of an electorate.
The fact that in the pre 1994 constitutional negotiations the subject of provincial powers and functions almost deadlocked the proceedings should be instructive to the sensitive manner in which the state should approach this subject. The nexus of RSA’s representative democracy is that it mediates the often underplayed regional rigidities manifesting themselves in forms of ethno-regional commonalities such as language and low key gentrification on the basis of predominantly racio-class commonalities.
The country has now accepted that South Africa’s democracy under the ANC (at least as a result of emerging evidence on what actually informed the 2007 Polokwane palace revolution) is in safe hands because the only dictatorship the ANC can manufacture is that which is driven by the electorate as opposed to those that have individuals a prime architects. Dictatorships alien to the ANC will be disabled first by the ANC’s own internal democratic processes before the populace has its bite at it. It is therefore expected of ANC leaders to accept the realities of in-country splits in terms of governing mandates.
One of the not so much celebrated results of the processes leading up to the historic 2007 ANC leadership change is the restoration of in-ANC constituency based democracy that returned the power to determine jurisdictional cadre deployment thus entrenching the almost melted provincialism characteristic of the RSA polity. Logic would therefore dictate that this benefit should also accrue to society in general, because for as long as the ANC remains a dominant political party in South Africa, its personality and changing emotions will always instruct the political arrangements of society in the sub-region.
It is therefore important for government to manage how it communicates the issue of reviewing Provincial Government and interventions in the local spheres of government. Centralisation of political power has joined the absence of the rule of law as fundamental considerations for foreign direct investment in a country. With the current global economic meltdown investors are increasingly paying attention to the political management of economies, with a particular focus on sub-national ‘governments’ as primary units of democratic expression. The global decentralist movement has continuously been gaining premium because of the failure of centrally managed political economic decisions by either governments or recession responsible private sector multi-national firms.
It is our hope that the “toe the line speak” is not some euphemism representing an intent to obfuscate the emergent vibrancy of our democracy. Cooperative governance is both an art and science in diplomacy, policy intents should as a rule be facilitated outcomes as opposed to pronounced limitations. The Zuma Administration has thus far accumulated sufficient decentralist points for potential draw downs by sub-national entities intent on approaching global markets to fund our infrastructure backlogs in a shrinking economic base.
The risk of making the country to degenerate into highly centralised government machinery accountable to centrally elected political elite becomes greater in conditions of national emergency. Our so-called local government emergencies should not be used to propel commandist governance tendencies that have monuments to prove their failure. The absence of precedence to deal with the capacity challenges in our municipal system of government should be seen as test to our resolve to make spheres of government distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. In any case Polokwane only directed government to initiate a White Paper process on Provincial Government .We must always remember that society’s practical interface with government is always at the local sphere of government.
For us to understand the new constitutional paradigmic dictates we have to reinvent ourself as a society and discard the often development economies preferred centralist vocabulary. The legitimacy of any path we administratively choose lies in the degree to which our choices yield sustained performance.
Hi Dr Mathebula.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed and at the same time fscinated by your thoughts, expressed in writing. You are a prolific writer and speaker, a feat not achieved by many. Keep the thoughts flowing. Can I use, of course with acknowledgement, some of your writings?
When are you coming to impart this knowledge?
From Tito.