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Thinking about the Public Service beyond the looming below 50% threshold by all parties. The public service must be protected from collapse

Edited version was published in the Sunday Times on 20 August 2023

The implications of a below 50% threshold election result by all political parties in South Africa will be both a positive test of the resilience of the fragile democratic order and a liability to how it operates on behalf of citizens. The Public Service, as a constituted mind of the state, organised in the three spheres of government, and as organs of state, is a mechanism through which society or citizens interface with the government of the day. 

The South African Constitution provides basic values and principles governing public administration, the operational field of Public Service. The Constitution specifies that "within public administration, there is a Public Service for the Republic". This Public Service, over and above its functioning and structuring in terms of legislation, is constitutionally expected to execute the lawful policies of the governing party loyally. 

 

In the last thirty years of a one-governing party political system in South Africa's democratic order, the logic for transforming the Public Service became a cadre deployment system that veered away from the original intentions of building a service reflective of the country's demographics. The politically dominant had the executive authority to structure the Public Service to their objectives and thus compromising the virtue of "loyally executing the lawful policies" of whoever was governing. The prize of politics, which is government, started to include deploying those that could "loyally execute wishes of those that appointed them by any means possible" if recorded and unchallenged evidence of corruption and state capture stays our authority over what happened. 

 

The true implications of a coalition arrangement that might result from a below 50% showing by all parties are that the Public Service, with the ethos of being deployees, might be the most significant risk to the stability of the democratic order. The 'public' in 'public service', which the Constitution reduces to being the majority represented by 'the government of the day', will be diffused into the various mandates constituting the required 50% threshold. In this case, the 'government of the day' status, fluid as we have experienced in municipal government since 2016, might attract loyalty from the public service commensurate to the instability of coalitions by an immature political-administration interface state. 

 

The reversal of a culture where "employees of the public service were favoured or prejudiced only because they support a particular party or cause" will be the most energy usurping activity by the 7th administration if a below 50% threshold condition is realised. This is because the opposition complex, which might be the 'government of the day' through a coalition arrangement, has demonstrated that it too practices 'cadre deployment', albeit thus far with a slightly higher sensitivity to meritocracy, if matric is a minimum standard. 

 

It has become commonplace to suggest that the dialogue on coalitions in South Africa is only a political power-saving grace fixation. On the contrary, it seems the governing ANC is engaging in this coalition dialogue inspired by a need for concerted action to defend the democratic and constitutional order. 

 

The reality of dysfunctional government in municipalities has rendered the fence-sitting and functional neutrality of the ANC as the expected leader of society, and arguably still the nexus of politics in South Africa, to be tantamount to condoning settling fragilities of the state and thus undermining the foundations of the democratic order it created. 

 

In comparable democracies, Public Service, is a prestigious calling; not every Dudu, Oscar, or Steenhuisen can just be recruited into it. It is a service whose role is equated with the required cognition and, thus, merit. The true meaning of public service commissioning is taken to the last detail of independence, impartiality, 'without fear or favour or prejudice practice', and a high standard of professional ethics. The Public Service Commission is responsible for commissioning citizens and professionals to serve in the state's public administration system. Such democracies have, over time, perfected where the administrative authority of their countries is vested without diluting the political significance of the legislative, executive, and judicial authority. 

 

As the coalition dialogue ensues and the political arrangements are made, there will have to be an equally obligatory process to start a parallel dialogue on protecting the public administration system from a possible collapse. The public service should be recalibrated into a career development space not refereed by the politics of the day to the extent that it is "loyally executing the lawful policies of the government of the day". 

 

In the words of Deputy President Paul Mashatile, when opening the National Dialogue on Coalitions, “Whatever the configuration…, the electorate and the people… expect from those who govern nothing less than the material improvement of their lives, a better future for themselves and their children as well as guarantees for peace and security”. This statement echoes what the preamble of the Constitution of South Africa means when it declares “we therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to -improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person”. CUT!!!

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