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The evolving IGR landscape demands political maturity to effectively navigate the new context.

This was published in TimesLive on 02 July 2024 

Establishing the GNU's national executive authority with the President at its helm is the tip of the iceberg our politics must navigate in the next five years or more. The facts are that South Africa has multiple executive authority centres with political mandates that have been separately sourced from voters. Emerging out of an absolute majority party-dominated national sphere of government, the country still needs to mature, in law and general conduct, its intergovernmental relations (IGR) system. The national sphere’s ultimate power on the fiscus created a bureaucratic tradition that might be the first and biggest hurdle to making GNU arrangements to function. The national should start understanding that is operates because it is on the local's jurisdiction.

IGR, the interactions and transactions between or amongst spheres of government, is the platform upon which organs of state, elected or appointed, have to find each other to operate the national revenue's distribution to various jurisdictions. At last count, RSA had 30 Cabinet posts, nine provincial governments, 44 district municipalities, eight metropolitan municipalities, and ... local municipalities. In addition to this, there are PFMA and MFMA institutions with accounting authority derived from the 30 Cabinet executive authority centres. For as long as there was an absolute majority party governing the system, the real IGR implications would have been less appreciated as RSA was building a post-apartheid state. The honeymoon of arbitrary and prerogative policy-making, anchored on the command of a majority vote in cabinet and legislatures, has been upended on the 29th of May 2024. The governance template has changed. 

 

The hung national Parliament, Gauteng, KZN, and seven Metropolitan municipalities indicate how the ANC has lost political and economic influence on South Africa's economic nodal points. The outcome of the elections has created a context wherein the last of its influence would require consensus as a currency to move forward. The demands of the opposition complex, now part of the GNU arrangements, indicate which state departments are vital to making significant change. The change in the relationship other spheres of government had with the national sphere, most of which were regulated through party political channels, has drastically altered the relations that existed before. 

 

Given that it is the humans in the structures of the state that interact and transact, the concentration of party 'deployees' in the public service will have a profound impact on the ability of the deep state to loyally execute the lawful policies of the 'executive authority of the day'. To the extent that the brandied about National Dialogue can concretise a National Unity firmament, the deep state is growing into the following risk area after cabinet posts. This might be why the DA makes such a grossly unlawful demand, which amounts to a 'we also have our cadres to deploy'. 

 

The decisive entry of civil society movements through the expanded National Dialogue mechanism has blown open the domain of organs of state to accommodate non-state actors with their interests as a mandate to the dialogue. The sixth administration envisaged this need to create space for non-state players to influence the organs of the state. The District Development Model is a mechanism that encourages a district municipality to include stakeholders other than state-wide players to consolidate one plan through which resources would supplement each other in a designated spatial node. IGR, as a platform and somewhat software to navigate politics as a constant hardware to manage the diverse interests, which are the currency of politics, is emerging as a field of focus with which a a GNU can be managed. 

 

The IGR dimension of the GNU will depend on the quality of the c-suite each political party and jurisdiction advances to close transactions of and about service delivery. It is a known fact that ANC public service and sector c-suite 'cadres' have mastered the art of knowing what is to be done and dismally underperforming with regards to 'how it should be done'. In the details of 'the Bobejaan spanner', the opposition complex has concentrated its c-suite capability. What the opposition complex has been arguing since the election results were announced is to advance their purpose of developing a coalition to establish a base that will legitimise their ideas and provide a platform to push the ideas through the state. Their strongest currency is the credibility conferred onto them as an alternative. 

 

It is crucial not to overlook the profound impact of the arrangement on local government coalition configurations. The ANC's historical structuring of state power did not anticipate another party sharing the same power. Whatever the outcome of the deadlock, the opposition complex is poised to emerge victorious. IGR and non-state sector collaboration will be the co-occurring conditions necessary to shift day-to-day decision-making into the hands of an emerging c-suite community that deployees must adapt to. 

 

The importance of leveraging intergovernmental relations to serve national interests and RSA's global competitiveness strategy, rather than the other way around, has become apparent with the GNU. The truth is that professional opportunities to develop intergovernmental prowess are not just beneficial but essential. They attract implementation-driven talent and executives. Conversely, lacking these opportunities can lead to high turnover and create a breeding ground for incompetence. The political maturity required to navigate the new IGR context is not a luxury, it's a necessity. It doesn’t develop accidentally, nor is it the result of a quick fix. Rather, such maturity is achieved through commitment, investment, and leadership. An urgent masterclass on IGR is compulsory for incumbents to thrive. The core assumptions of state power as it was in 2024 have drastically changed, power is diffused, and a new breed of leadership is required to take RSA forward. We need more political maturity than what is in stock. CUT!!!

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