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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