By Thabo Rapoo
Introduction
A remarkable feature of the 2009 general elections in South Africa is the absence of robust public debates among political parties about the country’s system of provincial government and its future. Since the dawn of democracy and the inception of the multi-level system of government in 1994, the country’s system of provincial government has always evoked intense and passionate party political confrontations, especially at election times, usually triggered by policy initiatives from the ruling party to change key aspects of the system such as the appointment of provincial premiers by the president or the assignment of some of the powers and functions of the provinces to the local sphere of government. These political controversies were a key sign of how important the provincial system of government was to the body politic of this country in general and the political leaders in particular. The fact that since the start of election campaigning for this year’s election the provinces have not featured prominently as an election issue is an ominous sign that could foretell the impending marginalisation of the provinces as political entities under the forthcoming African National Congress (ANC) government.
From idealism to pragmatism
During these early years the public policy disagreements among the major political parties about the provincial system of government in South Africa were characterised by intensely ideological and often dogmatic party positions, predominantly concerned with normative discussions about how the political and functional powers ought to be shared between the provincial and national spheres of government to ensure the balance of power between the two. Initially, the adequacy of the powers, functions and responsibilities as well as the funding and political autonomy of the provinces were the key preoccupations of many political parties. This preoccupation was the key defining issue that characterised public debates among the political parties during the 1994 and 1999 general elections in South Africa. Those pro-federal political parties such as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the erstwhile National Party (NP), objecting to provinces being constitutionally and politically weak and therefore subordinate to central government, demanded more powers and functions for the provinces, while others, particularly the ruling ANC, preferred a stronger and more dominant central government.
In subsequent years and subsequent general elections though, the debates and issues of concern have become broader, wider and more complex, focussing greater attention on other important areas such as the functioning and efficiency of the system in practice. The institutional capacity of the provinces to utilise these powers and functions, and the impact achieved became as important if not more crucial than the quantity and content of these powers and responsibilities. Questions such as the design and proper functioning of provincial government institutions, the functional relations not only with the national but also with the local governments, the problems of administrative and policy capacity, efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery have come to occupy centre stage in subsequent years. South Africa’s provinces, together with local government, have become the primary means for the country to deliver services to millions of impoverished communities throughout the country. Over 70% of the country’s budget is spent by the provinces and the municipalities to implement national and sub-national social policy programmes. This has brought to the fore a different set of problems for political leaders. Problems such as corruption, mismanagement of public resources, lack of key skills and poor financial controls have become salient.
Also, the major political parties, including the ruling party, have gained greater experience, knowledge and understanding of the complex operational challenges of running the system of provincial government. This has significantly tampered the normative and dogmatic idealism that had characterised the early controversies and exchanges among the major political parties. Many parties have become pragmatic in their approach to the issues concerning provincial government in South Africa. The need to grapple with the practical problems of effective utilisation of existing powers and functions, and the administrative and resource allocation challenges of largely poor and rural provinces which lack independent sources of revenue have become more urgent than the quantity of the constitutional powers and functions allocated to the provinces. An important element in this seeming decline in the political importance of the provinces was the elevation of the local sphere of government as primary service delivery agencies following the reforms that were introduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The intention of these reforms was for the local sphere of government to evolve into a fully fledged democratic system with a mandate to carry out some of the service delivery responsibilities currently vested in the provinces. These include housing, health care and social welfare, in addition to other local government functions such as water, electricity and sanitation.
The pragmatism that has increasingly come to characterise the approach of the major political parties seems to have diffused the political tensions and passions that used to underpin debates about the system of provincial government in South Africa. However, this might also be an important indicator and milestone in the relentless decline of the political importance of the provinces as elected governments within the country’s body politic.
Recent Debates about provinces and service delivery
In the recent past, political leaders have made statements about the future of the system, but these statements were accompanied by none of the old and enduring political fury and vitriolic divisions of the past. For instance, in the early part of 2007, three national cabinet ministers made controversial public statements about the current system of provincial government in South Africa. Former Minister of Defence and current president of the newly opposition Congress of the People (COPE), Mosioua Lekota, finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sidney Mufamadi called for a reduction in the number of the provinces, currently nine, and a review of the current division of the powers and functions between the national government and the provinces. The stated rationale underlying these calls was that this would enhance the ability of the national government to set the policy agenda and guarantee that national policies and programmes would be implemented in line with the dictates of the national government. However, the key underlying motive here was that the central government sought to further reassert its dominant position over the provinces, a dominant position which is already guaranteed in the current constitution.
The responses of the major opposition parties to this attempt to reassert the dominance of central government was uncoordinated at best and muted at worst, with the official Democratic Alliance perceiving this move as an attempt by the ruling party to gerrymander it out of prospects for power in the Western Cape province. This response was not a principled defence of the rights of the provincial system of government in South Africa. While the major opposition political parties do believe, at least rhetorically, that the provinces still serve an important political and administrative role within the current political dispensation , none of them were as vocal in defence of the rights of the provinces as is usually the case in other countries such as Germany, Australia and Canada. The danger of this waning or declining intensity of party political disagreements over the country’s system of provincial government is that it will leave the way clear for the ruling party, together with bureaucrats in government, to shape and change the current system unhindered. In fact the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) has already initiated a policy review process (in 2007) in a clear attempt to do just that. While officially this policy review is aimed at reviewing the performance of both the local and provincial governments in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency as service delivery agents, the thrust of the policy document and the slant of questions posed therein are such that they leave no doubt as to the underlying motive to seriously diminish the constitutional and political status of the current provincial system of government in South Africa, if not abolish the system. It is significant that the policy review process was initiated a few months after the pronouncements of the three cabinet ministers.
It is clear that the underlying intention of the government and in particular the DPLG is to leave the local government as the primary sphere of government responsible for implementing national policies and delivering basic services to communities on the ground. This is despite the widely acknowledged institutional and structural weaknesses at local government level which have sparked widespread and violent community protests against poor quality services throughout the country over the past three to four years. The primary motive for this clearly political. The ruling ANC has historically been unreceptive to the idea of a sphere of government with significant political powers to countervail those of the national sphere.
A recent study of the views of seven major political parties in the country found a tendency amongst the majority of them to perceive and hold the service delivery, administrative and policy implementation function of the provinces as more important than their political, democratic representative functions. Perhaps this, combined with the fact that the municipalities are also fully elected democratic entities with fully fledged democratic representational functions in addition to their service delivery mandate, is one of the key factors accounting for the declining importance of the provinces. The difference in respect of the local sphere of government is that constitutionally it presents no rivalry or political threat to the authority and dominance of the centre. It would seem therefore that the status of the provinces as elected political entities with a democratic representational role within the country’s body politic holds no political value than their administrative and policy implementation functions. This is because service delivery has come to occupy centre stage for government and political leaders. This implies therefore that for the provinces to retain their importance in the eyes of policy makers and political leaders, they would have to demonstrate continued relevance, effectiveness and indispensability as administrative and service delivery agencies. In this, however, they have to compete with local government.
Election 2009 and the place Provinces in Party Political Campaigns
The saving grace for the provinces, for now, is that the ruling ANC appears hopelessly divided and therefore clueless as to what to do with these entities. The root of the dilemma for the ruling party is that the nine provinces serve as crucial sources of patronage for party functionaries who are routinely ‘deployed’ to serve in the numerous political and administrative structures of these entities. Therefore, while the ruling party sees not much value in provinces elected democratic governments in their own right, abolition of the provinces is not an easy option as it holds potentially dire political consequences for the party. On the other hand though, the opposition parties are politically and electorally weak and in no position to convince or bargain with the ruling party to adopt some of their proposals for reforming and strengthening the provinces. This is an important factor in explaining the absence of debates about the future or performance effectiveness of provinces in the current election campaign. There is barely a mentioning of issues or problems of specific relevance and importance to the provinces even in their capacity as service delivery agents, despite the fact that service delivery is a major and defining theme of the 2009 elections in South Africa. For instance a quick glance through the manifestos of eight major political parties* contesting this year’s general elections shows that only the official opposition Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party made effort to refer to the notion of ‘federalism’, and articulate the importance of the provinces as democratic entities in the country’s political system. However, the two parties have not raised these issues in public debates during this election.
This near total eclipse of debates on the country’s provincial system has not occurred in previous elections and should therefore be seen as an ominous sign of their impending marginalisation. In fact during the early part of its election campaign, the ruling ANC has made a key proposal that holds potentially negative implications for the provinces. The ANC is mulling over the establishment of a Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Commission to focus attention on service delivery. The Commission is to be located inside the office of the president. This means that delivery of basic services will become the central plank for the new government, and that the management of the administration of policy implementation and delivery of social services will be driven from the centre, inside the office of the president of the country, thus restricting the scope for provincial political decision-making relating to regional priorities in policy implementation. In this broader context, the importance of the provinces as elected political entities serving a democratic representational role has become less important.
The looming marginalisation of the provinces signals the passing of an era. Since 1994 the provinces have served as a symbol of post-apartheid political consensus and compromise between demands for centralised political power at national level against the need to counteract that power at sub-national level.
Thabo Rapoo is Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Studies.
Notes:
* The African National Congress; Democratic Alliance; Inkatha Freedom Party; Congress of the People; United Democratic Movement; Independent Democrats; United Christian Democratic Party and African Christian Democratic Party.