The Zuma Administration Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za The Zuma Administration Critical Challenges Edited by Kwandiwe Kondlo & Mashupye H Maserumule Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za First published 2010 ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2316-5 ISBN (pdf) 978-0-7969-2317-2 ISBN (epub) 978-0-7969-2318-9 © 2010 Human Sciences Research Council Copyedited by Jacquie Withers Typeset by Simon van Gend Printed by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver Tel: +27 (0) 21 701 4477; Fax: +27 (0) 21 701 7302 www.oneworldbooks.com Distributed in Europe and the United Kingdom by Eurospan Distribution Services (EDS) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7240 0856; Fax: +44 (0) 20 7379 0609 www.eurospanbookstore.com Distributed in North America by Independent Publishers Group (IPG) Call toll-free: (800) 888 4741; Fax: +1 (312) 337 5985 www.ipgbook.com Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Contents Preface v Abbreviations and acronyms vii 1 Introduction: political and governance challenges 1 Kwandiwe Kondlo 2 Consolidating a developmental state agenda: a governance challenge 15 Mashupye H Maserumule 3 Rural development under a ‘developmental state’: analysing the policy shift on agrarian transformation in South Africa 51 Gilingwe Mayende 4 Public service delivery issues in question 77 Modimowabarwa H Kanyane 5 Governmental relations in a maturing South African democracy 95 David M Mello 6 Socio-economic development and poverty reduction in South Africa 107 Polly Mashigo Contributors 145 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za | vii This book examines the challenges accompanying the transformation of the political economy and society of South Africa since 1994 – which now present challenges and prospects for the new administration that took office in May 2009 under the leadership of Jacob Zuma. The book provides interpretation, critique and fresh perspectives on political and administrative dynamics since the birth of democracy in 1994, to the era of the Mbeki administration (1999–2008), and then to the transition to the Zuma administration. That transition was led by the now deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, who provided ‘stop-gap’ presidency from September 2008 until the new president, Zuma, was sworn into office in May 2009. The Mbeki administration, which did not run its full term due to the ‘recalling’ of the president by the governing party, provides an important context for the debates on the developmental state, governance, service delivery and intergovernmental co-operation covered in the various chapters. Chapter 1 introduces and contextualises the analysis and discussions advanced in the other chapters of the volume. It begins by examining macro-political and governance challenges facing young democracies in the world and narrows down to an analysis of the situation in southern and South Africa. The challenges facing the Zuma administration are therefore located in a wider international and continental context. The challenges of building a developmental state in South Africa and delivering on the promise of land reform, agrarian transformation and rural development, are all located within the international and continental context of challenges facing democracy and state capacity to deliver public goods (the latter including, for example, safety and security, employment opportunities, housing, the rule of law, healthcare and so on). These challenges are amplified in the sections that deal with service delivery, intergovernmental relations and poverty reduction. The issue of incoherence between traditional, informal and formal institutions as well as the constraints presented by this to the overall nation- building project are carefully explored and examined. To write a book that deals with challenges and prospects for the Zuma administration is a difficult enterprise not only because of the vastness and complexity of the subject but also because of the difficulties in finding the right register with which to convey the complexity; there are diverse issues to cover, some of which may not yet be ripe for scholarly synopsis. The book necessarily leaves out many important topics, including the very important historical questions of nation state formation, and how the state has worked to define the meaning of being ‘South African’ and in so doing constructed an identity for itself. Nevertheless, the book focuses on a few selected topics, which are key to the mandate and agenda of the new administration. Prominent among them are the issues of the developmental state, rural development, socio-economic development, and service delivery. As captured by Mark Gevisser in an essay commissioned for the Mail & Guardian (19 December 2008–8 January 2009), some of the fundamental questions about the challenges of the Zuma administration that dominate in the public intellectual discourse, in this interesting era in the history of South Africa, are as follows: how will the Zuma administration ensure continuity while at the same time effecting ‘some sharp and much-needed changes’ in the country’s political, economic, social and public administration landscape? Will the Zuma administration be able to ‘steer economic policy through the straits of an international economic crisis while still meeting the needs of an increasingly expectant’ Preface Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za viii | populace? These questions necessitate rigorous intellectual engagement. It is in this context that it was deemed necessary to put together multidisciplinary perspectives – in the form of this volume – to deal with some of the questions raised as part of the public debate on the challenges facing the Zuma administration. The book projects views into the future and explores the nature and scope of both the challenges and the prospects for the Zuma administration, with the intention of enhancing the intellectual depth and value of the debates on the subject. This collection of different perspectives, seeks to stir up debate; it is not concerned with building consensus, but rather with stimulating thinking, challenging entrenched views and perceptions and breaking new ground. A note on government departments The advent of the Zuma administration ushered in new and renamed government ministries and departments, as follows: Former New Department of Agriculture Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department of Land Aairs Department of Rural Development and Land Reform Department of Provincial and Local Government Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Aairs Department of Housing Department of Human Settlement Department of Water Aairs and Forestry Department of Water and Environmental Aairs Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za | ix ANC African National Congress ANCWL African National Congress Women’s League ANCYL African National Congress Youth League ASD alternative service delivery ASGISA Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa BEE black economic empowerment C10 African Committee of 10 CBO community-based organisation COPE Congress of the People COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions DFI development funding institution DLA Department of Land Affairs DoA Department of Agriculture DPW Department of Public Works DTI Department of Trade and Industry EPWP Extended Public Works Programme GDP gross domestic product GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy GFOA Government Finance Officers Association IDP Integrated Development Planning IMF International Monetary Fund ISRDP Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme LRAD Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development MDG Millennium Development Goal MEC Member of the Executive Council MINMEC [Committee of] Ministers and Members of the Executive Council MPCC multi-purpose community centre NDR national democratic revolution NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development NGO non-governmental organisation PALAMA Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy PFMA Public Finance Management Act PPP public–private partnership PSC Public Service Commission RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme SACP South African Communist Party SAMDI South African Management Development Institute SMME small, medium and micro enterprise SSDM shared service delivery model UN United Nations US United States USA United States of America YCL Young Communist League Abbreviations and acronyms Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za [...]... the shadows of the two preceding eras; the realities created by the politics and governance strategies of those periods are a foundation for the new administration In other words, the fact is that, for the Zuma administration, the past will always tend to weigh heavily on the present; and shifting the realities created by past administrations is going to be a formidable challenge The dominance of the. .. by continuities with the past The same analogy can be used to describe the situation of post-1994 democratic administrations It is argued here that the Zuma administration lives in three histories at the same time: the history of the Mandela administration, the subsequent realities created by the administration of former president Thabo Mbeki and, lastly, its own realities The new administration obviously... such by the Alliance Left, which now exerts more influence within the ANC and, inevitably, within the Zuma administration This presents a political and ideological conundrum for the Zuma administration: on the one hand, much of the thinking within the ANC emphasises continuity, whereas on the other the Alliance Left propagates changes whose tenor suggests a fundamental shift from the Mbeki administration s... urban centres, is a challenge to the Zuma administration Perhaps there is a need, at this point, to frame the wider theoretical and political context Among the key questions one needs to ask, as a starting point, is the following: what are the key political and governance challenges facing democracies in the world today? The question is pertinent to a 2 | The Zuma administration: critical challenges... chapter, indicates that the ANC government, during the Mbeki administration, scored significant achievements in some areas while failing dismally in others in the pursuit of a developmental state agenda The Zuma administration is expected to consolidate the achievements of the Mbeki administration and correct its failures, while at the same time effecting the much needed changes for which the South African... not – in the same way that the invasion of ‘being’ by ‘non-being’ occurs in the coming into ‘being’ (Kierkegaard 2009) Yet there is hope even beyond the promise of utopia At the heart of Zuma s victory is the promise of and hope for improved service delivery to the masses of the poor; the hope to have the voices of ordinary people heard in more meaningful ways than before in the governance of the country;... challenge for the Zuma administration And the fundamental question is whether it is possible to establish and consolidate a developmental state agenda premised on the imperative of the redistributive socio-economic approach to transformation, without changing the market-based stabilisation policies of the Mbeki administration. 7 To provide a context for analysis of the challenge that the Zuma administration. .. unite the ‘motive forces’ around the NDR and focus them in one direction It was in the context of the contestations that GEAR engendered in the Tripartite Alliance that the Mbeki administration had to carve its strategic niche in the pursuit of a developmental state The ANC’s preoccupation during the Mandela administration had been on putting in place the organisational and policy framework to address the. .. administrations This will arise from the challenge of balancing legitimacy with effectiveness in the governance of the country The popular expectations and demands for improved delivery on the part of the state are a demand for effectiveness; without effectiveness, the legitimacy of the Zuma administration stands to decline With declining legitimacy, the new administration will further lose effectiveness; and... him, the Alliance Left has found a voice that Mbeki obscurantism had vehemently condemned as ultra-Leftist So, to the Alliance Left, the rise of Zuma to the presidency of the ANC, coupled with the dramatic events of September 2008 [that] saw Mbeki [recalled] and several key ministers resign’ and the victory of the ANC in the 2009 general elections, with Zuma assuming the presidential leadership of the . dynamics since the birth of democracy in 1994, to the era of the Mbeki administration (1999–2008), and then to the transition to the Zuma administration. . into the future and explores the nature and scope of both the challenges and the prospects for the Zuma administration, with the intention of enhancing the