South Africa is battling a “political economy of inefficiency” and a culture of “democratised corruption”. These are phrases Public Service Commission chair Somadoda Fikeni hauled out at the Madlanga commission of inquiry on Friday to describe the state of affairs in the country.
Basically, the state has been intentionally repurposed to promote inefficiency, enabling an entire ecosystem of corruption to flourish in the provision of services. It’s a systemic crisis that afflicts the criminal justice system too.
What Fikeni showed is that the state capture that took root under former president Jacob Zuma filtered down to all levels of the government and has now taken on a life of its own, morphing into a culture of box-ticking and cynical compliance by administrators that has led to a collapse in services and governance as a whole.
His testimony was alarming. Fikeni said South Africa has become a “cemetery of policies”, with the country hiring expensive consultants and putting in place wonderful policies, only for them to lie unimplemented until they are forgotten.
To see inefficiency in action, consider that South Africa often sends larger delegations to conferences abroad than the US and China, the world’s largest economies, combined. Worse, these sprawling delegations are not briefed on the intended outcome for the government, implying they attend with no particular purpose in mind. In fact, travel and related allowances are used as an additional stream of income by public servants.
The same applies to overtime: some public servants disappear during the day and clock in at the very hour they are meant to begin earning overtime.
Fikeni provided an example which, given recent protests over migration, hits particularly hard. He said the newly established Border Management Authority (BMA) needs about 80 drones to patrol the country’s borders. It was provided with just four due to “resource constraints”.
Meanwhile, the department of rural development, which returned about R5bn to the National Treasury unspent, has in its possession 80 drones of the exact specifications required by the BMA — and they’re sitting idle in a warehouse.
This, Fikeni noted, is emblematic of the “political economy of inefficiency”.
Theory in practice
It’s easy to see evidence of Fikeni’s theoretical framing in every other sphere of government.
Take the Northern Cape. In August, a string of MECs resigned from the provincial government, which has been described as a government in crisis. Public works MEC Fufe Makatong led the charge, complaining that premier Zamani Saul was interfering in her department. More MECs tendered their resignations in protest.
While succession battles and political machinations were cited as reasons for the fallout (and likely contributed to it), what wasn’t interrogated was Makatong’s performance. It is understood, for example, that the provincial leadership had questioned seven school construction projects worth about R900m that were handed to the public works department for implementation about five years ago. However, the projects have been delayed; each is behind by about two years, with cost overruns of about R200m.
The public works department was also responsible for the construction of a nursing college. That started about three years ago, but the Special Investigating Unit flagged a problem: construction stalled almost a year ago and the site was abandoned, with work only partially done.
It is understood that the pattern mirrors that of other health facilities constructed in the province. About R300m was budgeted for a mental health hospital under the same department, but the cost ballooned to R1.2bn after considerable delays.
It looks as though what was meant to be accountable governance by Saul and the provincial leadership spiralled into a factional fight in the ANC, with the premier hauled in front of officials at Luthuli House for trying to exercise oversight over projects with spiralling costs, undue delays and fruitless and wasteful spending.
It is unclear how the national officials responded to Saul over the impasse, but what is clear is that senior ANC national executive committee members sided with a seemingly errant MEC over attempts to hold her accountable.
In the final analysis, the seven schools and the nursing college remain a pipe dream, despite the R300m already spent on the former and the R150m spent on the latter.
So much for efficient governance.
Fikeni’s sober analysis of inefficiency explains yet more. In particular, why a five-year-old recommendation by the Zondo commission that could significantly bolster the criminal justice system — granting administrative independence to the National Prosecuting Authority — remains exactly nowhere.
Yes, we have a rock star prosecutions boss in Andy Mothibi, but successive justice ministers, including Ronald Lamola and incumbent Mmamoloko Kubayi, have failed to push through this crucial reform, perfecting the art of looking busy while doing nothing.
The “political economy of inefficiency” is alive and kicking — which essentially means governance in South Africa has all but collapsed.
Marrian is a political analyst with the Bureau for Economic Research
