It’s a potholed road to coalition government

Coalitions can be a hindrance to service delivery. Electoral reforms are proposed to improve leadership. The main issue is that we should be able to hold leaders directly accountable, writes Sibongakonke Shoba

On the weekend in which the Springboks won their fourth Rugby World Cup, sending the entire country into a state of ecstasy, a group of South Africans travelled to the tranquillity of the Drakensberg for a heavy dialogue about the country’s immediate future.

The beautiful scenery of Cathkin Park is spoiled only by its bumpy roads. The truly humongous potholes on the R600 Spioenkop road to Winterton are testimony to many years of neglect, an indication of yet another failing local government.

Many delegates attending the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation’s Inclusive Growth Forum at the Champagne Sports Resort would have experienced those potholes and, hopefully, they served as a reminder to urgently turn such gatherings from talk-shops into platforms for meaningful action to rescue South Africa from its governance crisis.

The annual gathering brings together the country’s thought leaders, business, politicians and civil society.

The tone for this year’s edition was set by finance minister Enoch Godongwana, who drove the point home about the trouble many of our municipalities find themselves in by relating a story of a phone call he received from the Buffalo City metro mayor early this year.

Mayor Princess Faku called the minister asking for his support for the city’s bid to create a metro police department for East London and surrounding areas.

Where would the money come from to pay the salaries of the new metro cops, the minister asked. Faku assured him the metro would be able to “over-collect” revenue this financial year.

“I said collect the revenue first and then employ them. She disappeared. She came [back], beginning of the month now, and she says, ‘Minister, by the way, I need some advance from my equitable share.’

“I said, ‘If you had employed the metro police what would have happened now?’”

The story reflected the state of governance at almost all levels, where too many elected officials have ambitions to introduce new programmes without knowing where the money will come from.

This kind of abysmal leadership, along with the many failures of government and the country’s economy, were the reasons why the country’s top minds were gathered in the Drakensberg. On the agenda were the power crisis, the dire situation of the economy, trade, coalition government and education.

Godongwana’s speech and presentations from auditorgeneral Tsakani Maluleke and statistician-general Risenga Maluleke painted a scary picture of the country and its future. The auditor Maluleke reminded us of how the government fails to account for how our hard-earned monies are spent, while Maluleke the statistician told us the country’s population is sinking deeper into poverty. Prof Sithembile Mbete spoke of the importance of job creation to resolve the crime problem, which is getting out of control. All gloomy subjects.

But ANC policy guru Joel Netshitenzhe said there were some positives, such as business showing signs of wanting to get involved in finding solutions.

“Business has put shoulder to the wheel to help address problems in electricity, logistics and crime. I’m personally convinced that these interventions and multiple reforms that have been introduced are steadily but surely raising the country’s growth trajectory ... Otherwise we would have experienced negative economic growth,” he said.

However, with general elections now around the corner, some delegates were already looking past the current administration for solutions. The prevailing sentiment, even among delegates who have been associated with the ANC in the past, was that much of the crisis the country finds itself in is of the government’s own making.

The likes of academic and Sunday Times columnist Prof William Gumede suggested that a coalition government could be the first step towards salvation. Summing up the discussions on the last day of the gathering, Gumede said that when the forum is held next year it is possible that a new, more competent and accountable coalition government will be in place.

But how much of a solution are coalition governments? The turmoil that has engulfed hung municipalities in Tshwane, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay metro shows that coalition governments can hinder service delivery.

At the Drakensberg gathering, much of the focus was on whether coalition governments can be run better. A multiparty summit convened by Deputy President Paul Mashatile in July looked at possible reforms. Among the proposals were the development of a framework setting out the rules of how coalitions can be formed, making public the agreements reached between coalition partners and introducing a threshold for political parties to participate in legislatures and executives.

These proposals may guide the formation of a government — but they don’t guarantee that it will be accountable and serve citizens.

What we really need, as articulated at the forum by former Gauteng premier and ANC national executive committee member David Makhura, is to return power to the electorate. This can be done, after next year’s elections, by further amending the Electoral Act to allow citizens to directly elect the president, premiers and mayors.

The main reason the mayor of Johannesburg is an unknown personality from an obscure political party is not only because we have not set up clear rules of engagement for coalition governments, but because our electoral system gives too much power to political parties to decide our future through horse-trading in dark and smoke-filled rooms.

A direct election of a head of government — president, premier or mayor — would take away such power from political parties and save us the prospects of having a Kabelo Gwamanda as a head of state accountable only to those who struck the deal to have him at the helm.

If we are going to be able to hold those who lead government at all levels accountable, we need them to be directly elected. Only then can we stand a real chance of having the Spioenkop road, and many other regional roads like it, fixed.

Our electoral system gives too much power to political parties to decide our future through horse-trading in dark, smoke-filled rooms