Gordhan’s basic truth

BACK to basics … three words that now form the spine of Pravin Gordhan’s plan to overhaul the country’s municipalities.

As minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, Gordhan has one of the more thankless portfolios.

Municipal service delivery has deteriorated as the ANC imperiously packed top posts with loyalists who may have had the party pedigree but in many cases lacked the simple know-how.

The results have been disastrous, and Gordhan wants to change that.

His view on the matter, while simple, is precisely what citizens have been beseeching government to do for years.

He believes the answer is to fix the little things. That means mending potholes, repairing streetlights, replacing broken water pipes, collecting refuse ... a typical basket of basic services for which we pay.

Strange to think that such elementary endeavours could be anything less than a priority in public service.

Yet, for the last five years the strategy for local government has been to shore up the annual audits. Unfortunately, the outcomes have fallen well short of expectations.

Disclaimers, unqualified reports and irregular expenditure have all entered the modern South African lexicon, denoting poor governance and lax controls.

At times it has seemed as though the yearly reporting season could plunge no lower than the one before.

So one can understand the infatuation with cleaning up the mess, on paper at least. The problem is that audits, even if they are unblemished, are only one way of ensuring good governance.

The switch in focus – Gordhan doesn’t appear to have abandoned the clean audit ambitions – should help to refocus energies where they matter most: on the ground.

To do that Gordhan, speaking this week at a Presidential Local Government Summit in Midrand, Johannesburg, aims to winkle out administrators and officials who lack the skills to advance his new agenda.

Without being explicit, Gordhan said municipal bosses would be pressured into sacking unqualified employees.

Hard-nosed talk from Gordhan, who, lest we forget, is still a politician, and the ANC’s linchpin leading up to the 2016 municipal elections.

Installing the former tax commissioner and treasury head in such an accursed ministry was a masterstroke by President Jacob Zuma, and indicative of the ANC’s concern for what are likely to be robust 2016 polls.

Gordhan carries a lofty legacy in this country. He has shown he has the capacity to juggle the policy demands of the ruling party with the pragmatism needed to move the bureaucracy forward.

So expect his tough talk to be backed up with action.

We, in the Eastern Cape, know how serious Gordhan is, with the appointment of administrators to the hapless municipalities of Makana and Inkwanca in recent weeks.

This installment of his political life does present a challenge to the man, however.

On the line is his near faultless reputation for getting things done

Perhaps Gordhan is above such vanity. Certainly, in any other hands, this exercise may have presented as grandeur, nothing more than cosmetics designed to garner votes.

But back to basics sounds Gordhanian. In two years time, we’ll know.