Wishful thinking can never produce good public policy
Some ANC and government leaders appear to think that just issuing a public policy statement will miraculously translate into the successful implementation of it.
Policies are often based on aspirations, wishful thinking and ideology rather than on grinding reality, evidence and reason. Some policies are just outdated in a dramatically changed economic, technological and market environment. Old industries are increasingly disrupted by new technology, new business models and new environmental consciousness — yet in many cases policymakers proffer ancient, unsuited policies.
In many other cases corruption, incompetence and lawlessness by political, government and business leaders have destroyed the credibility of certain types of policies.
This is one of the main reasons there are so many policies, mostly irrelevant, and execution remains poor. This means that policies are often made on the hoof without there being the capacity to implement them, without the funds to pay for them, and simply the wrong solution for the problem.
Some of the policies clash with existing or parallel ones or are a repeat of previously failed ones. In the end, policies are not implemented, do not secure enough funds to make them deliverable and are rejected by the intended recipients.
Often policies are so poorly thought out they have to be thrown out after a lengthy passage in parliament. There have been a number of occasions when policies could not muster support because they were simply unconstitutional.
When new policies are cobbled together there seems to be rarely an exercise which costs the different potential outcomes: what it would cost to keep the same policy versus adopting a new policy. Neither is there any analysis of why previous policies failed. Furthermore, an analysis of the unintended consequences — costs, potential opposition to and so on — of adopting a new policy is also often not made.
Often policymakers in government have never worked in or understood the areas they formulate policies for — therefore coming up with policies that do more harm than good.
In some cases pre-1994 policies have been rejected just because they were associated with the apartheid era, without looking at their potential use in the democratic era.
The basis of successful implementation of policies is pragmatism, practicality and level-headedness. Successful policy implementation at the minimum needs an effective public service.
Public, stakeholder and citizen support for policies is crucial. Such support partly depends on the public viewing the state as having the credibility, trust and competence to implement such policies. Chronic mismanagement, waste and corruption have undermined this confidence in the government.
A couple of examples illustrate misguided policymaking by public statements.
The government wants to establish a National Health Insurance (NHI) Fund as a single purchaser and single payer of health-care services in the country, yet public hospitals are in dire straits and most current SOEs are dysfunctional and public income is in decline.
There appears, wrongly, to be the belief that a statement of intent to create an NHI Fund will miraculously fix public hospitals, make the new health SOEs exceptionally better managed than all the other failing ones — yet the health minister will appoint a CEO and board members, and out of nowhere bring new public revenue to fund it.
Many ANC leaders and members have been calling for tax increases to pay for public services, yet, as new Sars CEO Edward Kieswetter recently warned, high levels of corruption, mismanagement and waste have led to falling public trust in the government by individuals and companies.
“When public trust [in the government] wanes, as is the current case, then taxpayers feel morally justified to withhold or manipulate their taxes,” Kieswetter said.
Unless policymaking is based on reality, pragmatism and evidence, implementation will continue to fail.
Policies are made on the hoof without there being the capacity to implement them