Mogajane: SA heading for failing state
Treasury DG tells top officials and politicians to ‘do your jobs’
● SA is showing the signs of a failing state more common in countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia, says National Treasury directorgeneral Dondo Mogajane.
Most South African townships are slums and informal settlements randomly spiral out of control, Mogajane told a conference organised by professional services firm Deloitte to unpack the budget unveiled by finance minister Enoch Godongwana two weeks ago.
Mogajane said senior public servants and politicians need “to get off your high horse and do what we have to do to ensure we create access and a conducive environment for people’s lives to change”.
“If that’s not going to be a motivating factor, we can start calling South Africa a failing state because the things that define a failing state are beginning to show, where we don’t care about the poor and improving their lives.”
Mogajane warned that the budget and the economic estimates that underpinned it may be distorted as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has already seen a spike in the price of oil.
He said SA needs to implement its reform agenda and improve economic performance to avoid a worsening economic and social situation.
South African Revenue Service commissioner Edward Kieswetter said a strong public administration was necessary to boost economic performance.
Kieswetter shared similar sentiments to Mogajane about the failures of public administration and how they hamper economic and social development.
“Leaders should be taking their work seriously instead of taking themselves seriously. There is a saying that China works because of the government and India works in spite of the government. We are edging closer to being a place where things work in spite of the government,” he said.
Political analyst Sithembile Mbete said SA’s public service delivery failure is demonstrated by the reliance of those who have the means on the private sector for basic services such as health.
“South Africa does not have a money problem. It has an administration problem.”
Mbete said some of the problems are basic and cut across key sectors like public health, which are “falling apart despite remarkable people working there”.
“Nobody knows where this paper that you have filled in goes ... you go to home affairs and you don’t know where that paper goes. The problems facing this country are that basic.”
Deloitte CEO-designate Ruwayda Redfearn said Godongwana’s maiden budget speech was “very positive”, although there were worrying signs.
“The one aspect of the budget that should have us worried, though, one that should give all of us as executives, business and political leaders sleepless nights, is the minister’s assertion that over the next three years South Africa’s economic growth will average less than 2% — around the 1.8% mark,” she said.
“We know that this is inadequate to address our country’s challenges or to meet all of our population’s needs.”
Economist Thabi Leoka said increasing internet access through the release of spectrum would help to create jobs and speed up economic growth.
She said that 50% of the population receiving some form of a government social grant is a problem and suggested that shortterm solutions are preferred over lasting ones.
Municipalities are enablers of growth but are overwhelmingly dysfunctional, she said.
“Only 5% of municipalities are financially sound, 62% of municipal workers cannot use a computer, 65% of municipalities are dysfunctional. How do you expect growth in that environment?”
Instead of removing obstacles to growth, the government opted to “pacify” the problem by doling out more social grants.
“The problems are in our faces but the solutions are elsewhere,” Leoka said.