What Mabuyane must fix
EARLIER this year I attended the annual state of the province address in Bhisho.
Every year before addressing hundreds of guests, the premier and MECs hold an early morning press briefing at the Good News Church hall to discuss the speech with the media.
The exercise is usually a useful one – that is once we all get over the shock of the peacock hats that typically form part of the day’s fashion extravaganza. This year’s was awkward. Provincial politics were fraught, the ANC wanted premier Phumulo Masualle and some of his MECs gone.
The tension between the two factions was palpable.
Many of the journalists in the briefing found Masualle’s speech to be stale and uninspiring.
And so we began poking the elephant in the room.
I asked the then MEC of finance and economic development, Sakhumzi Somyo, if he truly believed that he had done all he could have to grow the economy of this province.
“Do you believe, honestly, that you have been a trailblazer, making every effort to grow our economy and to ensure that the Eastern Cape is open for business?”
Yes, I was mindful that the subtext of that question was the suggestion that his days in office were numbered. But it wasn’t the point. The substantive issue remained. Just a week before that, Stats SA had told us that at least 30 000 jobs had been lost in the province in the last quarter of last year, making ours one of the worst job shedders in the country.
The figures were not uncommon.
They were simply the latest instalment in the tragic story of joblessness and despair that mark this province.
Clearly perturbed, Somyo went on the offensive.
“If you are really an economist you would understand that our economy is impacted by global factors that affect all countries.” The answer was both bizarre and disingenuous.
For one, you do not have to be an economist to understand that when the world sneezes, indeed us poor souls on the southern tip of Africa will catch the cold.
Equally, you do not need to be a genius to notice how this is often used as a convenient excuse when our politicians refuse to own up to how basic governance failures impact on economic growth.
The problem is always those damn Americans and not the lazy official in Bhisho who won’t pay contractors on time.
Somyo knew very well that my question was about his role as the political head of a department whose responsibility was to actively pursue growth opportunities and to create a conducive environment to do business progressively.
Nonetheless, he went on to explain that the provincial government had done much to boost the auto sector, attracting investments such as Chinese car maker BAIC, and further injections from Volkswagen SA and others.
After the briefing I went to ask him the same question, put differently.
How do they ensure that not only do new companies such as BAIC employ skilled young people, but that there was a pool of emerging entrepreneurs who could, as far as possible, be a sustainable part of the value chain of such investments?
He subsequently conceded that although the government habitually threw around pompous monetary figures as proof of its investment – my words, his sentiments – this did not always translate to significant and sustainable results on the ground.
There are myriad reasons for this, including corruption and a lack of technical capacity and so on. But here’s my point. Somyo’s response was not an isolated retort to an annoying journalist.
It was an expression of the problematic viewpoint shared by many leaders in this province.
It is the idea that we do not develop much because the odds are stacked up against us, either from external factors or because ours is a province with enormous structural deficiencies.
Of course this is not to suggest that these challenges do not exist or affect our growth.
It is obvious that they are the lived reality of the majority of the six million people who live here.
The point, however, is they will not be solved by a leadership that sets the bar so low as to measure its performance on pockets of excellence, rather than the pursuit of a system that works efficiently wherever it exists.
For example, in March we learnt that provincial government departments owed some R466-million to about 7 200 businesses for services rendered.
There was no convincing reason to explain why these companies were not paid on time.
By the ANC’s own admission, the impact of this on the sustainability of small companies and jobs is enormous.
Somyo’s successor, Oscar Mabuyane, who took office last month, has promised to inject new energy into public service.
In recent months he has spoken at length about the need for a capable state that is accessible and responsive.
In his meeting with his department staff last week Mabuyane said: “We are employed here to work and we will continue where my predecessor left off even if it means increasing the pace.
“We must make it a point that each day we change someone’s life.
“Let us have at least a 50% turnaround . . . meaning anything that was supposed to be done in two days, let us do it in one day.”
It’s a welcome narrative, but one that perhaps should be expected from an ANC chairman eager to pull the party from the credibility abyss of the last decade.
Mabuyane has the executive and political power needed to do this.
Sceptics believe his time in government will bring nothing new.
He has a year to, hopefully, prove them wrong and many low-hanging fruits to take advantage of.
What is needed, of course, is the will to lead, even in moments of great difficulty.