Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - September 30, 2004
Confronted by the Mail & Guardian with serious allegations against provincial minister Angie Motshekga, Gauteng has acted quickly, ordering a set of investigations into reports that she unfairly privileged an empowerment trust started by her husband and staffed by various family members. The provincial government may, of course, still duck the issue - but given its impressive leadership record on many fronts, including the regional economy, HIV/Aids and corruption, there are good grounds for thinking it will do its duty.
By contrast, the ongoing failures of political leadership in the Free State and Eastern Cape have made festering sores of those provinces. Grassroots rebellion by impatient communities appears to be spreading in the Free State - one reason being that councillors are so busy fighting entrenched political battles that they have forgotten that they were elected to deliver material improvements in voters' lives.
In the Eastern Cape, factional conflict in the ruling alliance appears to be intensifying under the premiership of Nosimo Balindlela. While the premier has drawn praise for her no-nonsense style, pre-dawn Cabinet meetings and stated aim of lighting a sorely-needed firecracker under a lackadaisical administration, her job spec also requires her to be a deft political manager. The jury is out on her political skills. Axing provincial finance minister Enoch Godongwana and his director general Monde Tom, without a convincing explanation and while leaving in office her controversial agriculture minister, Max Mamase, was not good politics. Mamase has ridden roughshod over a raft of provincial regulations, allegedly to push through an empowerment deal that appears to favour him.
In addition, the premier has used a Nat appointee in her Cabinet - viewed as an outsider - to fire members of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation board, provoking another storm.
The interminably troubled Eastern Cape looks set for another round of damaging factional turbulence. An African National Congress document, reported in the M&G this week, suggests the tripartite alliance in the province is in danger of fragmenting.
Gauteng has its share of socio-economic and political problems, but provincial Premier Mbhazima Shilowa has run a generally decent administration with a development agenda. By standing above factional strife, Shilowa has played an important role in healing the divisions that paralysed the administration of his predecessor, Mathole Motshekga. Because it is politically cohesive, the Gauteng ANC has had the confidence to tackle internal misconduct, and to push ahead with an HIV/Aids treatment plan when less secure provinces waited for the green light from an ambivalent national minister.
At every level of government, but particularly the provinces and municipalities, there is an urgent need to turn action into words. President Thabo Mbeki may win plaudits for castigating errant councillors at a South African Local Government Association meeting this week - but remedial action cannot stop there. The message of the Free State's popular upheavals is that social distance between rulers and the ruled is growing, and that a patient populace is showing the first signs of restiveness.
Stop the meltdown!
There is a certain macabre symbolism to the fiery destruction of the old Wanderers clubhouse in Johannesburg this week. Facing a hair-raising schedule of India away, England at home and a resurgent West Indies in the Caribbean, South African cricket as a whole seems to be melting down.
It is not just that the national side lost a Test for the first time in New Zealand, was steamrollered in both Tests and one-day internationals in Sri Lanka and has lost 10 of its last 11 one-dayers (the exception being Bangladesh). There seems to be a crisis of morale, particularly among senior players - it is rumoured that the junior members met in Sri Lanka to discuss how to motivate their more experienced counterparts. More ominous is the failure of the development, club and provincial systems to produce world-class contenders. There is simply not enough competition for places in the national squad.
Blaming transformation for the slump misses the mark - South Africa is not producing enough white or black players of quality. No new-ball specialist, black or white, has been found to partner Makhaya Ntini. A new generation of batsmen has not emerged to replace the likes of Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis. And, critically, there is no sign of the top-class spinner so desperately lacking in the post-isolation period.
In the longer run, structural change could help. Eleven provincial sides have served to dilute talent and undermine quality - a two-tier system is needed, with relegation and promotion. Development programmes need to target talent, as in Australia, rather than trying to bring the sport to the greatest possible number. There is an increasingly pressing case for fresh leadership at the United Cricket Board.But, in the immediate term, with disaster looming on the international front, the side has to rally round Graeme Smith's leadership and look to breaking the downward spiral of defeat and demoralisation by at least notching up one good win, and building on the forward momentum. The West Indies have shown that, with senior players stepping up to the plate and the team uniting round its leader, headlong decline can be halted.
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