2 February 2010
President
Obama’s supporters are watching with dismay as his ratings decline from 65%
last year, to below 50% to date, and on some issues 42%. His State of the Union
address on the 27th January 2010 is described by the Economist, a
paper that endorsed his presidency, as “a waste of a podium”. A political
analyst on CNN Fareed Zakariah’s programme uttered a remark all politicians
should heed: “Obama mobilized the nation to get himself elected; Obama has yet
to mobilize the nation to help him govern.”
These sage
words capture the essence of democracy. It is only through partnerships,
conversations and compacts with the electorate that governments can govern
well.
Representative democracy is deeply flawed when governments assume that
they speak on behalf of the masses all the time. In a true democracy mechanisms
need to be found to ensure that government communicates with the public all the
time.
The ANC
government clearly needs the help of the many experts, visionary public officials,
specialized organizations and NGOs to help it tackle the myriad of problems
that plague South African society. Politicians undertake expensive jamborees to
China, India, Europe and America to learn from them while many of the experts
and solutions are on our doorstep.
The
Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust, of which I am Executive Director, rewards
innovations in public service delivery. Every year we submit some of our
award-winning projects to the United Nations and Dubai for their Public Service
Excellence Awards and every year South Africa wins. These range from housing,
sanitation and waste management, healthcare, environment and climate change to
the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Our database includes projects that have found
solutions to the maths, science and technology deficits in the country. Projects
that excel in skills training to boost the numbers in nursing and rural doctors
exist. A myriad of housing settlements that have explored building social
capital in communities by including residents in the planning and design of
housing abounds. Sanitation models of excellence exist all over the place, in
spite of the thousands of protests around the inadequate provision of
sanitation services. The problem is – government relies far too much on foreign
donors and non-government organizations to pay for initiatives that should come
from government, given the dearth of revenue generation at the local level.
Impumelelo
has been in existence for ten years now and it has an extensive database of
best practice that it would gladly share with government. Last year I
approached the secretariat and the Head of the Portfolio Committee on Public
Service requesting that Impumelelo make submissions and presentations to it in
order to assist government with forging partnerships with the right
organizations and expertise to help it solve the problems about which so many
service delivery protests are about. The Portfolio secretariat responded with
enthusiasm, but suddenly the invitation fell off the table and after many
inquiries, we are still waiting. There is an unwillingness to learn and lots of
money are wasted on reinventing the wheel.
To come back
to Obama, leaders fail when they take their eye off the ball. South Africa is
awash with scandals at the moment. The Minister of Communication, Siphiwe
Nyanda, is brazenly involved in huge conflicts of interest in businesses
related to his portfolio, as reported in the recent Mail and Guardian; Siyabonga
Cwele, the Minister of State Security’s wife, is allegedly involved in a drug
ring; and our President Zuma is unashamedly redistributing his sperm equally
amongst the nation, giving substance to Marat De Sade’s alleged comment: “what
is a revolution without copulation” and Dire Straits’ – “money for nothing and
chicks for free.”
Who governs
when all these intrigues are taking place? Why do we South Africans put up with
this? Unlike us, Americans are not loyal to any government no matter whether
they voted for them overwhelmingly or not. If the Democratic government does not serve their interests,
Americans vote resoundingly with their feet as they demonstrated in
Massachusetts, a seat held by Ted Kennedy for forty years.
As one of my
loyal ANC friends said yesterday: I now draw a line. I work hard so that these
people can steal millions. Enough is enough!
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