bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2017), p. 42
Edited by Robert I. Rotberg, CIGI Press, 2014, 312 pp, 14 essays, $25.00
THIS BOOK MOVES from overview pieces to essays dealing in greater depth with key challenges. Demographic change, education and youth merit three separate chapters, acknowledging their centrality to South Africa’s future. Unemployment, the plight of women and children, health, safety and security are also covered in detail. Each chapter calls for innovative reform.
Rotberg, Bernstein, Southall and Atwell set out South Africa’s overall governance challenges and the way in which important democratic institutions are being undermined. Two other chapters are of particular interest. University of Cape Town emeritus professor Chris Saunders’ essay on key aspects of the complex relationship between South Africa, the southern African region and the rest of Africa is an excellent tour d’horizon. And Anton Harber, respected South African editor and author, provides an assessment of the country’s fifth estate, noting media freedoms can be threatened by the ANC’s ‘Party-State.’
Ann Bernstein is the founder and executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), one of South A frica’s foremost think tanks. Her chapter focuses on economic issues: growth and unemployment including youth unemployment, labour market reform, welfare, competition, immigrants, access to education, teachers, and finally, South Africa’s private school systems. She concludes that South Africa requires a vision firmly focussed on the future. Hard choices need to be made; leaders in every sector must contribute; however, government has primary responsibility and is currently failing.
Roger Southall, professor emeritus in sociology at Wits University Johannesburg addresses politics and governance under the ANC. Southall acknowledges the difficult economic legacy that the ANC inherited, as well as its own liberation movement legacy. His main theme is the ANC as the dominant party and how this has impacted democracy: the subordination of Parliament, the merger of Party and State through the strategy of cadre deployment and subsequent threat to rule of law, including to the independent judiciary. The ‘party-state’ further facilitated the rise of corruption and criminality. He concludes that the ANC’s lack of capacity and political will to manage change may put democracy at risk.
William Atwell is an Africa Analyst at Oxford Analytica in the U.K. He covers the elements of South Africa’s environmental and resource governance crises: insufficient energy production, alarming diminution/degradation of water supplies; air pollution; land degradation; insufficient capacity to monitor, plan for and manage the country’s rich plant and animal life. His core theme is balancing the need for greater equity of access and use of these resources against the need to manage them wisely and sustainably. Atwell concludes that since 1994, there has been significant progress in policy and institutional frameworks; however good governance demands consistent program implementation and decision-making. Quality results matter.
In addition to editing the book, Robert I. Rotberg, senior fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) also provides the opening and closing chapters. Rotberg is definitive in his concluding chapter. Beginning with a discussion of the impact and importance of political leadership, he states that quality matters intensely, especially in less well-privileged surroundings. After outlining key competencies, he gives performance assessments of Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma. He cites some powerful ‘gathering critiques’ by influential national figures, including Mamphela Ramphele, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Trevor Manuel. Finally, he asks: “Where and when will new, visionary, transformational leadership arise? And will it come in time?’
I left South Africa in 2012 cautiously optimistic that negative governance trends — poor leadership, corruption, factionalism — could be ameliorated by the next ANC administration, in part through the rise of a new generation of political leaders. Based on the assessments provided by these experts, the political will needed for positive progress has not yet emerged. I recommend this book to everyone interested in this (still) important country and the African continent’s future.
Now retired, Adele Dion served as Canada’s High Commissioner to South Africa from 2009-2012.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2017), p. 42. Read the rest of this issue →
