By Douglas Gibson
When I was elected to the Transvaal Provincial Council in 1970, the National Party had been in power since 1948. Twenty-two years. The ANC has been in power since 1994. Twenty-seven years. This is too long in any democracy. The party in power, Nat or ANC, or any other party, starts getting ideas above itself, thinking it has a divine right to rule. Worse, it begins to rule instead of governing.
There is a difference between the two. An interesting definition, by Mark Barton, is that “governing”… (means) “to conduct the policy, actions, and affairs of”, while “ruling” is “what a ruler does, as in a king or dictator”.
Parties that “rule” create committees and give them pretentious names like the National Covid Command Council. Why “command”? We are told it is a committee of ministers that makes recommendations to the Cabinet, with the Cabinet taking the decisions, and a minister, on the Cabinet’s behalf, issuing the instructions and promulgating directives with the force of law (without the representatives of the people parliament – being involved).
Ministers taking decisions and issuing legally binding regulations, the contravention of which is a crime, should, one would think, consult those most affected. Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma determined every ATM machine in South Africa has to be sanitised in terms of the requirements, deliberately ignoring the Big Five banks and making criminals of them because there are tens of thousands of ATM and it is simply not possible, without notice, to sanitise all of them, even those in remote areas where there are often no other banking facilities. Ruling, not governing.
This is also the mindset of many officials who certainly would not describe themselves as public servants. They do not regard themselves as accountable to the people.
Louis XIV is remembered for his statement: “L’Etat c’est moi (I am the state)”. That 17th century state of mind is often seen today. An example is the department of Small Business Development under Minister Khumbudzo Ntshaveni.
The Star reported recently, in his second special report on the financial management of the government’s Covid-19 initiatives, the auditor-general disclosed this department had failed abysmally in its task of supporting small business by disbursing R1.4 billion to help people and companies deal with the rampant effects of the pandemic. The first report had highlighted serious weaknesses in the department; the second showed nothing much had changed and the undertaking of the director-general to revise the operating procedures had not been finalised. The result of this dereliction of duty is R1.3bn remains. Jan de Villiers, the DA spokesperson on small business, said only 8% of the funds had been paid out.
These shocking facts should result in the firing of the minister and the director-general. When the spokesperson for the department said they were not commenting and would be issuing their report in due course. The arrogance of this attitude and the cheek of it when the department had sight of the auditor-general’s report weeks, if not months, ago illustrates the point about people who believe they have a divine right to rule and need not govern in the interests of the people they swore to serve. They have no shame.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and former ambassador to Thailand. His website is douglasgibsonsouthafrica.com
The Star