We've seen this in the education sector, with disastrous outcomes
Remember 2004, just after the general election, when the country was suddenly hit by a wave of service-delivery protests in about 21 municipalities?
The government, led by president Thabo Mbeki, reacted to the protests by unveiling Project Consolidate - a "hands on" initiative that involved sending teams of national and provincial officials, as well as private-sector experts, to take over troubled municipalities.
Launching Project Consolidate in October 2004, the department of provincial and local government said: "The government has undertaken a thorough profiling and analytical exercise of all 284 municipalities. This profiling looked at critical service-delivery indicators and provided a clear diagnosis of the main problems and bottlenecks in our municipalities."
In the months that followed, there was a flurry of activity as high-powered delegations were despatched to malfunctioning local governments - sometimes with the media in tow. At Cabinet level, an inter-ministerial committee was established to "exercise oversight and give guidance" on the implementation of the initiative.
Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi put together an advisory working group to give him "periodic advice and guidance".
Over and above all this, a project management unit was established in the department to monitor the implementation of the initiative and to assist the teams of experts deployed to the municipalities.
In their public speeches and interviews, Mbeki, Mufamadi and other Cabinet members talked up the project as one of the government's key priorities.
But, five years later, there is a sense of deja vu as one listens to Sicelo Shiceka - the minister of the renamed department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs.
The highly energetic minister has spent the past five months criss-crossing the country in a renewed government bid to improve service delivery in under-performing municipalities.
He has promised to unveil a "turnaround strategy" for municipalities by early next year.
Whereas Shiceka is on record as saying he believes that Mufamadi's Project Consolidate "failed" because of its "top-down approach", said to have alienated the municipal authorities it was supposed to be assisting, there has been no formal and thorough assessment of what worked and what failed in the last intervention.
We now appear to be headed for yet another central government initiative, without knowing why the last one had so little impact in dealing with the fundamental problems at local government level - acute skills shortages, rampant corruption and endemic mismanagement.
Must every new minister come up with a new initiative without society first adequately evaluating the pros and cons of the previous one?
We've seen this in the education sector, with disastrous outcomes.
Since the first post-apartheid education minister, Sibusiso Bhengu, introduced his Curriculum 2000, every succeeding minister has arrived with his or her own plans for reinventing the wheel.
Before Shiceka comes up with his new plan, let us ask what went wrong with the previous initiative, and whether it had successes that could be put to better use today.
The reasons for the recent wave of service-delivery protests must be properly understood to avoid the "one size fits all" approach preferred by the government in the past.
According to research by Municipal IQ's "Hotpots Monitors", most of the service-delivery protests in recent months were in informal settlements in large metros, such as Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg. These areas have had high population growth as a result of migration from rural areas by people searching for employment opportunities.
Mpumalanga appears to be the hardest-hit province, with some in the ruling party alleging that factionalism and jostling for position are to blame for the protests.
Whatever the reasons, unless the problems are properly identified we will face exactly the same issues in 2014.
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