WILLIAM GUMEDE | Ramaphosa must govern based on 'South Africa Inc' model

Whether South Africa secures a fairer trade deal with the US after President Donald Trump’s fractious meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, which glaringly globally exposed South Africa’s massive governance shortcomings, remains to be seen. However, it may yet be the catalyst for something good if it helps concentrate the collective minds of South Africa’s ruling political class to acknowledge and then to genuinely tackle the country’s domestic problems, many of which are self-inflicted.

The South Africa Inc approach that Ramaphosa used — involving non-ANC GNU partners, business and civil society organisations, and keeping ANC ministers in the background — helped ensure the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting did not plunge into a shouting match similar to that which Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

It is critical that Ramaphosa governs from now on based on a South Africa Inc model involving non-ANC GNU partners, organised business, civil society and professionals — in co-governance rather than as add-ons.

It is not possible to lift economic growth, create jobs and tackle inequalities with one party governing by only using its deployed cadres and excluding the talent, resources and energy of business, civil society and professionals. South Africa is the world's most diverse society, which means — notwithstanding what some populists may think — growth, employment and poverty reduction can only sustainably take place if the diversity of the country is mobilised. One colour, one ethnic group, one ideology and one party, on their own, while excluding others not like them — whether in colour, ethnicity, ideology or party — will never be able to transform South Africa.

For the GNU to work, decisions will have to be made collaboratively with all partners. Sadly, many ANC leaders wrongly believe that the GNU is not a new multiple coalition government, but an ANC majority government with ANC policies, rather than a new government that needs new multiparty policies. It is critical for the success of the GNU that ANC leaders, members and supporters understand that the GNU is not an ANC majority government, but a multiparty coalition government. This means that the ANC cannot insist that ANC policies will be government policies.

The GNU needs entirely new policies in instances where partners disagree with the ANC, for example:

• economic growth-undermining foreign policies;
• the expropriation without compensation law, which threatens property rights; and
• the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, which threatens the collapse of the whole health system.

Most of South Africa’s municipal coalitions have failed in the past because parties with the most votes wrongly believe that because they have a majority within the coalition, they are the majority party and that their policies automatically become the policies of the coalition, rather than coming up with new compromise policies where there is disagreement.

It is also critical for the success of the GNU that it partners with business, civil society and professionals to form a kind of GNU+ to help provide new ideas, capacity and energy to turn around the country’s broken state, economy and society. Such a GNU+ partnership with business, civil society and professionals should be based on co-delivery, co-implementation and co-generation of ideas. It has to be real co-creation — a partnership; not government only seeking the help of business, civil society and professionals in instances of full state collapse. Without the capacity, ideas and experience of business, civil society and professionals, the GNU will falter.

From the Ramaphosa-Trump meeting it is now clear to the world that South Africa is a lawless country for ordinary citizens not protected by armies of guards, like their elected representatives. South Africa is a war-zone in which citizens are besieged by armed, violent and heartless criminals, gangsters and mafias. However, until the Ramaphosa-Trump meeting, the ANC majority governments appeared not to take the breakdown of rule of law, criminality and gangsterism seriously.

No investments, tourism or new businesses are possible under lawlessness. There has to be a genuine government effort to tackle lawlessness — not platitudes as we have been getting regularly. Seriousness starts with holding politically connected individuals that are corrupt, violent and flout the law accountable. The incompetence of law enforcement agencies starts with the appointment of incompetent cadres, corruption of policing values and the capture of policing procurement.

In South Africa violence is seen as a legitimate way to tackle disputes and it is also seen as a legitimate way to secure political demands, public services and policies ... Elected politicians and political parties that get public funding and call for violence — which is unconstitutional — should have their public funding withdrawn as the minimum sanction

Holding powerful politicians and elected and administrative officials personally accountable for corruption, incompetence and unconstitutional behaviour is a critical start to restore rule of law. Ordinary citizens and public officials follow the behaviour of political leaders — if they do not abide by the law, citizens will also not.

Making appointments based on competence in all the police, prosecuting and judicial departments — in fact, the whole public service and state-owned entities — is critical to restoring the rule of law and fostering a rules-based society.

All the “mafias” — whether Cape Flats gangs, taxi associations that violently push out competitors, “zama zamas”, informal miners which hijack mines, “construction mafias”, tender mafias, building hijack mafias or business hijack mafias — must be dealt with.

The public service, including the police, must be professionalised and appointments and tenders made on merit, not on cadreship, political party affiliation, colour or ethnic group.

The Trump-Ramaphosa meeting showed the world that South Africa is a violent country. In South Africa violence is seen as a legitimate way to tackle disputes and it is also seen as a legitimate way to secure political demands, public services and policies. Many politicians, particularly populist party leaders, glorify violence. Elected politicians and political parties that get public funding and call for violence — which is unconstitutional — should have their public funding withdrawn as the minimum sanction.

Though there is no white genocide, majority ANC governments have marginalised minorities — this is why it so difficult to fully dispel wrongful allegations of a white genocide. The marginalisation of minorities under majority ANC governments must be acknowledged. The management and boards of some government departments and state-owned entities make South Africa look like a monoculture such as Lesotho or Eswatini. Everyone comes from the village, colour, ethnic group, province or political party to which the cabinet minister or board chairperson or CEO belongs. The marginalisation of minorities has helped push many with critical skills, financial and social capital, entrepreneurship and energy, to leave South Africa for other countries, believing they are not wanted.

Policies that are based on populism, outdated ideologies and emotions — which undermine growth, investment and social peace — must be abolished. No economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction are possible with populist, outdated ideological and emotional policies that failed spectacularly in African and developing country failed states.

South Africa's new Expropriation Act, which allows for the expropriation of property without compensation, undermines the property rights of South Africans and non-South Africans, and would have faced similar fierce opposition domestically and internationally, even if Trump, a big critic of the law, was not in power.

The constitution already allows for expropriation with compensation, if it is in the public interest. Contrary to those who pushed the Expropriation Act, it will not advance the transformation of black South Africans from poverty, unemployment and hunger to wealth, employment and abundance. It will do the opposite — increasing unemployment, poverty and hunger.

Contrary to statements by defenders of the Expropriation Act that it is only aimed at a small number of white farmers, it undermines wider property rights — which includes ownership businesses, pension funds, mining licences, shares, savings, intellectual property, government bonds, and so on, undermining the functioning of South Africa’s market economy, the sanctity of ownership, savings and investments.

The National Health Insurance scheme in its current form, which is essentially a nationalisation of private hospitals and expropriation of medical aid savings, will collapse both the private and public health systems, and force many health professionals to leave the country for other markets. It will ultimately break the economy and should be cancelled. The NHI scheme has not been put through a cost-benefit-analysis, has ignored alternative and pragmatic solutions and is clearly ideologically driven.

New, pragmatic options should be considered that combine both public and private health care, and prioritise the cleanup of the public health system by ending corruption, appointing competent staff based on merit and depoliticising health policy away from outdated ideologies, populism and emotions.

BEE must also be reset to empower the widest number of formerly disadvantaged South Africans. Political connectedness must not be the criteria to be empowered. BEE must expand small- and medium-sized business — specifically in new manufacturing, technology and new industries, which South Africa does not have.

BEE must also prioritise providing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education to previously disadvantaged communities, expanding economically critical public infrastructure and providing assets, such as low-cost housing, to the largest number of previously disadvantaged communities.

If the national debate sparked by the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting leads to the ANC digging in even more on anti-growth, populist and outdated ideological policies — in the wrong belief that the reason for continued state failure, economic decline and poverty is because current policies are not “radical” (read populist) enough — rather than changing these to be more pragmatic, evidence-based and collaborative, and insisting on continuing to make decisions as if it is still the majority party, it will not only miss a golden opportunity but it will drive the economy further into decline, with more black poverty, more unemployment and more inequality destabilising society even further.

• William Gumede is Professor of Practice, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)

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