Better delivery or power grab? {writer: Stef Terblanche}

The latest round of violent service delivery protests has again put the spotlight on the need for the government to solve problems in the provinces and municipalities. Part of the government’s response, however, has come under fire from critics who say it is nothing but a thinly disguised attempt to centralise power at the expense of government lower level and of other political parties who won power at these levels.

Not so, say the national government and the ANC, their intentions are noble and focused solely on improved delivery and development. It is also aimed at  better utilisation of the available skills – particularly at professional level where there is not enough skills going around to serve the plofiration of structures that came about after 1994.
While that may be true to a large extent, a considerable degree of detrimental politicking has also crept into the picture.

It is no secret that the ANC has for several years now been seeking a review of the current system of provincial and local government and the public service.

The process began at the ANC’s 2002 national conference, was punted in its 2004 election manifesto, gained momentum at the ANC’s national policy conference in June 2007, and finally resulted in various resolutions at the watershed national conference held in Polokwane in December 2007.

At the ANC’s national policy conference, it was decided that there was a need “for a comprehensive review of this system (of provinces), taking into account the distribution of powers and functions between different spheres of government as well as within the two-tier system of local government with a view to assessing whether this contributes to the attainment of our developmental goals”.

The conference also resolved that “the incoming NEC must ensure that an ANC summit is held to formulate an input into process to develop a White Paper on Provincial Government and to review the Local Government White Paper”. This process is currently in full swing.

A number of developments underscore the ANC’s growing predilection towards scrapping the provincial system and centralising powers and functions.

Key among these is the fact that a team led by the new Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka was in the process of finalising a report that Shiceka himself says is “looking at the future of provinces, whether they will exist or not”. Shiceka, says the future of provinces will be decided by March next year.

He added that the government was forging ahead with the Constitution 17th Amendment Bill, which is aimed at giving considerable powers to the national government to intervene in provinces and municipalities, sidelining the provinces.
In August, while delivering a public lecture at Wits University, Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Yunus Carrim also made a strong call for a review of the provinces.

For the first time, he gave formal recognition of the options under consideration, including retaining the status quo; retaining the nine provinces with substantially reduced powers and functions; reducing the numbers of provinces and merging some of them; retaining the provinces as mere administrative units; or, lastly, phasing out the provinces altogether.  
While there are serious problems in both the provinces and municipalities, many critics are of the opinion that the ANC has already decided to scrap the system of provincial government and replace it with more centralised government, creating a single public service and strengthening central government’s ability to intervene directly in local government.

The National Planning Ministry – together with its proposed National Planning Commission and Ministerial Planning Committee – will involve itself more at the overall policy level and its main function, according to National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, is to "co-ordinate the process whereby government develops its long-term vision and plan".
When unveiling his National Planning Green Paper recently, Manuel ruled out any command-type centralised planning as had failed in the old Soviet Union and in China, which seems to go somewhat against the grain of the perceived centralisation tendency in the ANC.  

There may, however, be a number of obstacles in the way of the national government scrapping the provinces and usurping more local government powers.

Firstly, any constitutional amendment to scrap the provinces would have to be approved by a two-thirds majority in the National ASssembly, which the ANC deoes not have. However, it probably could overcome this with the help of one or two of the smaller parties.

Secondly, such a step would require a majority vote in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), which would mean the well paid and relatively powerful members of the NCOP would be voting themselves out of a job, out of their huge pay and benefit packages and out of power. Not all that likely.
Thirdly, as the ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has pointed out, provincial premiers who have tasted power – and there are eight of the nine in the ANC – are not likely to simply step aside.

It seems a period of vigorous debate lies ahead, which could still sway all the stakeholders in one or another direction, such as, for example, adopting adjustments that would see only certain functions and powers being centralised, with others being devolved to local level, and the province’s acquiring more of an oversight function rather than one concerned with implementation.