Ideology versus efficiency

In South African politics one thing stands out prominently: the linkage between the ANC and the idea that it should govern from the left. There has been a lot of bluster and angry talk from COSATU around the green paper on national planning released by Minister in the Presidency, Trevor Manuel. Apparently the minister should consult unions before he does his job and comes up with policy proposals which are a mandated part of his job.

There is a terrible belief in this country that because a person was placed in a government position by the ruling party, that he/she must then think of the party’s ideology before doing his/her job. I have met Minister Manuel on two occasions and in those occasions when he was asked a borderline ideological question that questioned the ANC, he always answered from a partisan stand point. He is a party man through and through, yet COSATU hacks have the audacity to question his loyalty to the movement and openly attack him at conferences.

This recent bit of disagreement highlights a condition that affects certain people’s mentalities in this country, and that is the belief that a party must govern according to all of the promises made during campaigns. In reality this is impossible, for campaigning is nowhere near the same as governing. There is a saying in American politics that “you campaign in poetry and govern in prose.” This saying captures perfectly what most parties realize once they enter government: the reality of governance is that policy cannot necessarily be driven by ideology.

Looking at Barack Obama in the United States and his drive for health care reform, one gets the sense that this is not just a South African or African problem, but a global one. Obama promised that he would not sign a bill out of Congress on health care without a public option, one of the Democratic Party’s most valued ideological tilts in the debate on health care. Yet now the public option clause is optional in Obama’s administration and the inclusion of it would be a bonus rather a prerequisite for reform. George Bush also found out that ideology and governance don’t go together when he sought to privatize Social Security.

When the ANC came into power, they started off with the Redistribution and Development Programme as the economic policy, a policy that was designed to help the disinherited and main victims of the Apartheid regime. However the party soon realized that the programme did not work and would eventually lead to the state creating dependency.

When President Zuma announced Pravin Gordhan as Minister of Finance, I thought it was a brave and wonderful choice, for Mr Gordhan is not aligned to the ANC and is mostly a technocrat. Technocrats, in my view, are the best kind of government employee for they do not worry about upsetting constituents, or votes in upcoming elections. They focus on the job at hand and formulation of policies that better the country and its people. They are efficient and not beholden to alliances or party people who think they know better.

South Africa needs more technocrats and less ideologues. Ideology has a role to play in governance, but that role must be tempered with cold, hard realism that measures what is good for the country as a whole and what is good for the people. We cannot have a government that proposes to improve the lot of some people at the expense of the country’s reputation and credibility in the world.

Workers and unionists will argue differently; however, moderate socialism and the idea that government should exist solely to redistribute money to disenfranchised people and those who languish in poverty, is wrong and damaging. Whilst the idea of assisting the poor is noble and righteous, South Africa must avoid creating an attitude of dependency. The country must aim to build a developmental society that assists the poor with training and skills development as opposed to giving hand-outs. Governing along an ideological path alienates and divides people. It potentially creates unnecessary prejudices and should therefore, in my opinion, be left in the campaigning realm where it belongs.

Written by Tatenda Goredema.

Tatenda Goredema is the Deputy-Editor of VARSITY Newspaper.