It’s time for political leaders to prove the people come first

Ubanesia Adams

The recent elections have demonstrated that South African voters may be thinking differently about the power of voting.

There seems to be a willingness to use the ballot box strategically to register their impatience with waiting for change.

The president has set the government’s agenda in his first address to the Parliament. There is a consistency to the policy issues on the government’s agenda, namely high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

The consistency of these foci on the policy agenda also highlights that ‘the people’ whose life experiences these issues represent have suffered for a long while.

The question is whether, under the new dispensation, change will be faster and more apparent.

The context of governing this democracy has changed. Instead of only the ANC in national government, there are different parties who form part of government with the ANC.

Will these changes hold practical value for ‘the people’? We are two years away from municipal elections.

We potentially have voters who are actively watching whether their needs and service delivery expectations are being fulfilled.

The new governing context also offers a new political battle. This battle is taking place at national government level where some new brooms in the Cabinet from former opposition parties are attempting to clean their respective houses.

How they clean in word and deed is an important part of the new political battle.

Through various forms of media (online news reports and social media platforms), we have received regular snapshots of some ministers’ policy intentions.

Some of the new ministers’ rhetoric actively speaks to the realisation of a long-standing government approach to service delivery, Batho Pele, which means putting the people first.

The Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, let us know that municipalities who do not co-operate when there are interventions to turn their performance around will face consequences.

Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber, proclaimed that he would address the system issues, and we see reports on backlogs being decreased and expressions of the need for inter departmental co-operation to solve these problems. Not that standing in a long queue for a few hours because the system is offline (again) does not also contribute to building some bridges between diverse South Africans who are together in the realisation that there is equality in this suffering.

Another example of publicly expressed ministerial intent, which focuses on putting the people first, is from the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson.

South Africans have been informed through media reports that public money would be used differently.

Activities that are being sidelined under his authority include upgrades to politicians’ accommodation and supporting the high rentals that government entities pay in Sandton while government buildings in Johannesburg are not used. Perhaps the more significant of the publicly stated commitments is to make South Africa ‘a construction site’.

These utterances speak to putting ‘the people’ first by changing how government entities use money to increase saving public resources and investing it differently to create employment and improve infrastructure.

These intentions show that South Africans come first. Our parliamentarians are best placed to assess if the Government of National Unity (GNU)’s actions reflect its intent to put the people first.

These newly minted ministers’ very public expressions of policy intent are important. For the ministers who were formerly opposition parties competing with the ANC, these public declarations of intent and the reports of actions through the media could constitute an important political move.

If they deliver, the people may choose strategically at the next municipal elections. Perhaps the voters who have shown less interest may even be inspired to vote.

If South African voters are becoming more strategic, we may see shifts in support in the next election outcomes.

It may not matter that the next election is a municipal election.

There are signs that the ANC is trying to change its course. Recent news reports have indicated that the ANC is targeting failed municipalities that are being run under its banner.

This demonstrates that the senior leadership are recognising that voters may respond strategically to what they experience from local government at the next elections. There is a recognition that people may use the ballot box to judge their experiences.

Other encouraging signs include President Ramaphosa asking party members to practise public displays of humility. There is a recognition that people may be thinking differently about politicians.

In the past people may have seen politicians’ displays of opulence as inspirational. The president’s request suggests that people may now interpret these displays of living the high life as an insult when they compare it to their impoverished circumstances.

Government in its unified complexity should begin again with Batho Pele as the departure point of policy and practice. During a new political battle, where people vote strategically, politicians will now need to win people’s minds.

The next few elections will indicate whether this has been a brief break in party dominance or whether there will be a permanent shift to a party system where political parties will compete continuously to win over the electorate.

If voters are pronouncing judgement through the vote, then an electoral system based on proportional representation is no longer a secure pathway to becoming government (in South Africa).

Putting the people first is an old and a new transformation journey for South Africa’s democratic government.

The GNU must continue this transformation work and accelerate the process to facilitate real change. If the voters have used the ballot to express judgement, then they will also no longer entertain old or new ‘evils’ as justifications for baby steps in service delivery.

In this new governing dispensation, policy cannot be symbolic and policy implementation cannot take place at a leisurely pace.

Not every policy issue requires a forum. The president has shown that strategic interventions are possible to facilitate energy production. Change is possible. For example, it has been a while since we planned our days around load-shedding schedules.

There are stories about ministers reaching out to each other and to the people with good intent. There is much that political will can facilitate.

It is an important time for the political leadership (in all spheres of) government to find the political will to show the people of South Africa that they come first in word and deed.

Anything less and the peoples’ judgement may be harsher for some and softer for others at the next election.

* Dr Adams is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University.

Cape Times