NEWS & ANALYSIS

SA's achilles heel: Mediocre commentators - Songezo Mjongile

ANC WCape PS responds to Max du Preez's criticism of the national govt's service delivery record

SA's Achilles heel: mediocre commentators

Max du Preez evidently expects more than what he gives. In the introduction to the book, Brain Porn: The Best of Daily Maverick, du Preez writes: "I want someone to give me the broader picture, and I want intelligent, well-reasoned opinions about the state of my world. When I'm done, I want to feel prepared to see beyond the inevitable smoke and mirrors of my day...". Even more so, he continues by demanding that: "...reporters have a memory that extends further than the previous decade..."

Hardly had I completed reading these words in his introduction, which resonated with me, when I turned to du Preez's piece, Service delivery's ANC's Achilles heel. A piece that neither gives the broader picture, is intelligent, well-reasoned nor thinking beyond the previous decade.

Unless one truly understands the gravity of apartheid and the over three hundred years of colonialism that preceded it, one cannot really expect everything to be solved within 20 years of democracy. This may sound like rhetoric but articles such as Du Preez's expose a common ignorance that expected Madiba magic to have simply solved South Africa's challenges within two decades. Had the title of the article been "service delivery's SA's Achilles heel" it would possibly have given a broader picture, been a bit more well-reasoned and thinking beyond the last two decades.

How does Du Preez, for example, explain service delivery protests in the City of Cape Town, Grabouw, Hessequa, Swartland, after nearly a decade of DA run-municipalities; these in the main being non-violent and therefore go unreported? Or does he suffer the smoke and mirrors of an "ungovernability campaign"?

The ANC would be the first to agree that there remains serious challenges faced by our country. We have specifically identified the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality as threatening our stability. Corruption, maladministration and inefficiency need to be tackled. Yet all of this sounds like rhetoric again if we do not believe that the ANC, in partnership with others, wishes to and has addressed these challenges.

The lack of service delivery is a symptom of a complex structural issue. How is it that du Preez, as a "...white middle class..." person receives adequate service delivery but in his area's townships there are none or hardly any services? That he lives in a DA run municipality simply means that the municipality will ensure that his needs are met first before that of the poorer inhabitants of the municipality. This is their political philosophy and programme.

Yet he could easily live in the same scenario but with an ANC run municipality and even if the ANC has the political will to address the needs of the poorer inhabitants first it simply cannot because of inefficiencies in municipal services. Structural issues, compounded by corruption, nepotism and maladministration, are at play.

This over simplification of matters is evident even in his handling of the education system in our country. Again, we could quote the number of schools we have built since 1994, especially in Black areas; the number of Black children who have completed schooling compared to the figures in 1994, the number of Black graduands from our universities since 1994 and compare them to before 1994. But, yes, much more still needs to be done. Nevertheless, we cannot discuss these matters as flippantly as du Preez does.

In recent discussions with our Chinese counterparts and noting research from India and Brazil, rapid urbanisation is a global phenomenon and simply not a post-apartheid South African one. Reading du Preez's piece, he simply uses this and any issue, oversimplifies it in order to use it purely as a weapon to bash the ANC.

Migration for economic opportunities, as natural as it is in this era, is not the only cause for urbanisation, especially here in the Western Cape. For example, the mass evictions of farm-workers and farm-dwellers give rise to the sprawling of informal settlements across the Western Cape, especially in rural towns such as Grabouw and De Doorns.

Almost immediately with the influx of these evictees comes the demand for housing, land, sanitation and other basic service delivery. The provincial government in the Western Cape, who tacitly support these farm evictions, must therefore know that there are catastrophic consequences to farm evictions.

It is not in the interests of our country for people to be obsessed with individuals. Minister Pravin Gordhan is not a "secret weapon" or a panacea but forms part of a collective that wishes to address the issues faced by local government. What the ANC, as part of this collective, calls upon is for, among others, journalists, like du Preez, not to take cheap shots and feed into ANC bashing as if all will be well once the ANC goes.

Transformation, the word written off by so many commentators, needs to happen within our state machinery. Over two decades ago, the state sought to provide a minority with goods and services and today we find that, despite serious efforts to contrary, the state still seems to be working for a few.

In addition, issues such as corruption, nepotism, maladministration and inefficiency indicate the serious need for this transformation in the state. These issues are not unique to an ANC government, they are societal issues and symptomatic of an ill structure but the ANC has shown the political will and determination to deal with it. What we need is journalists and commentators to give us a broader view, an in-depth analysis, well-reasoned arguments but more importantly, arguments that take into consideration that the South African state has a deep and harrowing history.

Songezo Mjongile is the ANC Western Cape provincial secretary.

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