At a recent presentation I attended, ‘a stable political system’ was identified as one of the strengths of the country, and a possible attraction to foreign investors.
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While at face value we have a far better record than most other African countries when it comes to election processes in terms planning, management, and execution at all levels of government, and critically the credibility of the outcomes, I submit that this does not necessarily reflect a ‘stable’ political system.
Dysfunctional
The reality on the ground, particularly at municipal level, is that government is anything but stable. A large number of municipalities are dysfunctional due to the instability and non-existence of councils: one has only to look at the situation in the Tshwane or Nelson Mandela Bay metros where the narrow factional interests of councillors, abetted by their political party principles have to all intents and purposes rendered services undeliverable.
Contest
Indeed, even without the contest between different political parties, the divisions within the ruling party have resulted in many municipalities under their control suffering the same fate as the different ‘factions’ fight it out at a local level: Maluti-a-Phufong and Merafong being prime examples.
It is frankly incomprehensible that the ruling party has allowed this chaos to take root at local government level, particularly in the areas in which it enjoys majority control.
The tragedy of course is that the local sphere of government is without doubt the most important sphere – it is the coalface of service delivery and economic activity, which on an aggregate level determines the country’s prosperity and growth.
Chaos
Given that coalition (minority rule) local government is a fairly new development in our political lives, and is therefore bound to be subject to a ‘learning curve’ process,
It must be pointed out that government still has significant power and oversight through the provincial and national departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to ensure that local structures are functional and do not compromise service delivery.
Applying these measures fairly and on a non-political basis will surely begin to restore some semblance of order to the shambles that is local government in this country currently.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
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