Making appointments based on competence will be a crucial factor in determining whether the new government of national unity (GNU) is a success.
The ANC, like most African liberation movements, rarely set much store on competence in government. Political, patronage and party interests have often trumped competence in appointments to the cabinet, state-owned entities (SOEs) and the public service. The devastating impact of incompetence — seen everywhere in state, development and economic failure — is underestimated not only by the ANC, but also many black South Africans.
Competence knows no colour. Poverty, inequality and job creation are impossible without competence at the highest reaches of government, the SOEs, the economy and politics. Even if government leaders are honest and have decent policies, incompetence will torpedo the state, the economy and policies. Lack of competence — combined with corruption, failed ideologies, fantasy policies and poor leadership — is the main reason most African countries have failed since Liberia became the first African nation to become independent 177 years ago. It is also the reason South Africa has largely repeated the African failure 30 years after the end of formal apartheid.
Over time, competence has in many cases almost become a swear word in the culture of these independence parties and liberation movements. A culture of incompetence often becomes entrenched in them and the governments they run.
In these parties and movements, performance in government is rarely measured in terms of competence. It is often assessed based on irrelevant political considerations, such as loyalty to the leader or toeing the party line. Selection for top positions in the public service is often based on “struggle” credentials, the extent of a leader’s personal following, or his or her ability to express party ideology and sing struggle songs.
Competence means the ability to do the job — which is often entirely unrelated to what degrees one may have. Competence also involves understanding what to do and acting with integrity
It is often assumed by many ANC leaders and supporters that only cadres with “struggle” experience can run complicated SOEs such as Eskom, Transnet or the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Similarly incompetent, but politically well connected, tenderpreneurs are also given government contracts they cannot deliver on, which causes service delivery, infrastructure, SOE and policy failure. Incompetence is the single biggest reason for governance problems, not only in South Africa, but also in all African countries run by former liberation and independence movements.
The ANC has turned South Africa into a country where the party and the state have become one. The ANC’s deployment committees, for example, appoint politically connected individuals to the government and SOEs, and give politically connected tenderpreneurs government contracts to deliver services.
Finding individuals with the right skills to perform crucial jobs will be critical to the success of the GNU. Competence is often wrongly reduced to the question of whether a person has a slew of university degrees. In fact, competence means the ability to do the job — which is often entirely unrelated to what degrees one may have. It also involves understanding what to do and acting with integrity. The public service and SOEs have eye-watering consultancy bills because the appointed individuals lack the required competence — and therefore have to employ outside consultants to help them do their jobs.
Merit-based appointments will be crucial to building government competence. It will be difficult for the ANC, while it is still in power, to regard competence as a crucial performance metric, because the low value accorded to it has become ingrained in its culture and the government it has presided over for the past 30 years. Governing parties in which a culture of incompetence has become entrenched can usually only change it when they are forced out of power.
The GNU presents an opportunity for leaders to overturn the culture of incompetence that predominates in the public service. Ministers in the new government will preside over state departments and SOEs populated by politically connected ANC cadres — many of them appointed not on competence, but rather on the basis of political connectedness, patronage, struggle credentials, party interests, and loyalty considerations.
The GNU must use competence-based performance measures to evaluate service delivery. What is more, ministers must be empowered to fire incompetent officials in the government, even if they are politically well connected in the ANC, to inculcate a new culture of competence in the public service. Making these changes is essential if the government is to boost state capacity and tackle poverty, inequality and unemployment.
• Gumede is an associate professor in the School of Governance at Wits University and the author of ‘Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times’ (Tafelberg).
