Political leaders must be held accountable for their many self-inflicted failures

It is critical that South Africans do not celebrate instances where self-inflicted failures by the government and political leaders are rectified. We should rather hold them accountable for causing failure in the first place and demand excellence instead.

While many of the country’s problems are indeed the legacy of apartheid, many others have been caused, or worsened, by post-apartheid corruption, incompetence and ideologically misguided policies. In fact, much of South Africa’s crucial infrastructure — such as public transport, power and water — has been destroyed by the post-apartheid government through corruption, the deployment of incompetent individuals to the public service and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and the stubborn implementation of ideas that have failed dismally elsewhere.

A few months of uninterrupted power from Eskom is celebrated as if the government and its political leaders did not cause the power crisis in the late 1990s by refusing to maintain power stations and appointing incompetent cadres to run them, not to mention giving contracts to politically connected tenderpreneurs and nonsensically insisting for years on blocking private power producers. Similarly, South Africa’s rail infrastructure has been destroyed by cadre-led incompetence, tenderpreneurs, corruption and unreasonable policies. The destruction of rail infrastructure has resulted in train passenger numbers plummeting by 80%.

The long-distance line between Johannesburg and Cape Town was non-existent for years. However, when the government finally partially restored some metro passenger services, before the recent election, this was celebrated as if the country had never had passenger trains before. Then transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said in April that having some of the services up and running again “makes us proud”. A more appropriate response would have been “makes us ashamed”.

Self-inflicted state failure ... is clearly not taken seriously. In fact, the people who have presided over failures are rewarded by being appointed over and over again to the cabinet, as executives of SOEs, and as managers in the public service

Similarly, there are misguided celebrations when SOEs such as SAA, the Land Bank of South Africa and the South African Post Office — all three of which have been run down through incompetence, corruption and irrational policies — are bailed out after failure. What is worse, the executives of these entities are rewarded for their failure rather than held to account.

By uncritically celebrating instances where government officials rectify failures they themselves have caused, the chance to hold them accountable is lost. No introspection is done by these individuals regarding their wrongdoing, and this in turn promotes a culture of impunity. The government and political leaders can destroy public infrastructure and state entities, leading to a total collapse in public services because of graft, ineptitude and ludicrous policies, without anyone being held accountable. There is therefore no incentive for these institutions and individuals to act responsibly, deliver services and adopt reasonable policies.

No-one is held accountable. Self-inflicted state failure — which takes a devastating toll on the economy, detrimentally affecting families and undermining the stability of society — is clearly not taken seriously. In fact, the people who have presided over failures are rewarded by being appointed over and over again to the cabinet, as executives of SOEs, and as managers in the public service.

Hilariously, in some cases failed executives and politicians are described as “experienced” because they have been given new jobs to fail at time and again.

To prevent the further destruction of public infrastructure, public services and SOEs, self-inflicted failures must be assiduously pointed out and not blamed on apartheid or “white monopoly capital”.

Being soft on these kinds of failures means government malfeasance and ineptitude are never fully scrutinised, confronted and rejected — meaning they happen again and again. Celebrating putting right a self-inflicted failure by government and political leaders is now an obstacle to tackling the country’s infrastructure and public service delivery challenges. Self-inflicted government and SOE failures are a barrier to tackling poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Civil society organisations, business and the media — and citizens too — must be tougher on leaders. We need to make public officials personally responsible for incompetently and corruptly destroying public services, SOEs and essential infrastructure. Ordinary citizens and civil society organisations must take public officials and politicians to court to make them face the consequences of their actions if their political superiors are not willing to do so.

• Gumede is executive chair of the Democracy Works Foundation and author of ‘Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times’ (Tafelberg)