LUCKY MATHEBULA: Undo public service patronage by refusing apartheid in fresh suit

SA is entering an intensive phase of coalition government. Public service reform must take advantage of this policy boom cycle.

The intentions of the government of national unity (GNU) are evident in the principles that underpin it. One of the areas of focus is a professional, merit-based, non-partisan, developmental public service that puts people first. The opposition has since 1994 been vocal about cadre deployment as the source of public service and sector dysfunction, but while there is consensus that it was vulnerable to being misconstrued and thus abused, its objectives and variously interpreted iterations in other democracies, such as it being presented as national C-suite management, remains one of the proven strategic interventions a nation can make to be globally competitive.

As the GNU deals with cadre deployment abuses of the past it should not introduce new abuses laced with euphemisms suggesting competence is an exclusive domain of racial groups other than black African, or continue to insist that directors-general (DGs) in departments reporting to a particular party be appointed by that party’s panel only. That would be an ecdysis of the apartheid snake.

When a GNU partner advocates for the review of contracts of DGs it invites an analysis of where it has been governing regarding its track record on public service C-suite appointments. In some parts of SA the logic of merit and competence has been drifting away from the obligations of reflecting the true national demographic at best, and at worst the regional one. The brutal truth is that since its formal establishment in the aftermath of the 1910 constitution, the SA public service has never been a neutral institution in shaping our tormented history. It enabled colonialism, apartheid and the past 30 years of false starts trying to build the antithesis of apartheid-colonialism.

Ensure dignity

As an institution the public service has been able to execute lawful policies of the government of the day loyally. In its 113 years of formal existence, if the inception date of the Public Service Commission (PSC) is the departure point, the public service has been institutionalised to favour or prejudice those it employs or commissions because of political party support or support for one cause or the other, including racial profiling of competence. While attempts to insulate the public service from the prerogative and arbitrary whims of executive authorities is envisaged in the constitution, the institutional government mechanisms have not been on the side of professional norms and standards as the final arbiter to constitute a capable state.

What is at issue is the extent to which the executed “lawful policies” will ensure human dignity, social justice, nonracialism, nonsexism and fulfilment of human rights. The legitimacy of the policies, and by extension those manning the organs of state created to implement them, has been the longest societal grievance. In the pre-1994 era it was about its colonial apartheid character. In the post-apartheid era, its profoundly black, and African in particular, character attracted competence and capability as one of the substrate grievances — beside state capture and corruption, which still have not resulted in many public servants donning orange overalls.

In recent times though, the dysfunction of the public service, disintegrating public infrastructure, low morale among public servants, gross interference of political party patronage appointments, and the shifting target of knowing who the public is in SA have laid bare just how out of step the public service institutional architecture is with changing realities and development priorities. The urgency of addressing these issues is clear. If the GNU is to have a chance to do so effectively and equitably, the governance architecture of the executive authority created three decades ago must be radically reformed. The following priorities to deal with it stand out:

• The PSC, a pivotal player in the reform process, should be reinstated with its original authority to commission citizens into the public service. Its composition should be based on stringent professional criteria, eradicating any potential for patronage. In commissioning citizens to the public service the PSC must be rigorously evaluated on its ability to select individuals who can faithfully execute the lawful policies of the government of the day, as mandated by the constitution.
• As a chapter 10 institution, the PSC must be restored to its position of determining the resourcing of generic human and labour-saving devices. SA should thus not have public service and administration under an executive authority. This function should be subjected to a professional community accounting to parliament, in which the legislative authority of the republic vests. The provincialisation of the PSC should follow the pattern of chapter 9 institutions in how they account to provincial legislatures. A mechanism to enrol local government into the firmament of public service commissioning without encroaching on its distinctiveness as a sphere of government should be devised. The professionalisation environment is ready for PSC-driven public service reform. Public servants must be commissioned, not deployed; they owe their loyalty not to parties but to the public.
• Public service training and development should be streamlined to ensure it produces a civil service that can “loyally execute the lawful policies of the government of the day”. Training should be about developing skills, knowledge and attributes to help a country become globally competitive. There should be more focus on how to administer a state. The National School of Government should be recalibrated into a public service vocational centre to bridge the gap between the overconcentrated theoretical public service and the practical needs of delivering services.

The time for political and party patronage trumping competence has passed. GNU partners should demonstrate their commitment to the death of cadre development, including its revised forms, as we have seen during the negotiation of cabinet positions. SA has a pool of competent people who may belong to political parties but are ready to work for any governing party that implements its policies through the machinery of the state in a manner that is consistent with the constitution as the supreme law of the land. We cannot be disappointed again when we have such a dynamic legal framework.

• Dr Mathebula, a public policy analyst, is founder of The Thinc Foundation and a research associate at Tshwane University of Technology.