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Journalists are an excitable and over stretched group prone - INDICATOR SOUTH AFRICA by nature or through training - to instant judgements, drama and errors in their endless, time pressured search for new and interesting 'angles' for their articles. I know this about Quarterly Report VOLUME 13 NUMBER 1 journalists, because I am one. Faced with the complex and dispersed activities surrounding CONTENTS South Africa's first local government elections in November, it is thus not surprising that many of the really important aspects of the voting and results were missed by the media.

Graeme Gotz, Jeremy Seekings and John Seiler write in their Putting the Local into Government 33 Building Blocks: 65 assessments of the election in this edition that media coverage REGIONAL MONITOR Two Finger Exercises in Analysis Logjams in Housing Delivery papered over many problems which bode ill for local John Seiler Mary R Tomlinson democracy, government and development in South Africa. Understanding the local government election results A host of problems are holding up housing delivery in Cultural Faultlines: requires insight into community dynamics and politics, South Africa. But the key problem is a housing policy underpinned by conflicting principles included to fudge As Gotz points out, it was not enough to excuse low turnout at which differ substantially from one area to the next. This South Africa's New Provincial Boundaries article hones in on the politics of two towns, in the differences between the key stakeholders. the polls - only around 33% of all eligible people voted - by Richard A Griggs Western Cape and North West. comparing it to similar disinterest shown in local elections in Contestation along South Africa's new provincial other democracies. It is deeply worrying that people perceive boundaries is being exacerbated by the lack of a local government to be unimportant and impotent, and thus do mechanism for local communities to participate in the decision making process. This could result in instability not support it. Local level government is crucial to vibrant 37 democracy, and to effective development. along these cultural faultlines. Citizenry and Local Government: A New Political Subject? If local governments carry no weight, Gotz writes, they will Ivor Chipkin DEVELOPMENT MONITOR probably be unable to call on people to support community Continued non-payment of rents and services could The Skweyiya Commission: indicate that South Africans have a differentiated notion endeavours in the future and the transformation of cities, towns 13 of what national and local citizenship means. Local and rural areas will likely be slow and conflictual. And as Ivor Lessons for a Democratic South Africa governments will have to deliver in a way that Improves Chipkin argues, lack of identification with local government John Seiler arid Brendan Seery the visibility of the democratic state. Democracy and Development 71 may well be a reason behind continued non-payment of rents The Skweyiya Commission of Inquiry into former Sue Rubenstein and services in many townships. uncovered an extraordinary web of corruption and misuse of public money by Lucas The idea of a formal role for civil society in development Mangope and top government officials. has become a sacred cow. But elevating often self Wide misinterpretation of the election results has also led to Manufacturing Legitimacy: 41 appointed civil society organs to positions in which they incorrect perceptions about the performance of political The Truth and Reconciliation Commission have veto rights is to give them the authority of elected parties. In local elections, the Indicator SA analysts point out, bodies without the concomitant accountability. Richard Wilson results can only be accurately applied to each area individually. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is poised to provide a full record of our authoritarian past. But Perhaps the greatest media mistake was interpreting the ultimately the creation of a 'rights culture' will depend results countrywide, leaving out 25% of the electorate in more on the realisation of Constitutional rights. Planning for AIDS: 75 opposition areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, and HIV/AIDS and Town and Regional Planning concluding that there had been a significant swing to the ANC. POIITICAL MONITOR Alan Whiteside In fact, support for the party in the areas which voted declined AIDS will have a devastating impact on KwaZulu-Natal. from 72% in April 1994 to around 67%. Waiting for Utopia: 47 Aside from the human costs, the epidemic will alter the Local Elections 1995 demand and supply of services and the ability of people 23 Quality of life in the 1990s to pay for them. Planners need to build these factors Misrepresenting party support may not in itself be a problem, Graeme Gotz Valerie Moller into their plans. but it may have masked the real feelings of South Africans interpretation of the results of the local government Immediately after the April 1994 elections black and about government and, more importantly, obscured the local elections glossed over many problems that bode ill for white people registered similar levels of happiness and dynamics which produced the results and which will influence the operation of local democracy — among them the satisfaction. Now the post-election euphoria bubble what new councils will be able to achieve in each area. low voter turnout, what produced the results and what has burst, with one in two people registering life the real balances of power will be. satisfaction compared with 82% post-election. Aids and the Highways: 80 Also missed in most media analyses were the implications of Sex Workers and Truck Drivers in KZN the 50:50 rule for local governance, the strong performance of Tessa Marcus, Karen Oellermann independents, the capacity of new councillors to run local and Nonceba Levin government, and the tensions likely to emerge between them, What 'Swing'? 29 Commercial sex workers and long distance truck Local Elections in the Western Cape drivers have been identified as core groups in the established institutions and powerful 'informal' local players. spread of HIV and AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. There is an Jeremy Seekings urgent need for a prevention and education These are real issues which could impact crucially on South The local government election results have been widely ECONOMIC MONITOR intervention. misinterpreted in terms of a 'swing' to the ANC, Africa's democracy and development. They need to be widely- especially in the Western Cape. A close look at the understood, but they have not been properly explained. results points instead to a low turnout and a complete RDP Focus collapse in the National Party vote. Karen Mac Gregor A Lifelong Task: 57 Universities: 85 Editor The RDP in Perspective Responding to the 'Global Challenge' Chris Heymans Raphael de Kadt

INDICATOR SOUTH AFRICA produces Quarterly Reports and INDICATOR The RDP could be successful if it genuinely became How South Africa relates to global systems will be PRESS publishes investigative books. Both are based in the Centre for Social the flagship of government, was openly debated, the crucial to its prospects in many spheres. and Development Studies at the University of Natal, Durban. Opinions roles of levels of government and sectoral Universities must think about how best to respond expressed are not necessarily those of the Editorial Committee and should not arrangements were clarified, partnerships assumed to this reality. There are important gaps in what our be taken to represent the policies of companies or organisations which are Cover painting by Lola Frost real meaning and planning was properly done. universities do. donor members of Indicator South Africa,

© Copyright for all material herein is held by INDICATOR SOUTH AFRICA. Editor Karen Mac Gregor Production/Design Rob Evans Permission to republish or reproduce any part of this publication must be Editorial Committee Simon Better, Mark Bennett, Rob Evans. Mervyn Frost obtained from the publisher. Admin/Marketing Pal Fismer Crime and Conflict Editor Antoinette Louw Richard Humphries, Myrna Kaplan, Meshack Khosa. Karen Mac Gregor. Repro Multigraphics Printing Robprint Julian May, Mike McGrath, Valerie M0ller, Lawrence ScMemmer ""SHBHI•SsisgS

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Official SA Trade Unions Directory Labour Statistics

UNIT LABOUR COST IN MANUFACTURING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES*

Countries Average annual growth 1975-92 1980-92 1989-92 1990-91 1991-92

USA 3,8 2,0 2,3 3,3 0 Canada 5,4 4,2 3,6 5,5 0 Japan 1,1 0,9 4,5 1,4 11,5 France 5,7 4,2 2,5 4,3 0,6 Germany 3,7 3,2 4,6 5,0 6,3 Italy 8,3 7,1 5,7 7,1 3,1 UK 6,9 3,5 5,6 6,2 1,4 SA 13,6 15,1 16,0 13,8 14,7

* Computed in nominal national currency values. Source: Central Statistical Service

EMPLOYMENT BY SECTOR ('000)

Sector 1980 1990 1991 1992 1993

Total 5 940 6 354 6 251 6 193 —

Agriculture 1 153 1 116 1 113 1 111 — Total (non-agriculture) 4 787 5 238 6 138 6 082 6 005 Mining and quarrying 709 693 653 608 570 Total (non-primary) 4 079 4 545 4 485 4 475 4 435 Manufacturing 1 421 1 462 1 431 1 438 1 424 Electricity 47 61 48 46 43 Construction 364 418 391 374 359 Trade and accommodation 756 791 785 778 772 Transport and communication 429 361 343 335 312 Finance and Insurance 121 186 187 191 192 Government and services 942 1 278 1 301 1 313 1 332

Includes permanent and temporary workers Excludes household services

Cultural fftultlmea

Smih Africa'd Hew 'provincial $

By Richard A Griggs Department of Environmental and Geographical Science

Political boundaries rarely coincide with areas of cultural and regional identity, creating cultural faultlines: volatile areas where segments of populations oppose being attached to the wrong political or administrative unit. Contestation along South Africa's new provincial boundaries - there are 14 disputed areas - is being exacerbated by the lack of a mechanism for local communities to participate in the decision making process, and could result in instability along these cultural faultlines.

eopolitics is concerned with around the theme that they are attached to There are 14 analysing the distribution of the wrong political or administrative unit. At different disputed Gpolitical power in situations where the extreme, cultural faultlines have led to boundaries along territory is being contested. Power is seldom the breakup of states - for example, South Africa's distributed evenly, meaning that certain Eritrea's separation from Ethiopia, the geopolitical actors - groups organised to Soviet breakup, the breakup of Yugoslavia. new provincial either promote or resist proposed changes to boundaries existing political divisions of territory - The potential threat of such geopolitical have more control over spatial decision conflicts can be mitigated through making than others. transparent and inclusive policies and processes, for example referenda. Therefore South Africa's ongoing construction of nine it was hypothesised that the risk potential of new provinces according to constitutionally provincial boundary disputes would be established policies and processes for mitigated or intensified according to the boundary delimitations, including a defined following set of contingencies: lisl of 14 disputed boundaries - Schedule 1, 1'art 2 of the Interim Constitution - provides • Where cultural areas are included within Cultural faultlines an unmatched opportunity for investigating a single province, geopolitical pressures have led to the the geopolitics of territorial restructuring in for boundary changes will be minimal. breakup of states a multicultural state. Under Centre for Science Development funding, the author is • Where cultural areas are crossed by presently analysing data and monitoring the provincial boundary lines to produce decision making process. cultural faultlines, geopolitical pressures for boundary modifications will Neither the boundaries nor the research intensify. have been finalised, but the ongoing analysis is pointing to problems with the • Where the boundary delimitation The threat of constitutional mechanisms for resolving process involves a high level of geopolitical boundary disputes. participation by all geopolitical actors, conflicts can be violence is likely to be averted. mitigated through Political boundaries rarely coincide with transparent and areas of cultural and regional identity. This • Where participation is limited or can create cultural faultlines: volatile areas geopolitical actors are ignored, violent inclusive policies where segments of a population organise conflicts will arise. and processes

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1994 7 LcL^LTLLLU:GL £0I[£GB Figure 1: Present Status of Affected Areas

Affected Area Affected Provinces Status Mechanism for Resolution

1 Bushbuckridge Northern Province Active Negotiations Between Mpumatanga Provincial Premiers 2 Namaqualand Western Cape Dormant Political Party Negotiations Northern Cape 3 Groblersdal Northern Province Active Negotiations Between Mpumalanga Provincial Premiers 4 Northern Transke)/ Active Central Government funded Pondoland KwaZulu-Natal Commission of Inquiry 5 Umzimkulu Eastern Cape Active Central Government funded KwaZulu-Nafal Commission of Inquiry 6 Debated Split of Gauteng Dormant Political Party Negotiations Former PWV Mpumalanga 7 Debated Split of Eastern Cape Dormant Failed Attempt at the Eastern Cape Referendum 8 Debated Absorption of Western Cape Dormant Political Party Negotiations the Northern Cape info North West Neighbouring Provinces Northern Cape 9 Moutse, Mathanjana Gauteng Active Provincial led Commission districts of former Mpumalanga of Inquiry and Political KwaNdebele Homeland Party Negotiations 10 Sasolburg Gauteng Dormant Political Party Negotiations Free State 11 Cianwiiiiam, Vredendal, Western Cape Dormant Political Party Negotiations and Van Rhynsdorp Northern Cape 12 East Griqualand KwaZulu-Natal Active Central Government funded Eastern Cape Commission of Inquiry 13 Kuruman, Posfmasburg North West Active Provincial Level Negotiations and Hartswater Northern Cape 14 Brits, Moretele, Odi, and North West Active Local Protest Ga-Rankuwa Area Gauteng

Method The study areas Interviews, map surveys and submissions Figure 1 indicates that of the 14 original areas (written and oral) form the basis of the of dispute, there remain eight areas of active study. Map surveys are conducted in the contention. Some of the affected areas are field by having key geopolitical actors use a interrelated, and therefore active boundary base map of magisterial districts to draw in disputes can be simplified into five problem their preferred boundaries. The motivations areas. These are: Where for these particular maps then form the participation is essential part of the interview process. Key • The related Northern Province- policymakers such as commissioners and Mpumalanga disputes over Bushbuck- limited or government departments were interviewed ridge, Groblersdal and Marble Hall. geopolitical to determine the extent of public actors are participation and understand the • The Eastern Cape-KwaZulu-Natal ignored, violent mechanisms for decision making. boundary affecting East Griqualand, conflicts will arise Pondoland and Umzimkulu. Ultimately the interviews and surveys reveal both the criteria and actors that influence - • The Gauteng-Mpumalanga border or do not influence - the final production of region including the main affected area the boundaries. The geopolitical force of of the former KwaNdebele homeland. each set of actors cannot be precisely measured, but broader processes can be • The Gauteng-North West border region observed such as the general level of affecting the areas outlined in Figure 1. community input and the manner in which localities articulate with provincial and • The Northern Cape-North West dispute central government actors. over the main affected area of Kuruman.

Ul.lrLLU.uL VLiLU.Lt- 8 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1994 Altogether ilk.- boundaries of seven actors motivate for boundary changes. provinces arc contested. The Western Cape Political motivations are seldom cited. and l'ree Siaie are the only two provinces not al'l'ecled. The author has conducted Socio-economic bias There remain survey?, in ilie disputed Eastern Cape- eight areas of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng-Mpumalanga and Most of the discourse around the disputes active contention Northern ('ape-North West areas, including concern the two interrelated issues of observations of the Commission of Inquiry economic functionality and cultural into ilie I 'inalisation of the Provincial coherence. Most of the data gathered from Houndaries between KwaZulu-Natal and the map surveys and interviews confirms that Eastern I'ape. more commonly called the throughout the active dispute areas there are Justice I ivivjove Commission. groups who feel they were left outside the economic centres that either serve or derive Early results economic benefit from them. Early results indicate that the operating The people of Mothibistad on the North hypothesis was in need of some refinement West side of the provincial boundary but essentially correct. The active boundary complain that they have been cut off from disputes can be traced geographically to their main service and shopping centre, cultural and economic faultlines. In this Kuruman, which lies in the Northern Cape. sense il may be better to speak of Eastern Cape populations adjacent to East The active socio-economic faultlines. Griqualand say that their buying power disputes can be supports the urban nodes that lie on the traced However, it appears that the cle facto KwaZulu-Natal side of the boundary. geographically to situation of cultural and economic cultural and geographies explains the disputes less The Ndebele complain that they spend more economic adequately than the lack of proper of their lives working in Gauteng than mechanisms for grassroots input into the sleeping in Mpumalanga yet have no say in faultlines decision making process. Furthermore, the the affairs of Gauteng. Residents around results are complicated by an inherent bias Moretele, Odi and Ga-Rankuwa argue that toward socio-economic discourse when their main hospital and university facilities

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 9 llt-tUliUuL VL.UU.lit- Groups feel left are situated in the neighboring province of its goals and the economic functionality of outside the Gauteng. Certain groups in Bushbuckridge the Pretoria-Johannesburg link took complain that they are employed by big precedence over Ndebele demands in the economic towns in Mpumalanga and not more than negotiations at Kempton Park. centres that 1% or 2% work in Northern Province. either serve or This example points to more than cultural derive economic Within the framework of interviews and divisions and the favouring of one criteria benefit from them both written and oral submissions to various over another, but brings to question the commissions, cultural criteria were cited political motivations for boundaries. with the same frequency as economic ones: sometimes in a purely cultural context but Boundaries have enormous political often mixed with economic reasons. ramifications, particularly as they help to determine the outcome of elections. Yet In cultural terms, many Xhosa speakers political strategies even faintly suggestive of addressing the Justice Trengove gerrymandering are rarely expressed by any Commission expressed an interest in geopolitical actor from grassroots to the remaining affiliated with the Eastern Cape highest echelons of government. The lack of by declaring that 'we do not want to be ruled transparency hampers political analysis and by boys'. This was in reference to Zulus, results in a discourse that is biased toward who do not hold circumcision ceremonies. economic and cultural criteria.

Many groups representing Bhaca people in Consider the Eastern Cape-KwaZulu-Natal Umzimkulu expressed an interest in boundary debate. The potential movement of belonging to KwaZulu-Natal for reasons of nearly 2,5 million African National historic and cultural affiliation, and resented Congress (ANC) voters into Inkatha the enforced teaching of Xhosa during the Freedom Party (IFP) held KwaZulu-Natal years of affiliation with the . by an adjusted boundary was surely not Cultural criteria missed by ANC strategists. If the affected Some percentage of tribal people on the areas were moved into KwaZulu-Natal it were cited with Northern Province side of the boundary with would erode the power base of the IFP. the same Mpumalanga are related to Swazi and frequency as Shangaan peoples on the other side. In the The structure for resolving such disputes economic ones days of grand they were forcefully (Section 62 of the Interim Constitution) removed to bantustans ( and constrains such an outcome: both provincial ) to make way for Game Reserves, governments must approve boundary for example Kruger Park and Sabie. changes by a two thirds majority. It is doubtful that the IFP provincial government Many are seeking the return of traditional would welcome more than Umzimkulu and tribal lands claimed by Mpumalanga and the retainment of East Griqualand. want to negotiate this in that province. In the same area there also appears to be ethnic This complex situation is one of many conflict between Tsonga and Pedi speakers geopolitical realities that are not openly over provincial loyalties. This has resulted in discussed when surveying motivations for charges of intimidation, strong-arm tactics, boundary modifications. This produces data and even a lawsuit against Mpumalanga biased toward socio-economic explanations for verbal abuse. that must be balanced with geopolitical observation, inference and analysis. More frequently, cultural and economic reasons are mixed or otherwise both cited in motivating for a particular set of boundaries. Dispute problems Boundaries have For instance, the Pro-Gauteng Coordinating The structures or mechanisms for resolving enormous Committee is using mass action based on provincial boundary disputes are clearly political Ndebele identity to demand inclusion of the addressed in the Interim Constitution. They ramifications: former homeland for economic reasons. include a time limited referendum and various forms of negotiation. The they help to An opposing Ndebele political party referendum process was highly constrained determine the organisation, Intando Yesizwe, argued that and untested for the following reasons: outcome of the historic-cultural area of the Ndebele elections 'belonged together' in one province, • The six month time frame for the entire Mpumalanga, that included their urban process of referenda elapsed on October centre: Pretoria. Neither party succeeded in 27, 1994.

10 INDICATOR SA VoM3No1 Summer 1994 ULililtiUuL VLl-Ulifc- of violence have been reported in the press .( ;()V,rnniciit and party officials actively The referendum J . •„nri'V.I communities to undertake and before Commissions of Inquiry. process was Additional urgency stems from the May 10, other means of addressing disputes. highly 1996 deadline for adopting a new constrained and • •, The Constitution restricts referenda to Constitution that could better address the untested hi«hly specific questions about the 14 structure for resolving disputed boundaries. areas shown in Figure 2. Some of the current mechanisms include: • , Given llie time constraints, geopolitical negotiations between provincial officials; inaiiciivciings by political party commissions of inquiry; mediation by the Ifidership- and the strict terms of Ministry of Provincial Affairs; and political reference included in Section 124, party agreements. A brief introduction to political organisation had to be rapid, each may highlight some of the reasons why well funded and well directed. referenda should be brought back into the process.

\clion Referendum Eastern Cape, supported bv business was the only geopolitical actor • Negotiations between provincial lo a. tempi a petition before the expiry-date - officials bill f-iileil lo obtain even halt ot the lib 154 si.'iialurcs needed to split the province along From the point of view of the central the Kei Riv er. However, calls for referenda Government, negotiations on boundaries increased alter the date for filing elapsed, should be undertaken by the provinces indicating that this mechanism expired subject to Section 62 of the Interim sooner than most groups could experience Constitution that requires 'adoption at a joint the boundaries, assess the problems and sitting of the National Assembly and the organise a response. Senate by a majority of at least two thirds of the total number of members of both houses'. This in turn must be approved by Willi the referendum as a time limited and Political highly const rained option, negotiations the affected provincial governments. organisation had hecimic ihe only mechanism for resolving boundary disputes. None of these seem to be In practice this meant that when Premiers to be rapid, well very workable, decisive or as democratic as Mathews Phosa of Mpumalanga and funded and well referenda. In a recent paper produced by the Ngoako Ramathlodi of Northern Province directed Ministry of Provincial Affairs and negotiated an agreement to transfer Consiiliilional Development, the dispute Bushbuckridge to Mpumalanga, it still had process w as described: to undergo a complex constitutional process. When the Northern Province linked the "Notwithstanding several 'agreements' exchange of Groblersdal and Marble Hall to between provinces, it have (sic) to be the cession of Bushbuckridge - political noted 11 a it provinces were to date not 'horsetrading' - this deadlocked an already able lo ajfect the application of Section rigorous process and returned the problem to 62(2) of the Constitution. This resulted central government level. in disputes being referred to central government for resolution. The latest • Commissions of inquiry tendency is that some premiers refer all provincial boundary disputes to the Technical commissions can be organised at Minister of Provincial Affairs and either the provincial or central government ('on siiiuiional Development without level to take submissions, analyse them, and even attempting to resolve the matter. " provide a recommendation. However, consultants and advisers are not the decision The inability to resolve boundary disputes in makers. While useful for supplementing the The inability to available information, such commissions are a well structured manner is indeed a 'crisis' resolve boundary fraught with problems and are expensive. since there is costly confusion over disputes is competencies such as the payment of civil indeed a 'crisis' servants, delays in Reconstruction and The Justice Trengove Commission probably Development Programmes, and ongoing represents the most thorough attempt to violence and threats of violence. ascertain public opinion that has ever been undertaken in a South African boundary One death in Kuruman is linked to the dispute. Four wheel drive vehicles have boundary disputes and tales of intimidation, been used to take commissioners into the death threats, house burnings and other acts most remote of areas to hear testimony.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1994 11 uiitiUiUaL waaiias The Justice Nonetheless the very presence of the the boundary disputes that have been settled Trengove commission created tensions as various were worked out in a similar way at the Commission political forces focused on swaying the Kempton Park negotiations. represents the decision making process by packing halls most thorough and sometimes using intimidation to create The KwaNdebele dispute may be settled this the impression of unanimity. Sometimes way despite the grassroots call for a attempt to individual speakers claimed to represent referendum. In private interviews, Gauteng ascertain public communities and organisations that did not officials of various political parties opinion acknowledge them as leaders. expressed resistance to the inclusion of the former Ndebele bantustan because it would Several translators were asked to step down require the establishment of a House of for not faithfully translating the words of Traditional Leaders that would complicate political opponents. Numerous individuals the political process. spoke openly about threats to their well being, even though Justice Trengove made it This is one of many hidden political agendas repeatedly clear that intimidation was not that involve efforts to capture segments of part of the democratic process. the electorate and to mobilise or demobilise ethnic identity for increased political power. In other provincial boundary disputes, entire busloads of people have been moved across provincial boundaries to skew the testimony Tentative conclusions of 'local' citizens - for example, the The research continues, but initial data Groblersdal Hearings of May 26, 1995. indicates that South Africa's multicultural geography is less of a problem than the lack of a mechanism for local communities to • Mediation by the central fully participate in the decision making government process. Mechanisms for Given the constraints imposed by the community existing constitutional procedure, Mass action and protest are primary ways participation in intervention by the central Government for peripheralised local actors to demand the constructing cannot do more than bring the existing attention of more powerful roleplayers. In geopolitical actors together, serve as a turn, these higher level authorities embark boundaries are consultant and appoint commissions to on processes of negotiation that often lack needed further investigate a dispute. In the case of transparency. This reproduces limited levels the Justice Trengove Commission, the of local participation in the decision making results will be reported directly to President process and escalates violence and mass , but even a presidential action as alternative responses to political decree is not a mechanism for resolving powerlessness. boundary disputes. The Cabinet can recommend that the Parliament vote to In the absence of referenda and given the change the boundaries but the provinces formidable procedures for modifying must ultimately concur with that decision. provincial boundaries, all the mechanisms of negotiation refer power back to higher levels of authority and party politics. • Political party negotiation Political party negotiation is one mechanism Submissions to a commission of inquiry that has worked to resolve some boundary have no binding power on the decision disputes, but at the expense of transparency making process and may even heighten the and grassroots democracy. On the one hand, tension. In any case, the economic and the majority of boundary disputes that have cultural discourse at the grassroots level been settled were worked out in just such a often disguises complex geopolitical REFERENCES manner at Kempton Park. On the other hand, maneuverings to effect the outcome of Minister of Provincial Affairs and most existing boundary disputes are also the elections and increase the power base of Constitutional result of the Kempton Park negotiations that Development (1995) various individuals and political parties. 'Mechanisms to frequently omitted local actors from the Resolve Provincial Boundary Disputes', decision making process. As a policy consideration for multicultural Unpublished states, it seems that mechanisms for Discussion Document. As discussed earlier, the political analyst can community participation in constructing Republic of South Africa (1993) Constitution of only infer the extent and kind of political boundaries is requisite to avoiding the the Republic of South Africa, Act 200 of horsetrading and private agreements that go potential instability of cultural faultlines 1993. on behind closed doors. Nonetheless most of (supporting the hypothesis). ©S3&

U-l-ldlilUiL tiitUtifc- 12 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Tise Skweyiya Commission LiSSRSi to it Dnwiisg l§itl Sirica

By John Seiler, Political Analyst and Brendan Seery, Sunday Tribune, Johannesburg

The Skweyiya Commission of Inquiry into former Bophuthatswana, which presented its summary report to the North West provincial government in October, uncovered an extraordinary web of corruption and misuse of public money by and top government officials. The Commission was well conducted, and poses challenges not just for government in South Africa, but for all of us who remain committed to democratisation.

ommissions of inquiry were media put enough pressure on the The politicisation commonplace in the apartheid era. government of the day to make it difficult of commissions COn the surface, they appeared for it to put up a Potemkin Village inquiry of inquiry is not legitimate and productive but, more often with innocuous or non-public recommen- novel to South than not. they legitimised government dations without some political cost. behaviour In utilising chairmen who did not Africa know enough to judge the political context There are exceptions, especially when a into w liicli ihey were thrust, were often given government can appeal on grounds of inadequate staff, and as a result produced patriotism: the Warren Commission comes helmed and superficial reports which to mind. While it would be naive to expect disappeared into the maw of government the origins of commissions to be devoid of with ver\ lilt ie media or public attention. partisan political motivations, in a democracy there should be no mystery about Take two distinct examples. The Browne either the final recommendations or the Commission of Inquiry into the process that led to the recommendations. adniinisir;ui< in of international financial policy. headed by long time former Openness about commission processes Secrelar\ of Finance, Gerald Browne, depends on the endurance and accumulating worked for more than a year from a Union insight of regular observers, particularly BuildiiiL's cubby-hole without a secretary. journalists. The commission's work depends on adequate funding, competent I he Margn Commission investigating investigative staff, and sufficient legal Samora Maehel's death in a plane crash in powers to pursue leads wherever they take it. Openness about October I ws 3 took evidence presented by commission the South African Government at face value Most important, a commission's work and exonerated Pretoria of any responsibility should be as free as possible of political processes in what remains a murky, unresolved intervention - especially by the party in depends on the incident. power - and if any attempts at interference insight of regular occur, the commissioners must be observers, Of course, the politicisation of commissions independent minded enough and of such particularly ot inquiry is not novel to South Africa. Any integrity that their public revelations of such journalists governing party in an established democracy attempts severely embarrass the politicians is tempted to do the same thing, but usually involved and add to the public impression of the opposition party and a portion of the the commission's objectivity and virtue.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 13 llt-tUliUuL VL.UU.lit- The Skweyiya The Skweyiya Commission of Inquiry - That was essentially completed by March Commission of 'into corrupt practices and irregular use of this year. Few witnesses came forward Inquiry comes public funds in government departments and voluntarily. c/ose to meeting parastatal bodies by various individuals or at In the same period, the first of only two the standards for their instance' - which presented its summary report on corruption in breakthroughs came on broader issues. Jem an inquiry in a Bophuthatswana to the North West Reid, who had been Bophuthatswana's democracy provincial government in mid-October, Information Secretary and then director comes close to meeting the standards for an general of its parastatal reincarnation, the inquiry in a democracy. Information Service of Bophuthatswana, was caught by investigators in a palpable act In its strengths, its few shortcomings, and of perjury and in bribe taking. the enormous amount of unfinished business it has evoked, it poses challenges not just for The investigators squeezed Reid as much as the North West provincial government, for they could, offering him freedom from other provincial governments and for the indictment in return for his cooperation. Government of National Unity, but for all of Some hard facts emerged: these, in turn, us in South Africa who have a commitment raised broader questions. to continued democratisation. The facts were simple. Reid had ostensibly signed a contract on February 10, 1994, with Origins and evolution a South African based company, Q Projects, The Commission had its embryonic origins to do political education work aimed at in a two person investigation into personal encouraging support within the homeland corruption in the former Bophuthatswanan for Mangope's preferred position of keeping President Lucas Mangope's government, Bophuthatswana independent from South launched by Joint Administrators Job Africa. The original brief Mokgoro and Tjaart van der Walt during the was focused on interregnum between Mangope's enforced That contract, for R6 million, was presented removal from office in mid-March 1994 and to Tjaart Van der Walt, who on the alleged acts of the inauguration of 's North West recommendation of his legal advisor, personal provincial government on May 10 that year. decided the commitment was legal and corruption by needed to be honoured. Citing political Mangope By August, the new provincial government instability, Q Projects asked for and received had issued the proclamation setting up the full payment within days. Commission and it started work in September, chaired by Advocate Louis Staff investigation revealed that Reid had Skweyiya. The Commission's original brief been paid a total of R138 000: R40 000 in was focused prosaically on alleged acts of cash and the rest in two checks drawn on a personal corruption by Mangope. It company registered in . When expected to complete its work by the end of confronted with the checks, Reid admitted 1994. that the contract with Q Projects had been signed on March 16 (when he no longer had In practice, its range of investigation any authority) and back dated to February. expanded unexpectedly and began to move beyond acts of individual corruption and The Ciskei threads were intriguing but were fraud in the Bophuthatswana government not brought together before the into abuse of governmental powers and Commission's work ended. funds for illegal purposes directed at strengthening the Mangope regime and The role of Q Projects did yield more fruit. weakening the mounting opposition to it It had done similar 'voter education' work from the African National Congress (ANC), for Mangope in 1992 and 1993. In 1993, its But its range unions, the South African Council of work was slanted toward building support expanded into Churches, and other anti-apartheid groups. for Mangope's Bophuthatswana Christian abuse of Democratic Party (BCDP). That thread led governmental What started as a short term assignment for the Commission staff to search for other- powers and the commissioners (all drawn from outside indications of illicit support for the BCDP funds to the province), the three staff advocates, and utilising government funds. strengthen the the two investigators became at first a Mangope regime prolonged effort to uncover supporting A second reluctant witness emerged - JJA evidence for the charges against Mangope. Esterhuizen, former Secretary of the

ItlitiLtilUiL VUUUlit" 14 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 hutsV* una State Security Council Advocate lhul Thembile / SSC) t-Merhuizen testified only because he Louis Vt.(i imlictiuent for theft and/or fraud of Skweyiya K'S 10 000 of Bophuthatswana funds which v]'.inoope lmil asked him to deposit overseas hut for which he could not (or perhaps would not) account.

[•'stcrhui/cn's submissions of SSC records and his depiction of SSC meetings added a ramie of aileged offences. The most specific was the decision to pay the BCDP RIO,5 million from the SSC budget via one of two privat: IVonl companies. Advocate Skweyiya was unequivocal in his condemnation of this decision and the attitude underlying it:

"(Keikelame and Cronje)...defended the decision to fund the CDP from i>overnmem money. In essence, they contended that the activities of the ANC jeopardise)/ the independence of lioplmlhaiswana. Because the CDP was an imporuwt weapon in the struggle against the ANC, the use of government money lo lund the CDP was justified, the\ said.

"Such ihi»ting is totally foreign to the idea oj multi-party democracy....The entire covert nature of the operation makes ii quite dear that they were ulway v aware that these activities were illegitimoh and illegal and would not government funds were expended in line Submissions of find favour even among the people of with established budgets, was deliberately State Security what u'i /a ilien Bophuthatswana. " kept uninformed. Council records (SummaiN report) and meetings added a range of I.:slerhui/cn\ testimony also made clear Report, actions and reactions Mangopc's central role in the kitchen The Commission's summary report was alleged offences cabinet that constituted the SSC cabinet submitted to the North West government on commiiici.- and made these decisions. Only October 13. (The recommendations are two oilier ( ahinet members were privy: summarised in the separate chart.) How an Cinnie (whose previous activities in lomier Rhodesia and Ciskei left a pervasive The Executive Council gave its stamp of distrust ol him by other Ministers and approval quickly. The Attorney General was officials), and Ephraim Keikelame, then asked to bring the recommended indictments Minister ol Economic Affairs. against Mangope, Keikelame and the others cited. A prominent advocate was asked to 1 akc one maior instance: the decision to prepare the civil suit against Mangope for commit a total of R177 million to the return of some R18 million. And the Office consiniciiiHi of a major coal operated power for Serious Economic Offences was asked to The station winch was never used. Mangope did conduct a full investigation into the alleged Commission's not reveal the details of the project even to fraud involving the non-utilised power summary report the kitchen cabinet, the remaining cabinet station. was submitted to members did not even know of its existence the North West until ii \\:is constructed, and - as in most There was a brief, belated flurry of attention government on other ivpi

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 15 M&UlML UCT-LILM Mangope refuted exception of The Mail, the Mafeking based change to correspond to new provincial the report and weekly newspaper. boundaries poses no administrative problem insisted that it - although it would if indictments were was a malicious SAFM gave serious attention to the issues, called for outside the jurisdiction of this Newsline/Agenda devoted its October 15 effort to weaken Attorney General. session to the report, with Popo Molefe his party's local providing a vigorous argument in support Like all other South African Attorneys election and Lucas Mangope, in a separate interview, General, the Mmabatho office is prospects insisting the inquiry was politically overworked and under staffed. Some hard motivated and not accurate. In passing, he decisions will need to be made about said he was available to become South priorities among the recommended Africa's president after the next national indictments. Those involving Mangope's election. personal corruption have the most substantial supportive evidence and would Mangope denied any truth in the report and require the least staff time in preparing insisted in the final weeks of the new United criminal cases. Christian Democratic Party's campaign for the November 1 local government elections At the other extreme, those involving that the report's release was a malicious Rowan Cronje and JJV Vermaak, former effort to weaken the UCDP's electoral Bophuthatswana Secretary for Finance, aiv prospects. most circumstantial. While the Attorney General's judgement about pursuing them This appeal gained no discernible support. should be shorn of any political The UCDP lost Mangope's two home wards considerations, it is possible that an in Lehurutshe to the ANC, and fell far awareness of the surrounding political behind the ANC, the Freedom Front and the environment may come into play. National Party in Rustenburg and the other The civil claim large communities in the province. Cronje's reputation is particularly negative against Mangope around Mmabatho, so that, despite the Its only substantial success came in was presented flimsy nature of the evidence to hand, there Mmabatho, reflecting disgruntlement among may be incentives to pursue an investigation to his many civil servants in this 'government that would more firmly establish his role in Johannesburg town' about their longer term career- official malfeasance and misuse of fundi attorneys on prospects when the Interim Constitution's than now exists. October 30 protection of all civil service jobs falls away in 1999. The resort to the Office for Serious Economic Offences poses not only the question of overstretched staff resources but Implementation constraints an ironic footnote to apartheid. As the The civil claim against Mangope was present statutes stand, the Office has no presented to his Johannesburg attorneys on jurisdiction over alleged offences arising October 30, 1995, by the Johannesburg firm from the former independent states - of . It called for the payment of although its jurisdiction extends to the R18 479 819,78: the total recommended by former self governing territories. the Skweyiya Commission, excepting only the Marico Chrome Mining royalties It would require an act of Parliament or a allegedly diverted from the Bahurutshe Presidential proclamation to provide tribal trust. Apparently that final amount authority to the Office for Serious Economic- must be claimed by the trust itself. Offences to investigate the Bophuthatswana power station boondoggle. The Ayob letter of claim had a deadline of November 15. Non-payment by that date Advocate meant that a time consuming and expensive Beyond the tip Skweyiya noted legal process was just starting without any Advocate Skweyiya noted in his summary in his summary clear end date or termination. report that the evidence presented was no report that the more than the tip of the iceberg. This is evidence The recommended indictments have gone to patently true in at least three distinct presented was no the Attorney General for the former dimensions. more than the tip homeland, based in Mmabatho. In this case, of the iceberg the fact that the pre-existent domains for First, personal corruption extended South African Attorneys General have yet to throughout the homeland government. Most

UUtilliloiL mi&UOs 16 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Offences cited Skweyiya Commission Recommendations involve nearly R22 million

Recommendations: Mangope Other Recommendations

1 The power station. Office for Serious tho offences cited involve a total of Economic Offences carry forward an JTrfnrnxirriately P22 million. Civil proceedings are investigation to determine if fraud was ®rnmmendeci'o get the government funds hnrk In a few instances, as indicated, others are committed (R177 million spent, on a hSri jointly responsible. All these instances are 'secret' project, without Bop Cabinet being «Trommended !or appropriate criminal informed, no power ever generated). Bekor indictment generally theft and/or fraud, by the managing director, David Nunns, (and Attorney General, except where marked. unnamed others) 'be assessed to determine their culpability for the losses suffered'. MQtswedi-Befsoaal residence • | Improvements 400 000 (calls for immediate oubiidty) Q Projects (its Bophuthatswana name - it was registered in South Africa as Q Group). •j Use DPW staff R170 000 David Immelman be indicted for fraud and civil proceedings be brought against QP j Generator,'alternator R90 000 (return or pay for R5,5 million paid for 1994 backdated - no criminal charge) contract.

Moiswedi Qgi[y Jerry Reid be warned that his honest testimony in Immelman trial will be his only j Employees equiDment R105 000 (no criminal charge) protection against prosecution for above offence, and that, in any case, he will be j Alwynspoort Farm (Groot Marico) used by held liable for any funds not recoverable Mangope from 1985, Bop property from QP. QP be forced by civil proceedings Mining royalties R3 000 000 to refund R6 million of its 1993 contract went to Mangope which strengthened the BCDP with •j Government employee as manager government funds. instead of the R246 000 tribe he heads

Moeng smallholding 3 Rowan Cronje: civil and criminal j Government labour and materials R51 000 proceedings regarding R75 000 given him (no criminal charge) in cash by State Security Council secretary, Esterhuizen, for which his oral accounting to Commission was disbelieved Marico Chrome Mining Company J Royalt'es (April 1979 to 1994) went to Mangope instead of to Bahurutshe Boo 4 Jerry Reid, as Director General of the . -:ne tribe (recommends Premier halt Information Service of Bophuthatswana: for Mangope financial activity at once, start various instances (misuse of credit cards, investigation under relevant legislature, official vehicles etc) totalling roughly Mangope either voluntarily steps down as chief during investigation or be suspended) R300 000. He has promised to repay, but R2 626 000 should be indicted for fraud if he fails to do so.

• State Security Council Funds illegally Regarding payments of R950 000 to former transmitted to the Bophuthatswana Christian Finance Secretary JJV Vermaak as 'golden Democratic Party (also Ephraim Keikelame, gag' (both Vermaak and Mangope). BCDP treasurer and Minister of Economic Affairs, and the Party itself) R10 400 000

J 'Golden gag' to JJV Vermaak, former JJA Esterhuizen, Secretary of the State Rowan Cronje Finance Secretary R950 000 Security Council: responsible for R510 000 did not account of Mangope's R1,3 million for overseas • Funds to pay Mangope's personal costs account, which Esterhuizen did not send on satisfactorily for R80 000 and would not account for. To be charged R75 000 given with fraud and/or theft if he fails to testify him in cash • In an additional related charge, Skweyiya honestly in all criminal cases involving recommends that Mangope be charged under the Exchange Control Act for an misuse of SSC funds (BCDP, Vermaak, illegal transfer to overseas banks of a sum of Mangope etc). R1 300 000, ostensibly his private funds.

INDICATORS A Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 17 UUtlliUuL VUtLlllf The Motmele Cabinet members, most senior officials and remained at work and are protected in i|luj). Commission is a fair number of middle level officials - employment until 1999 - unless disnii^ examining particularly those with posts outside for cause following departmental procedure malfeasance in Mmabatho that put them into direct contact or sentenced in court. with business people - followed the pattern both former of noblesse oblige set by Mangope himself. Few would admit to past offences, gh^i th Bophuthatswana e probable loss of jobs and perhaps pensmns and the Transvaal Second, and linked with personal corruption, and civil suits for repayment to the portions of the was corruption around major projects: provincial government. Few who know of province whether tangible ventures, like the others' malfeasances would seem Iikci\ t« 'Independence' Stadium in Mmabatho, the tell, for fear of their own offences beini Convention Centre (named after Mangope publicised. and from which, allegedly, he took the rental fees for his personal use), and almost every The same dilemma applies to the range .i|' construction project throughout the companies that engaged in dubious or homeland, or 'development' projects - Bop patently illegal activities in the pursuit of Air, Agrichicks and a wide range of contracts with the homeland government. agricultural and industrial ventures. The best mechanism may be nothing imnv Finally, and least explored to date, is the complicated than making repetition of work of the Bophuthatswana State Security corruption difficult and unrewarding. The Council in sustaining Pretoria's political provincial government has put considerable interests in the homeland. effort into making tendering processes more straightforward and transparent. Auditing Here it seems likely that Rowan Cronje's functions have been strengthened. role becomes pivotal, and given the protectiveness of South Africa's Military Most intriguing is the still early work, Effective Intelligence directorate about its activities in started in April this year, of a Skwey i\ a like provincial the dying days of apartheid, this focus will commission, the Motmele Commission, be the most difficult to unravel. which has outside commissioners, a government is the substantial and energetic investigative si,iff. best protection How to explore these dimensions of past is well funded and has the inclusive hiicfof against a corruption? How much in the way of examining malfeasance in local auth< >i uies. continuation of continuing revelation should we expect? The in both the former homeland and the corruption provincial government's funding of the Transvaal portions of the province. Ii is not Skweyiya Commission's investigations limited to pre-May 1994 activities. continued through November. The Premier has been forthright aboui At the current point, some of the work in corruption, not only in his public rheim ic progress could logically be given over for but in his approach to the single mode»i ease prospective completion by the commission involving Riani de Wet, former Memlvi ol promised by President Nelson Mandela after the Executive Committee for Media, w ho he read the Skweyiya Commission's report misused some RIO 000 for personal 11el to - especially those elements involving the Sun City for a Joe Cocker concert. former South African government in the Ciskei and other homelands, and the range Ironically, when she resigned in late of activities beyond this country involving October, the immediate and publicly illegal transfers of money for propaganda emphasised reason was her naive handling and various covert activities to sustain of the negotiations with Bop Broadcasting Bophuthatswana and weaken the ANC, for over retrenchment packages, which the the dubious purchase of property for Premier and ExCo disowned. Her minor 'official' use, and in transfers to hidden It would be useful malfeasance was never mentioned. personal accounts, like Mangope's in the to investigate Channel Islands. The only other apparent error of judgement pre-May 1994 involved utilising Q Projects for two corruption in It would not be easy to pursue other cases of projects in the new provincial government. provinces in personal corruption in the former Both were launched before it became public which homelands Bophuthatswana regime. knowledge that the company had bribed existed Jerry Reid, and to the government's credit, it Aside from former Cabinet members and then cancelled a large voter registration and department secretaries, most officials have education contract as quickly as possible.

U-l-ldlilUiL tiitUtifc- 18 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Commission lessc Skweyiya has shown that vision of The former Bophuthatswana to be a facade. The Mmabatho ,, r incial government is the best spending of R177 million of taxpayers ; government , m- hiii a««i»"i > continuation of the money by the former Mmabatho «-m c»r corrupii"" endemic to homelands administration on the 'white elephant' spent R177 Surint' THE PIVN government. power station north of Pretoria, and the million on a cavalier way in which correct tender and power station Th'ii s'lid it ««uilill'e useful to hold other procedures were side-stepped, has which was never ,r Miuf'us independent investigations of echoes elsewhere. used v- M'i\ i99-1 cni i irpiion in provinces in whi'cli'lioinciand--1 a long with corrupted Investigators with Skweyiya identified a provincial administrations) existed- number of different government contracts especially llie I-.astern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal which were awarded without going through and Northern Prmince. the normal State Tender Board channels. Their belief is that all such deals - and they Despi^ ['resident Mandela's quick offer to claim there could have been hundreds during set up an overall inquiry, it would seem best the life of the Mangope regime - should be in terms of political impact to have initiative investigated. and control come from provincial government'-. Then ihey can pledge with All major capital projects would also greater lei2iumac\ in avoid the mistakes of therefore fall under suspicion, and should be The recent past am I hopefully do so. closely examined to determine whether the correct procedures were followed and There are also lemons for the rest of us. The whether money paid out by the homeland media need to watch provincial and local government was related to what it got. government Meadily. Business needs to move from the 'shrug of the shoulders' Skweyiya investigators have on their files a amoralilv thai sustained homelands, while copy of a 1979 Pretoria News press report in Investigators profiting themsclw-. which an official of the former Bophuthatswana National Development identified The rest ol'u> need to support provincial Corporation was quoted as saying that there government governments and the national government in had been no need to put out to tender the contracts the hard business oi producing more Mmabatho shopping complex, because awarded without elTccii\e ci\ il sci \ ices, a process that will Stocks and Stocks Bophuthatswana had going through the luuonK bring impmved and less expensive 'already completed large projects in State Tender service deii\er\ but also will reduce the Mmabatho where it submitted the lowest Board channels likelihood of cmrupdon within government. tender'.

That the Skweyiya Commission, in the Stocks and Stocks current deputy chairman words of chairman Louis Skweyiya, only Bart Dorrestein, who ran the company's scratched the surface of possible corruption, Bophuthatswana operation in the 1970s and theft and mismanagement in the former 1980s, was approached by Skweyiya Buphulhatswana is no reflection of the work Commission investigators and asked to put in by investigators. It is more an explain the details of a palatial house the indication that only those matters which company built for Mangope in the late could lv dealt with reasonably quickly and 1970s. It is not known what the outcome of simply were presented before the the inquiry was. Commission. Another area involving big South African investigators attached to Skewyiya did turn capital in Bophuthatswana is casinos and <>\ er a number of other rocks or were aware gambling. A thorough investigation along ol other rocks that needed to be turned over. the lines of Skweyiya would determine Houses in whether the business involvement of Sun London, Paris Lucas Mangope's empire was often touted International especially was above board. as the 'homeland that worked' - its glitzy and Riga have shopping centres, government buildings and, been reclaimed. Other aspects which investigators probed 111 ^ourso. Sun City, all spoke of prosperity. Foreign bank only superficially were the foreign property Mangope himself frequently pointed to the accounts and acquisitions of the Bophuthatswana supposed fiscal discipline of the homeland business deals government. Houses in London, Paris and a when compared to the excesses of the need to be 1 raiiikci, and Ciskei. rented property in Riga, the capital of Latvia, were identified and reclaimed on investigated

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 19 L'-LLLVLtiUL VtctzLlLfc- TheMangope behalf of the South African Government, what was around one third of the value in government with the Department of Foreign Affairs asset terms. squandered stepping in to recover some assets like R120 million on furniture and put some of the properties on Close to R100 million was spent on the Bop Air, now the market. exclusive International School in Mmabatho, which was an educational h;i\ „ trading as Sun Air c A related issue is that of possible foreign for the children of Mangope's close bank accounts operated by Mangope and associates, together with those of wealihy others in the homeland government. Foreign whites from the homeland and wealthy business deals, including the Mmabatho families from neighbouring Botswana administration's involvement in a hotel business in Northern Italy arranged by The school was later turned over to a Bo;u\| businessman Roberto Scio - the man who of Governors and continued to draw put the power station deal together - also government funding for some time. It is now need to be investigated in full. operated as a private school, but questions remain about who the rightful owners uf its Then there is the question of the homeland assets are. The new North West government airline Bop Air, now trading as Sun Air and has already had a commission of inquii \ a possible candidate for privatisation. into the school, but its findings have n \et Documents which surfaced during the been released. course of the Skweyiya probe revealed that the Mangope administration squandered Many reports over the past 10 years about around R120 million on the airline between questionable deals in Bophuthatswana have the early 1980s and the overthrow of included reference to the 'Israeli connection'. Mangope in March last year. A number of Israeli businessmen were deeply involved with Mangope and made Tens of millions That sort of expenditure - far more than millions. Mangope also made frequent, were poured into comparable homeland airlines operated by unexplained trips to Israel. the parastatal the Transkei, for example - was on a par Agrichicks, and with that of the power station. Money which Apart from the financial probes which could nearly R100 could have housed or educated tens of logically follow the work of Skweyiya, there million into the thousands of the homeland's people. is the more murky question of the International connections in Bophuthatswana of the South The airline never made a profit while African security services. The Q Group of School Mangope was in power, and it acquired a companies, for example, was involved in a number of expensive aircraft - including a disinformation project funded by Pretoria Gulfstream III executive jet which had an slush money in the early 1990s in Botswana, intercontinental capability and was primarily as well as in ventures Skweyiya identified. used to ferry Mangope and his family to London, Israel and Latvia. There are also Then there must also be a thorough questions about the acquisition of some investigation into allegations made in the other aircraft by Bop Air, and at least one mid-1990s about alleged hit squads instance of misconduct or fraud by senior operating on behalf of the Mangope staff members which was never fully aired. government.

Another major money vacuum in the And the unresolved mystery of how homeland's wide range of inefficient Mmabatho airport was used as a covert parastatals was Agrichicks, a grandiose import and export channel for arms and scheme to provide one of the biggest other goods. One shipment of weapons from chicken hatcheries in the southern Armscor, flown out from the airport in 1992, hemisphere. It never came close to making a ended up in the hands of the then Yugoslav There should be profit in the hands of its overall owner, the government when it was destined for Croat further parastatal Agricor, and tens of millions of rebels. investigations rand in taxpayers money had to be written into murky off before the organisation even began Many of those questions are probably within security showing operating surpluses. the realm of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The North West connections, The company was sold in questionable administration could do well to identify, by alleged hit squad circumstance around the time of the preliminary investigations, those areas activities and overthrow of Mangope. Half of its shares which could be examined by the truth body arms trafficking were sold to a South African company for in relation to Bophuthatswana. IMS

UrUtillLtlaL VUUlllLf 20 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 POLITICAL MONITOR

Official SA Trade Unions Directory Labour Statistics

ECONOMICALLY ACTIVE POPULATION

Year Total Whites Asians Blacks 1970 6 663 1 548 761 191 4 163 1980 8 436 1 895 955 257 5 329 1990 11 437 2 343 1 339 371 7 384 1991 11 716 2 394 1 366 381 7 575 1992 12013 2 446 1 401 393 7 773 1993 12 320 2 501 1 436 404 7 979 1994 12 564 2 518 1 456 409 8 181

Figures for all years are based on 1985 boundaries, ie excluding the TBVC states. Source: Central Statistical Services

ECONOMICALLY ACTIVE POPULATION ACCORDING TO AGE GROUP, 1991 ('000)

Age Group Total Whites Coloureds Asians Blacks

Total 11 624 2 388 1 359 380 7 497

-20 526 90 112 24 300 20-24 1670 321 271 66 1 012 L!5-34 3917 674 467 118 2 658 OC CA 4 591 1 051 435 148 2 957 55-64 762 203 64 21 474 6b • 157 50 9 3 95

Population census adjusted to undercount. Source: Central Statistical Service.

• i^lllillllllllglililSi:; Local Elections 1995

By Graeme Gotz Centre for Policy Studies

Interpretation of the results of the local government elections held on November 1, 1995, has glossed over many problems that bode ill for the operation of local democracy in South Africa. Among them are the low voter turnout, what produced the results in different local authorities, what the real balance of power will be in each area - regardless of what the vote counts reflect - and what new councils will be able to achieve in the areas they control.

FTVieiv is something both annoying and explanation which is no explanation at all. Analyses of the I disturbing about the stock analysis The fact that South African voters did not local election M dial has tended to accompany the make it to the polls in local elections is results are release of llw November 1, 1995 local somehow understandable by virtue of the annoying and fact that local government never attracts election results. Not because this standard disturbing analysis lias misinterpreted the figures, but much electoral support. because its point of departure and basic emphasis lias seemed so profoundly out of This reasoning begs the question as to why joint s\ ith the essence of local elections - the citizens give such little import to the mapping of new local political forms onto installation of democratically accountable existing social and economic circumstances systems of local rule. in a multitude of different localities. Surely we are entitled to demand more than a cursory non-explanation when asking why Turnout and authority Krugersdorp, for example, though Consider, to start with, the tendency to applauded throughout the earlier stages of Only about 33% explain a\\a\ the surprisingly low turnout in the electoral process for having mobilised of total eligible the local elections with reference to virtually every one of its residents onto the comparable levels of participation in local voters roll - its final recorded registration people voted polls in other modern democracies. was 106% - saw only 38% of them vote on November 1, thus achieving one of the Overall turnout hovered somewhere in the lowest turnout rates in Gauteng. region of 51 % of registered voters in the 690 local authorities that voted on November 1, The comparison is also disturbing politically dropping to about 33% of total potential because it buys into the same constellation voters if it is considered that only some 75% of assumptions and attitudes which arguably of citizens who could have cast a ballot produced the low turnout in the first place. A chose to appear on the voters rolls. mere 30% turnout is somehow 'forgivable' because local elections never garner much The low turnout 1 lie argument has been made that these higher levels of interest anyway. rates, although 'disappointing', are generally was excused by considered normal in comparable polls The equation carries within it an excuse, comparisons with elsewhere, and hence are 'satisfactory'. which rests on the uncritical normative polls elsewhere perception that whatever happens in local '1 he comparison is annoying government can be measured against a set of cpistemologically, because is appeals to an standards universally acknowledged to be

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 23 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Local inferior to that which pertains to central state ballot were turned away when, after quouim, government has events and processes. for hours, they discovered that their nanit come to be had been incorrectly placed on voters lis|S jn adjacent wards. Disheartened, most simply regarded as a Surely we are entitled to be genuinely concerned when would-be voters went home: only a few went the extra milt mere adjunct to • I dismissively tell news reporters that local to find their correct station. its more potent elections are a farce, that it makes no provincial and difference who is elected to local Many other voters, it has been suggested, • national government because 'the powers that be' - simply did not bother to go to the polls counterparts above local level - would continue to make because they were certain their chosen pwij the decisions. would carry the day anyway, facing minimal opposition in their area. Many more were It could be argued that the comparison thus discouraged or physically prevented from masks, and simultaneously perpetuates, the going to vote by numerous and varied calls basic problem at the heart of low turnout. It for boycotts from farmers, chiefs or reproduces, uninterrogated, the widespread disgruntled civic leaders not included on perception that local government, when set African National Congress (ANC) lists, alongside higher tiers, is a far less important and effective site of political authority and It can convincingly be argued, however, hai societal management. none of these factors would have been sufficient conditions in themselves had the No doubt because of its troubled history prior necessary condition of local I under apartheid, when it became a principal governments' poor image not been present. I component of the National Party's 1980s policy of 'own affairs', and because of the Voters would not have been so easily Many potential nature of the transition which focused deterred by administrative bungling or voters put all their attention primarily on the regional question boycott calls, and would have felt far gi eater faith in national and the character of a future state, local personal responsibility to contribute theii and provincial government has come to be regarded as a vote, whatever the apparent balance of mere adjunct to its bigger and more potent power in their community, had local governments provincial and national counterparts. governments carried more symbolic weight installed last year as significant political forms in their ow n For most people, the November elections right. completed the democracy process, not in the interest of vibrant, autonomous forms of local representation and resource Looming problems mobilisation, but so that political parties What this observation alerts us to - and litis already in power in already established is the problem obscured by the institutions at a national and regional level non-explanation provided by a banal could have the channels down to individual comparison - is that if local govern men is communities to more effectively implement cannot call out significant numbers of \ uteis already decided policies of reconstruction on election day, they will probably be and development. unable to call upon these same voters to become personally involved in onerous In essence then, many potential voters community wide endeavours in the future, simply did not see the point in making their or to sacrifice their own interests in favour way to the polls because they had already of those of other sections of a local put all their faith in national and provincial population. governments installed last year. And for many of those who did vote, it was simply to It must be recognised that it will be local Local factors bolster a ballot, the value and significance of authorities, not provincial and national conspired to which had already been determined in April governments, that will lead the difficult produce 1994. processes of resurrecting and transforming abstention from communities in the years to come. the polls in parts Local factors These processes - inducing residents to pay of the country It must be acknowledged that a great for services delivered is only the first - will number of locally specific factors conspired involve the juggling of hard, conflicting to produce abstention from the polls in priorities and the awkward assertion of various parts of the country. Many voters official political prerogative in areas which who were fully committed to casting their have effectively governed themselves for

L-tiLLVLtiuL I'lii-liLt" 24 INDICATOR SA VoM3 No 1 Summer 1995 The} aic processes which will yC arouiicJlv Un eaten entrenched material iiiicrcsls and local power bases.

..,1 lI0\ernments cannot rely on the .inhi ol'their own authority, because the riri/ens who are the objects of their i-ndeavour are looking past them to the nver of liiuher institutions as the source of development and change, the transformation of our towns, cities and rural areas is likely lo he a slow and confHctual process.

The problem of prevailing attitudes to local government is starkly illustrated in an HSRC survey conducted a month before the elections.

Thirty eight percent of survey respondents fell that focal government should not have the power to adopt policies in conflict with those of provincial and national "overnmentv as opposed to 34% who felt they should and 27% who did not know.

Forty sc\cn percent - as opposed to 37% - felt that the money spent holding the local elections would be better spent funding the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). And 60% could not correctly identity the local authority in which they \uuild be voting.

An ANC victory? Hqually frusiiating, for related but slightly different reasons, has been the tendency to treat the election results as if they were the Many voters put all their faith in national and outcome of a single national election, rather provincial elections last year than a series of local polls.

Particularly annoying has been the first Though such writing occurs in heady inclination of many analysts to read the moments as results flow in, pursuing such a proportion of votes polled by the major point as virtually the only strand of analysis parties, and in particular the ANC, through which to understand the election (as If local backwards against their performance in last has been done) is to make a number of governments year s election, and forwards as an analytical slips. cannot rely on indication of their prospects for 1999. The the weight of following lead in for a story in The Star was Firstly, one cannot draw valid comparisons their authority, typical: until the results for the whole country have transformation is been compiled. If the areas in which no likely to be slow "IV'/// ma\i results from the local voting has yet occurred (principally government elections now out, the ANC KwaZulu-Natal and the Cape Town metro) and conflictual ^'Iged a ihlle closer to the two thirds are factored out of the percentages derived nutjorii\ which eluded it in last year's from last year's results, it would appear that election hv improving its showing by the ANC has actually declined in support nearly 2'. Results released showed that from 72% to just over 67%. The ANC did fl ''1,V( lrl1 a fiction short of the )f make gains in certain areas, such as urban >•(>'•< i; m i decI to have total control of authorities in the Western Cape, but it only 'he national Parliament and the makes sense to conceive of these victories < "i>stiiuiinn writing process." on a case by case basis.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 25 L'-tiLlVLlraL tliMLlit- The ANC has Secondly, although nobody would dispute What is disturbing about this an;il\[,-...., actually declined that the democratic outcome must rest solely thrust, and the slips it entails, is ,/,;„ i("' on those who chose to participate, the reality IKK in support from in the way of a real analysis of whai |, is that the ANC's overall 67% was achieved behind voting patterns m each local '" 72% to just over on a far slimmer margin of support than its authority, to the extent that we have no. 67% 62% last year: the party actually lost more gained a single insight into the civic cm, than five million votes. and political feelings on the ground w|,T really produced the results. Analysts It has already been suggested that large summarily numbers of voters simply did not bother to rewrote the will of individual make their way to the polls because they felt communities as a collective commentary they had already vested their expectations in the performance of the Government of ' ' " bigger forms of government elected last National Unity and the RDp. | year, but acknowledging this does not To treat the final percentages as an accn,-,, | discount the possibility that many other society wide measure of sympathy for the voters simply stayed away in protest. contending parties, without looking at the local dynamics which converged to produce Field researchers for a University of the the outcome in different authorities, is to L Witwatersrand and HSRC project on local obscure the fact that what we really need i() election dynamics predicted as early as know is not what the ANC or other parties August that voters frustrated with the are likely to poll in the next general election performance of the Northern Province but what they are going to be able to achieve" regional government might stay away from in the local authorities they control in the the polls. There was no possibility of years to come. shifting support to any other of the It is possible that contending parties: the option was to vote It matters naught to Morgenson in many voters ANC or not at all, and the likelihood seemed Mpumalanga which party dominates 80% 0f stayed away in to be that it would be not at all. the councils in the rest of the province, when protest the ANC in the town has control of only five Should the ANC really feel confident in its of the 10 seats, the others being in the hands 92% win in the Northern Province's rural of the Freedom Front and ratepayers group.' areas, when this was carried by a mere 37% of potential voters? Once again, the meaning The direction of the town will depend not on of the results can only really be determined the fact that the ANC m the region polled if local dynamics are taken into account. 77% of the total votes, but on whether the party can balance a range of different local Lastly, and most cogently, totalling the votes political sentiments and interests to see its cast in a range of local authorities as if the vision carry the day. final tally, expressed as a percentage, can give an impression of the spread of power The local social, political, economic and across an entire area or the whole country, is demographic realities which produced the simply not a valid exercise. results will continue to frame the operation of new powerholders, dictating what is In local elections, especially ones possible for them to achieve in each local complicated by bizarre neo-apartheid authority functioning quite separately from provisions which guaranteed ward seats for the others. under represented population groups, the votes cast within the boundary of a local authority must be taken as valid for that Local dynamics local authority only. The question of crude figures representing Votes cast within overall voting patterns being a very poor the boundary of a The ANC gained 67% of the proportional reflection of the real balance of power at a local authority representation vote in the Free State, and local level, can be seen from a different 74% in the North West, but managed to must be taken as angle. There is a singularly important point occupy only 57% and 64% of the total seats which analysts - some of whom bemoan the valid for that local in each province respectively. fact that the ANC now appears to have too authority only much power, others of whom speak The party captured only 53% of the vote in imperiously of the fact that the ANC has the Gauteng, but achieved a clear majority proved it has the right to govern at all levels of seats in 27 of the 37 councils which voted - have disturbingly not picked up in their on November 1. review of the results.

MLtKrifcmL wamee 26 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995

The systems systems from defunct black local authorities new council with his informal networks i>|' which new - will mean that their reorientation will run community control? councillors have up against informal regulatory systems which have arisen to fill the vacuum of There are countless instances identical to to work with are power in townships. this across the country, and no indication o| geared towards how they will be played out is provided by priorities very Administratively, whether it be in the realms the election results. different to theirs of land allocation, housing provision, development, safety and security, even No analyst commented on what seemed an justice, a great deal happens in areas of our obvious ANC win in the Phola Park ward in country which escapes formal power Thokoza, but a strong case could be made structures and arrangements. that the recent violence in the settlement can be traced directly to the election loss of a The most obvious example of this is prominent civic member in the community traditional authorities, whose control over who stood as an independent when he was local government functions in many rural left off the ANC lists. areas will sit uneasily with the power supposed to be exercised by elected The issue exposes in the starkest terms v\ luu representatives. happens when formal authority confronts, with the intention of supplanting, existing Even more interesting - and worrying - will political practices and positions of powe- at be the clash between official authority and local level. the de fcicto local powers currently enjoyed by urban shacklords and civic leaders, many of whom contested wards in the local Conclusion There will be a elections as independents, but failed to claim Quite obviously, it would be unreasonable to clash between a seat. expect any newspaper or single political official authority analyst to provided an in depth picture of the and the de facto Consider as an example of this, the case of implications of election results in each of the Midrand-Ivory Park in Gauteng. The one 690 local authorities. local powers of election results, expressed as crude urban shacklords percentages, show that the ANC walked What we were entitled to demand, howe\ cr. and civic leaders away with the Midrand-Ivory Park-Rabie was that what was at stake in the elections Ridge election. be correctly read so that a number of spurious analytical strands could be avoided, What they do not show, unless one is and the real implications of the results looking closely, is that one of the contestants brought to the surface. The local elections denied a ward seat was Mandlha Samuel were about the inauguration of democratic Songo, a man variously described as a government at a local level, not generally warlord, or the founding father and but in a quite particular sense in each local benevolent long time leader of the massive authority that voted on November 1. Ivory Park informal settlement. What mattered was what really caused the Songo once operated under the banner of the level of turnout seen, what produced the ANC - although some suggest this simply results in local authorities on a case by case cloaked real PAC tendencies - but for this basis, and what will be the real balance of election ran as a member of the Community power in each area regardless of what the Action Party, a loose, cross-community vote counts reflect. alliance of individuals of various political persuasions. Dwelling on spurious comparisons of What mattered turnout rates in other modern democracies, was the low In its voting, the community clearly focusing solely on the total percentages turnout, what perceived party affiliation as a more polled by particular parties, and drawing produced local important variable than personality, and an crude conclusions as to the apparent ANC candidate claimed the ward in which quantum of party influence in future local results and what Songo was standing. But what does his loss government, have told us very little of what the real local actually mean? Shut out from the formal we really need to know. Analysis should balances of political arena, might he not constitute a have started - not ended - with what is power will be serious rival to the de jure authority of the reflected in the election results. OtPQSi

L-liLLVLIiuL VUtitllifc- 28 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 WHAT \TWING'? local election/ in the we/tern cape

By Jeremy Seekings Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town

The 1995 local government election results have been widely misinterpreted in the media in terms of a 'swing' to the African National Congress, especially in the Western Cape. A close look at the results points instead to a low overall turnout and a complete collapse in the National Party vote. It is unlikely that many former NP supporters actually voted for the ANC.

T | i(io media has tended to view the local It is also necessary to examine absolute Crude I go\ emment election results as an numbers as well as shares of the vote. In comparisons JL indicator of the South African 1994, just over 14,5 million votes were cast led to glib electorate's verdict on the performance of in the seven provinces and non-metro conclusions the respective parties since April 1994. Western Cape. The 1995 poll is said to have that there has been 5,3 million votes. This amounts to just been an Most interpretations of the results have been 37% of the 1994 poll, and perhaps as few as overall 'swing' framed in terms of 'swings', as voters are 32% of potentially eligible voters. deemed to have rewarded or punished the to the ANC parties. ( rude comparisons of the local Such a turnout in local government elections government election results with the results is not low in international terms. But the fact of last year's general election have given that turnout was so low has important rise to dib conclusions that there has been implications for the analysis of the results, an o\eiall "swing' to the African National as we will see below. Congress. The Western Cape The ANC's In I'm. the ANC won over 62% of the vote share of the CDuniiA w n ic. As the 1995 results trickled in, More than 330 000 people voted in elections vote has in fact it appeared that the ANC was doing rather to 95 councils in the non-metropolitan towns fallen better. V, vine point it was reported that the of the Western Cape. The elections were a ANC y. ;is winning 73% of the vote, resounding success for the ANC, which won although the final share proved to be around outright control of at least 21 councils . Nonetheless, the press concurred that including major towns such as Paarl, lite ANC had increased its support. Worcester and Mossel Bay.

The problem with this comparison is that The ANC won a total of 306 seats, the like is nol being compared with like. There National Party 292, the Democratic Party Turnout at the were no local elections in either six, the Pan Africanist Congress just four, polls was KwaZuIu-Natal (19% of 1994 voters) or in and the Freedom Front a meagre three. metropolitan Cape Town (about 7%). Independent candidates and civic groupings perhaps as low Excluding these areas, the ANC won an won 271 seats. as 32% of estimated"73% of the vote in 1994. The potentially ANC\ .1 lare of the vote has in fact therefore Overall, the NP led the ANC in terms of eligible voters fallen. votes in the proportional representation (PR)

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 29 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Table 1: Comparing the 1994 and 1995 election results: parties' share of the 1994 vote include the Non-metropolitan Western Cape votes cast by about 1,6 million people in (excluding ineligible voters on farms) metropolitan Cape Town, and a further 160 000 voters living outside of the 1994 (estimated) 1995 (actual) boundaries of the Transitional Local '000 votes % '000 votes ; % Councils (TLCs) - mostly on farms - who were also ineligible to vote in 1995. NP 370 61 150 45,2 ANC 208 32 123 37,2 Table 1 shows the parties' estimated shares FF 22 3 11 3,4 of the 1994 vote in the non-metropolitan DP 23 3 10 3,0 towns where elections were held in 1995, as well as their actual shares of the 1995 vote other parties 21 3 3 1,0 in those towns. local civic groups - 34 10,3 At the provincial level, unlike the national TOTAL 644 100 331 100 level, there is a very marked change in one party's share of the vote between 1994 and ballot, winning about 45% to the ANC's 1995: the NP's share of the vote drops from 37%. The relative number of seats won by about 61% to 45%. The ANC's share rises The ANC won the parties did not reflect their shares of the by the relatively small amount of 5%. 306 seats in the vote, primarily because of the 50-50 ward non-metro division between white-coloured and Insofar as there has been a 'swing' in terms Western Cape, African areas. of the parties' shares of the vote, it has not and the NP 292 been so much from the NP to the ANC as seats The 50-50 ward division was demanded by from the NP to civic and other locally based the NP during the multi-party talks at organisations. They did not compete in Kempton Park, primarily because it wanted 1994, but accounted for 10% of the 1995 to bolster the representation of non-ANC vote. voters in platteland towns - by reserving half the wards for former white, coloured It is important to clarify that the civic and Indian local authority areas. organisations referred to here are those which won votes on the PR ballot. Many In the Western Cape, however, it had the individual wards were won by candidates perverse effect of bolstering the running under the auspices of a civic or representation of African voters, who were ratepayers organisation - often with the given half of the wards while constituting blessing of one or other of the major parties, less than half of the electorate. which would not put up rival candidates. But a vote for a civic or ratepayers group in the Independent This ward allocation meant, for example, PR ballot meant rejecting the major parties candidates and that six of Paarl's 12 wards were in its in favour of the civic or ratepayers group. civic groupings African township. Nine thousand voters won 271 seats voted in these wards, whereas 25 000 voters The concept of a 'swing' measured in terms voted in the other wards, in Paarl's white of shares of the vote is very misleading, and coloured areas. A more equitable however, when the size or composition of division of wards would have resulted in the the electorate changes. Just over 330 000 NP, not the ANC, winning control of Paarl. votes were cast in the non-metropolitan Western Cape on November 1, 1995, Nonetheless, the ANC's overall 37% share compared with an estimated 644 000 votes of the vote did seem to be an improvement in the same areas in 1994. Turnout this year on its performance in the 1994 elections. was thus under half of last year's turnout. Last year the ANC won just 33% of the provincial vote, against the NP's 53%. The Last year the ANC won about 208 000 votes apparent increase in the ANC's share fuelled in these towns. This year it won just the media's assessment that there had been a 123 000: that is, about 595 of its 1994 votes. The NP led the 'swing' from the NP to the ANC, as The NP won about 370 000 votes in 1994, ANC in the coloured voters switched their votes. but only 150 000 or 40% as many this year. proportional representation These provincial level comparisons suffer The story of the local government elections vote: 45% against the same methodological problem as at the is therefore, above all, the story of the NP's 37% national level. Firstly, like is not being failure to mobilise its former supporters in compared with like. The figures for the this year's local elections.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 30 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 1, is possible that the ANC recruited some resonated with coloured voters' experiences The ANC's 37% tbrnier MP supporters. An analysis of the and evaluations. share of the election results cannot tell us whether or not non-metro this was the case - for that we would require Secondly, local elections favour the ANC Western Cape among coloured voters. Crucially, the 1995 detailed opinion poll data. It is more likely was an elections were focused on local candidates. thai the ANC simply performed better in improvement on term* of mobilising its supporters than did The NP thereby lost much of the advantage of last year the Nl'- Some former NP voters probably having FW de Klerk as leader - an advantage defected to civic and ratepayers which had weighed heavily in 1994. associations: most just stayed at home. The selection of coloured candidates in coloured wards ensured that the ANC lost its The 'coloured vote' big 1994 disadvantage: having been seen as Elections in the Western Cape turn on the an African party which had no place for 'coloured vote', since coloured voters coloured people. In key towns the ANC comprise more than half of the electorate. candidates include high profile coloured The lovalties of coloured voters are thus of residents, for example the mayors of the considerable importance. TLCs in Paarl and Worcester.

ANC Member of Parliament, Willie The importance of high profile local I Iol'me\ r, has calculated that the ANC won candidates was made clear in towns such as more votes than the NP in predominantly Stellenbosch and Oudtshoorn, where coloured wards. In wards where over 90% non-party candidates performed very well in of the voters were coloured, the ANC won coloured wards. In Stellenbosch, prominent about W 000 (or 44%) of the nearly 156 000 former ANC leaders stood for election in voles, while the NP won just over 58 000 (or coloured wards in competition with the M'/i) t ( ape Times November 16, 1995). ANC and NP, under the auspices of a newly formed Stellenbosch Civic Alliance. One The swing has 1 .asl war, the ANC won an estimated 25% was elected in his ward, another on the PR not been from the of the coloured vote in the province as a ballot. A third civic candidate was elected NP to the ANC, whole. Hut pre-election data indicated on a civic ticket on the PR ballot. but from the NP stronger support for the ANC among to local coloured voters in the non-metropolitan All three seem to have been well known towns ihan either Cape Town or farming among coloured voters - better known, organisations districts. It is likely that the ANC's share of perhaps, than the official ANC (and NP) the coloured vote has edged up by a few candidates standing against them. Similarly, percentage points, but not more. ANC inclined leaders of the Bridgton Civic Organisation performed well in competition More importantly, turnout was low in 1995 with the ANC and NP in Oudtshoorn. in coloured as in other wards. The ANC certainly won far fewer votes from coloured The ANC's election campaigns seem to people in 1995 than in 1994: its share rose have succeeded in ensuring that the elections because of the spectacular collapse of the were defined in terms of its strengths NP vote. (especially its local candidates, local issues, and its new found respectability as a party of government) rather than its weaknesses (its Why the ANC did better predominantly African character) or the Why, amidst a generally low turnout, did the NP's strengths (De Klerk). This was in stark number of ANC votes fall far less than that contrast to 1994, when the election in of the NP? Three factors stand out: the coloured areas was defined by the NP. ANC's perceived performance over the past Civic 18 months, the local rather than national Moreover, there remains a deep racial divide organisations character of the election, and the character between white and coloured areas in many won 10% of the of ANC support in small Cape towns. of these small towns. Apartheid still PR vote continues in ways which have all but The ANC benefited from its leading role in disappeared in greater Cape Town. Overall, many Transitional Local Councils in 1994 therefore, fears about the ANC have abated and 1995. This has probably reduced many whilst cynicism about the NP persists. The coloured voters' fears that the ANC would ANC's campaigns persuaded many former take away their homes, jobs or pensions. NP NP voters that they did not need to turn out swart gevaar campaigning no longer to vote against the ANC.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 31 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' The ANC A third factor in the ANC's higher share of and in coloured wards in Mossel Bay (wM1 benefited from its the vote is the character of its support. In by the D'Almeida Civic Organisation, leading role in 1994, in the province as a whole, the NP almost on behalf of the ANC, in the face o|" many TLCs won far more votes from coloured voters opposition from NP candidates). than the ANC. But pre-election opinion polls found that there was little difference in Neither the Stellenbosch Ratepayers the number of coloured voters who Association nor the D'Almeida Civic identified with each of the major parties. Organisation competed on the PR ballot, which would have entailed direct In other words, NP support comprised a core competition with the political parties. of NP identifiers and a huge number of people who voted for the NP but did not Elsewhere, independent candidates or identify with it, while ANC support candidates from civic groups ran in direct comprised a similarly sized core of ANC competition with official candidates from identifiers but a relatively small number of both the major parties. This was the ease in non-identifying voters. coloured wards in both Stellenbosch and Oudtshoorn, where several civic groupim . An opinion poll by Research Initiatives competed against the ANC and NP on both found that there were actually more ANC ward and PR ballots. identifiers than NP identifiers among coloured voters in the small towns outside Some of these civic groups were seen as Cape Town. This data needs to be regarded broadly pro-ANC, but nonetheless ran with some circumspection, since the against the ANC and its official candidate: numbers involved are small and the poll was A vote for the civic was thus certainly nol, done eight months before the 1994 election. vote for the NP, but nor was it a vote for ilie ANC: it was a vote against both of them. But if this pattern of party identification Such civic groups won a total of 34 000 Local elections remained true through to 1995, then we votes - or about 10% - on the PR ballot. favour the ANC would expect that a low turnout would result among coloured in the ANC doing disproportionately well in And Cape Town? voters coloured wards in these small towns. This is because party identifiers may make more of What are the implications for prospecti1, e an effort to vote than other voters. elections in metropolitan Cape Town ? The ANC seems to have received an enormous Differential rates of party identification fillip from its successes on November 1. But combined with a low turnout could account it should not be complacent. It won just o\ er for the changing shares of the vote of the a third of the votes, fewer than the NP. Its major parties - the supposed 'swing' - in control of many councils depends on the coloured areas, without any voters actually 50-50 ward allocation. changing their vote. A low turnout in Cape Town would not benefit the ANC as much as it did in the Independents and civics smaller Cape towns. Furthermore, the NP Candidates standing for election as will surely learn from its mistakes -just as independents, for civic groups, or for other the ANC learnt from its disappointing non-party organisations won 226 wards in performance in 1994 - and run a more the province, as well as 45 proportional effective campaign in Cape Town. representation seats. These councillors hold the balance of power in a majority of the The ANC was favoured by the politics ol newly elected councils. Their prominence many small towns, where there is a sharp The ANC will has been rightly highlighted in media division between white and coloured need to work reports, but they are a heterogeneous bunch. residents. In Cape Town, divisions are hard if it is to perhaps sharper between coloured and black challenge the NP In some wards, parties did not run official residents. The ANC will need to work haid candidates against friendly independents or if it is to challenge the NP in the Mother in the Mother City civic candidates: often the latter were thinly City next year, and its jubilation at the disguised party candidates. This seems to results should therefore not be unqualified.!!®!® have been the case in white Stellenbosch wards (where winning 'independents' were This is a shortened version of the author's 'What 'Swing'? nominated by the NP aligned Ratepayers A Closer Look at the 1995 Local Government Election Results in the Non-Metropolitan Western Cape' Association, and were supported by the NP), (unpublished paper, November 1995).

I^ILIMEOL WfcHGEe 32 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Putting the Local into Government llwc Finger Exercises in Analysis

By John Seiler Political analyst

South Africans missed the point about the November 1 local government elections: they were local and they were about politics. To understand the results requires an understanding of community dynamics and politics, which often differ substantially from one adjacent area to the next. This article contains two 'finger exercises' analysing local politics in two towns, one in the Western Cape and the other in North West.

T I Ihc November 1 local government Mandela's release from prison and the Communities I elections were the first such legalisation of the African National were A democratic ones in South Africa. Congress (ANC) and its Alliance partners, administered Both black and white communities were and capped by the run-up to the April 1994 without much administered without much regard for local national elections. regard for local participation under the past regime. The participation culture of management was at the heart of These dynamics were challenged more public administration training in South directly by the recent election. To Africa until very recently. understand the election results requires a prior understanding of community l;or these reasons it is not surprising that dynamics, which often differ in substantial almost e\ eryone involved - political parties, ways even from one adjacent community to Government of National Unity ministers and the next. deput\ ministers, national and provincial task team chairs and secretariats, local To make policy relevant to local The culture of council and Regional Services Councils staff governance, whether corporate policy about management used to uui voter registration and the how best to fit into a given community, or was at the heart elections, the media and academics - missed provincial or national government policy of public the poim of the elections. about how best to build stable and administration development orientated communities, means training ! lie hok point about the local government knowing as much as possible - on a elections was simple: they were local and continuing basis - about the evolution of they were about politics - clashing views local politics, community by community by about pi i< nities and how to fund them, about community. the b:-vi ... i(yS to administer local government, and even about the nature of What follows are two 'finger exercises' in the 'community'. the analysis of local politics. Aside from the It is not superficial novelty of looking at two small surprising that All of tins rests on the foundation of the villages, there was no special intention in pre existent social and economic dynamics their selection. These are simply two places almost everyone OMIK- 'community', which were challenged I know well enough to tease out some missed the point with increasing energy starting with Nelson tentative conclusions about the voting data of the elections

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 33 Local and to suggest some questions for further government examination. Franschhoek grants from • Voter turnout Pretoria will drop The questions are deliberately tentative, to by R80 million avoid any temptation to plunge into the Voter turnout was 66,8%: 1 952 people brambles of punditry which befouled our voted, of 2 920 registered. from April 1, 1996 media in the first weeks of November. Of course, for people with special interests in one or the other village, there should be • Ward results some direct provocation in these preliminary Ward 1 - the village - was not contested, analyses. with the sole candidate from the Ratepa\ ers Association gaining the post. Ward 2, For journalists, academics and those who combining the northern portion of the depend on the forger's analyses, the lessons village and the informal settlement part of are straightforward. Getting this information Groendal - the coloured township - was requires going back repeatedly to the won by the Ratepayers Association's white communities involved. male candidate in a relatively close contest against a coloured ANC candidate. To start with, it turns out that the national local government task team did not ask for In Ward 3, the rest of Groendal, all three data correlating ward by ward voting on candidates were coloured: a woman won the ballots one and two - the key bit of evidence seat for the Ratepayers Association against a required to do the exploratory discussion of male ANC candidate (with a very similar 'tension' on the part of voters between surname) and an independent. The vote w - embryonic notions of self interest (ballot divided: 206, 149 and 89. one) and equally tentative notions of party allegiance (ballot two). In Ward 4, the informal settlement of Xhosa Local councils speakers above Groendal, ANC candidate will be forced to Local officials seem delighted to talk about Bennett Hlazo - former South African come to grips their local election and even, circumspectly, National Civics Organisation chair and the very soon with to address how their administrative concerns Transitional Local Council (TLC) chair hard choices are already being affected by the new local won by 403 to 84 over a coloured about basic dispensation. Local politicians are equally Ratepayers Association candidate resident services accessible. in Ward 3. Our attention should be concentrated by recent grim news about funding for local • PR results government. On November 24, Parliament's The ANC, National Party (NP) and committee dealing with local government Ratepayers Association each got one legislation was told that grants from Pretoria proportional representation seat, with total to local governments will drop in the 1996 votes, respectively, of 766, 715 and 471. budget year, starting on April 1, by R80 million to a total of R800 million - and that total will need to be shared not only by all • Composition local councils but also with the around 300 The Franschhoek Council's seven seats arc rural representative councils just established divided: Ratepayers Association 4, ANC 2 to meet the gap of participation by rural and NP 1. in this country. • Coloured vote If provincial governments are even less able Voter turnout in to provide financial support, then local Although Ratepayers Association candidates councils will be forced to come to grips very won Wards 2 and 3, which include coloured Franschoek was soon with hard choices about the extension voters, there were marked differences iri the 66,8% of basic services, and the generation locally distribution of coloured votes between the of revenues to pay for these services. two wards.

At best, what seems widespread residual In Ward 2 the white winner swept the distrust and racism might be erased under a polling station in the village, but trailed the shared sense of responsibility. At worst, ANC candidate by 100 votes in the local tensions might deteriorate and Groendal section. Adding that section's dissipate into overt social conflict. votes to those for Ward 3 - the remainder of

L-liLLVLIiuL VUtitllifc- 34 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 , ,|Klal - the ANC got the largest number r coloured votes: 337 compared with the K'ltepayers Association's 293, and another 117 divided among two independents, one in each ward. j First steps The Council's first meeting suggested at least tacit racism which seems likely to characterise local politics for the foreseeable future. With a clear majority of five, counting the NP member, the Ratepayers Association and NP group did not wait for the tw o ANC members who were late for the meeting. They elected the Ward 2 winner as chair and the Ward 1 winner as vice-chair.

I'-'or the time being, they decided the entire Council would serve as executive committee. But a crucial land affairs committee was established - finding the funds to provide housing for both coloureds and Xhosa speaking shack dwellers had been the bone of contention among all three ethnic groups for the past three to four years Although resident for some years within the -comprising the chair, the Ratepayers geographic boundaries of the Franschhoek Franschhoek Association's proportional member and the Local Council area, in law these shack NP proportional member: all white male dwellers had the same anomalous status of Council's seven professionals. most rural blacks throughout the country. seats are divided: The Ratepayers Association-NP majority Zeerust Ratepayers excluded its only coloured member, the Association four, women representing Ward 3, and both ANC ANC two and NP members, from any of the positions. • Voter turnout one Voter turnout was 63,7%: 3 962 people voted, of 6 215 registered. J Flaw in the Act The I (J94 Transitional Local Government Act (TLGA) required equity for the minority • Ward results ethnic group in the allocation of wards, All eight wards were contested. The ANC regardless of the disproportional number of won three - including the two Lehurutshe voters per ward that might result. Although wards and one of the two Ikageleng intended to protect the interests of white township wards - was narrowly defeated in voters in provinces where black voters the other Ikageleng ward and in the village's would otherwise dominate local elections, in Ward 4 (Zeerust's only multi-ethnic ward), a number of Western Cape TLCs, the and got only token votes in the 'white' 'minority' is neither white nor coloured, but Wards 1 to 3. Xhosa speaking. The remaining five wards were won by I liis w as the case in Franschhoek, which has 'independents': one Setswana speaker The Council's I 000 Xhosa speakers, 1 100 whites and (Ikageleng Ward 6), one Indian (Ward 4) first meeting 3 000 coloureds. The dilemma was legalistic: and three whites (Wards 1 to 3), one of suggested at •lie 11 .GA referred to black people previously whom belongs to the Zeerust Ratepayers ^presented by black local authorities. Association while the other two have no least tacit racism public party or organisation links. Lucas which seems I '"like Stellenbosch where the Xhosa Mangope's United Christian Democratic likely to speakers' township had such prior legal Party (UCDP) put forward three candidates, characterise looting, Franschhoek's Xhosa speakers did all of whom were defeated, including two in local politics mu ;i|id were therefore not entitled to the Lehurutshe - the former homeland village Ctll|il\ in wards afforded by the Act. closest to Mangope's Motswedi home.

'NDICATORSA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 35 L'tiLLVLlluL t'liiitLlih' Ethnic voting • PR results Ward 4, the ANC proportional vote was predominated in 181, a gain of 53 over the vote for its lusin,, Zeerust With 2 177 total votes, the ANC's 55,1% ward candidate, with that total coming gave it two of the four proportional almost completely from the 138 votes east representation seats, the UCDP's 678 votes for the winning Indian independent. gave it one seat, and the Zeerust Ratepayers Association got one. In the Lehurutshe wards, the ANC proportional vote totalled 72 more than its ward vote. But in this case, since the I'C'Dp • Composition proportional vote was also higher by 28 thim The Zeerust Council will have 12 members, its ward vote, the shift came from the t hive including only two women, who are both independents. In Wards 5 and 6, the A\'C from Lehurutshe, one ANC and one UCDP. proportional vote was a massive 1 287 Five members will be ANC - including one compared to its combined ward vote of 520. white man on the proportional slate - the UCDP woman, two from the white Zeerust Ratepayers Association, two other white • First steps independents, the Indian independent and At its first meeting on November 13, the the Setswana speaking independent reputed Council elected its chair (the ANC woman to be an ANC supporter. from Lehurutshe) its vice-chair (the UCDP woman from Lehurutshe), its represeniali\e to the Central District Council (ANC, • Ethnic voting Lehurutshe) and its executive committee Ethnic voting predominated: only Ward 4 the chair is the ANC's only white was significantly multi-ethnic. The councillor, the ANC Ward 5 and former Conservative Party (CP), formerly the TLC chair, and the Ward 4 independent. dominant party in the old white village, put The Council's 12 forth its only candidate, who came third. The members UCDP's only candidate outside Lehurutshe • Services include: five came fourth. The Indian independent Regarding the provision of equitable ANC, one UCDP, defeated the coloured ANC candidate by 10 services and ensuring payment for them, the four non-party votes. In Lehurutshe and in Ikageleng Zeerust TLC had not proposed including whites, and an township, the Zeerust Ratepayers and the CP Lehurutshe in its area of responsibility but Indian and combined got only 62 votes on the was instructed by the MEC for Local proportional ballot: in the three white wards Government to do so. The MEC also c.iileil Setswana the ANC got only 64 votes. for a total of eight wards, adding the t\\ o independent from Lehurutshe plus four proportions I council seats (instead of the five in order • White attitudes under the 1994 Transitional Local White attitudes were fluid: in Wards 1 to 3 Government Act). the ward ballot was distributed over a total of eight independent candidates, but the At present, Lehurutshe services are pro\ ided proportional ballot was divided in three by a private contractor whose costs are met distinct ways - Zeerust Ratepayers 500, CP by the provincial government, honouring a 354 and UCDP 211. contract initiated under the homeland regime and continuing to March 1, 1996. The Council will supervise the contract for its • Black independents final six months, but need not extend it. Black independents were significant: aside from the wins in Wards 4 and 6, another The province will continue for a negotiable Black black independent lost by only 14 votes in term the present subsidy to Lehurutshe Ward 5 to the ANC candidate who had been residents, who pay R2,00 a month (plus independents the TLC chair. In the Ikageleng Wards 5 and electricity and water) and might be expected were significant 6, six independents shared more than half to pay R45,55 without a subsidy. The the vote, but in Lehurutshe's Wards 7 and 8, Zeerust Council will need to educate the three independents fared badly, with the Lehurutshe residents to pay the much higher ANC and the UCDP gaining the vast sum, while at the same time maintaining majority of votes between them. good relations with its customers in Ikageleng and Zeerust village, some of There are prospects for ANC councillors whom have been pressing for a Lehurutshe and black independents coming together. In type subsidy. MiS

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 36 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Citizenry and Local Government A New Political Subject?

By Ivor Chipkin Centre for Policy Studies

Continued non-payment of rents and services, despite the Masakhane campaign, could indicate that South Africans have a differentiated notion of what national and local citizenship means. The challenge for citizenship will be the capacity of local governments to deliver in a way that improves the visibility of the state as a democratic state, argued Chipkin at a conference hosted by the Centre for Policy Studies and the Interfaith Community Development Association in October.

his article looks at notions of These remarks may seem banal, but they Under apartheid, citizenship implied by local imply an interesting tension if this concept is the very existence T government, and in particular applied to local government. If we regard of citizenship was whether there is a peculiar type or the local state as merely an agent of the questioned experience of citizenship vis-a-vis the urban national state then it follows that citizenship form - a rid hence urban local government - of the latter translates automatically into as opposed to the nation state. citizenship of the former.

What does it mean to be a citizen of a In other words, if I believe myself to be a democratic state? subject of the national state - with all the rights and obligations that implies - and the Conventional usages of the term refer to local state is merely an agent or sub-unit of certain rights and obligations between so the national state, then it follows that I called ci'j/.ens and the state: some form of automatically believe myself to have rights unconscious social contract in the Lockean and obligations to the local state as well. sense of the term, where citizens agree to recognise the authority of the state and Masakhane conduct themselves according to normative Masakhane appealed to standards 'negotiated' within the collective This is certainly implied by the Masakhane people to pay rent in return for certain positively or negatively campaign. The message is the following: we and services as defined rights, be they the positive material now have a democratic and legitimate state part of their duty rights of the welfare state, or the negative to which you have certain rights but also to the democratic rights of the American constitution, where obligations. In this regard you must pay your citizenship implies rights exercised against rent and services as part of your duty to the state the stale. democratic state.

Ho\vc\er these rights are defined and Rents and services are, of course, payable to whales er their content, citizenship always the local authority. So the assumption here is implies an identity referenced with regard to that the local state and the national state are the state. In other words, one might only be indistinguishable and your duties to the prepared to accept the obligations implied former translate automatically into duties to h >" fiti/enship if one believes oneself to be a the latter. And yet service and rent payment The assumption Mihjea of its authority. This is what was in many areas remains very low. What can was that the local contested under apartheid: not the rights and this mean? obligations that followed from citizenship, state and the 1l| ' l raiher the very existence of citizenship If the national and local state are national state are itself. indistinguishable, as Masakhane sometimes indistinguishable

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 37 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Masakharie's implies, then refusal to pay might suggest What could these be? Firstly, rights failure means that many residents do not regard exercised in the nation are necessarily people may themselves citizens of the national state - general and universalist in that the) :ippi v and hence have no obligations to it. formally to all citizens. Local govern nent conceive citizenship implies a differential ivliiiionsh" citizenship in This is clearly not true. The goodwill in which the rights and obligations exercised terms of the granted the post April 1994 democratic in the city are defined and apply locally. rights it grants institutions and the massive popularity of them, but not the President Nelson Mandela suggest very It may be, for example, that citizenship ^ obligations it also strongly the opposite. But if people widely the national level is defined as individualist implies regard themselves as subjects of the national and minimalist, where rights are exercised to state - with KwaZulu-Natal perhaps being maximise individual sovereignty against a the exception - then non-payment must perceived threat from society and the state. indicate something else. By way of a contrast, it might happen that within certain cities, urban rights may 1 • There are three possibilities in this regard. conceived as welfarist or collective, w here Firstly, it might be that many subjects citizens demand the intervention of the slate conceive citizenship in terms of the rights it to safeguard a notion of the common good. grants them vis-a-vis the state without the attendant obligations it also implies. Partial citizenship Secondly, in the context of the RDP it might In South Africa it would seem that we have be that many people take very seriously the only partial or incomplete citizenship, notion of reciprocity inherent in citizenship, provided we mean by this that not such that they are not prepared to fulfill their everywhere is there an identity of a local obligations (in the form of service state form to which one is a subject (over payments) until they feel they have and above one's citizenship to the national Or they may not adequately exercised their rights, with rights state). be prepared to in this case defined relative to their access to fulfill their certain material resources. In Ivory Park, for example, interviewees obligations until nearly always referenced questions about their rights have The third possibility, and the one which citizenship to the Government of National been exercised interests this article, is that non-payment Unity and/or President Nelson Mandela. may also point towards a differentiated What this implies is a notion of citizenship notion of citizenship: that is, the non-identity that is defined only towards the national between the national and local state, so that state. citizenship of the one does not necessarily imply citizenship of the other. This process, however, is uneven, ll depends largely on the specific history of political What this suggests is that local government mobilisation within the locality in question, may have a separate and peculiar identity and it might also depend on the nature of that cannot merely be expressed through the urbanisation. national state. Let us dwell on this briefly. In man> lormal The political accomplice of local townships, struggles around rent arid set \ ice government citizenship, therefore, may be a issues during the 1980s and 1990s produced consciousness of the specific and irreducible in certain areas a consciousness of the cit>. identity of the territory in which local government functions. Local citizenship This often manifested in the slogan 'one city thus implies the emergence of certain one tax base', with political organisations political values associated with the urban beginning to realise that the crisis in the form - and a desire to give that form some urban environment was partly due to ilk- Or non-payment type of political identity that cannot be structure of the city itself - the segregation may point expressed through a national identity. of the urban form denied townships .KCCV. towards to the tax base of the industrial and non-identity What this suggests is that the rights and manufacturing sectors included in u lute between the obligations implicated in citizenship have a areas. national and local certain specificity when it comes to local government. That is, rights exercised in the This massively undermined the financial state city might not be those exercised in the resources of black authorities, making them nation. dependent on rent and service charges lor

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 38 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Shanty dwellers ordered to pull down their shacks in Clermont, Durban, 1977. Under apartheid, the very existence of citizenship was contested.

their income - and hence displacing the full of the structure of the city but of the Local government costs of the urban environment onto African contractual arrangement entered into with may have a residents themselves. their 'landlord'. separate identity that cannot High rents and poor services often referred The I'ocus on the urban form and its political merely be to the burdensome and exploitative expression in the local state was further expressed supported by local government negotiations obligations demanded by house permit through the that mostly began in 1990. holders, who often boycotted rents and levies and yet required payment from their national state What this means today is that in places tenants. As a result political consciousness where this consciousness took root, formal usually coalesced around organisations or township residents often reference some of entities that could secure personal autonomy their rights (and perhaps also obligations) through access to an independent piece of towards the urban state. land.

In other words a notion of local or urban So whereas residents of formal houses citizenship may have partly emerged. And struggled for improved services and the yet the growth of an urban citizenry is upgrading of the urban environment - which irregular even where this urban identity did mostly focused their efforts on the local As demands develop. Indeed, it seems to be mainly a state as the agent of these services - around the quality 'middle class' phenomenon - with 'middle backyard renters, in most cases, addressed of the urban class' here refering to those people with their grievances to the issue of land. environment rights to a formal housing unit. increase, so too In this regard an identity of the city was For many backyard shack dwellers, the highly uneven, and usually depended on the will the visibility of quality of their urban environment spoke not state agency against which informal the local state

L'-LLLVLtiUL VtctzLlLfc- INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 39 A new political dwellers struggled for tenure. In Ivory Park, to the formation of a new political suhjClJ[. subject may be ground was secured through battles with the the urban citizen. formed: the urban then Transvaal Provincial Administration, and not with the Midrand Town Council. But there are dangers inherent in this citizen This is perhaps different in Tamboville in process. If a differential notion of Benoni, where land struggles were citizenship emerges which is attached u, (j, conducted against the white local authority. local state, and the local state is unable to meet its perceived obligations - which is a It seems then that the history of political distinct prospect - then the very process of contestation - and the degree to which formalisation or consolidation holds i Im- struggles took place against an institution possibility that conflict may arise aimed at with a specifically urban or local identity - the local authority itself, precisely because has played a significant role in the consolidation focuses attention on the whan determination of urban citizenship. This has state. potentially interesting consequences for the future. Alternatively, and this is perhaps more worrying, the failure of the local authority might displace citizenship away from the The future democratic state and establish - or perhaps Many local political organisations around re-establish - the mediative function of local the country have experienced a fundamental organisations that might be based < m crisis in both their identity and function. patron-clientism. Civic or residents associations in informal settlements, for example, have historically The possibility of the latter depenck of referenced their identity around the issue of course, on the particular political culture that space for settlement. exists or emerges within the informal settlement in question. If the local state is While these struggles have mostly been unable to meet its successful and informal areas are now being If, for example, local organisations are obligations, integrated into the administrative and spatial premised on a mutually exclusive ethnicity, conflict may arise boundaries of the city, organisations are such as in parts of the Vaal Triangle, and/or aimed at the local finding it difficult to address the diversity of a hostile party political history, then the authority political identities that are beginning to prospects for conflict are once again emerge, and which were previously united exacerbated. In Zonkezizwe on the East around the issue of land. Rand, violence recently flared up betw ecu Inkatha and ANC aligned residents over In Ivory Park, this is evidenced by the access to residential sites. decline in attendance at mass meetings and participation in street committees. So, for If, on the other hand, informal dwellers can example, as these areas become formalised, successfully exercise their rights through the the issue of land and tenure has receded and local democratic state, with the attendant new issues around service delivery have emergence of urban citizenship, then it come to the fore. might be possible for conflict to be mediated through democratic institutional forms, It is possible that as demands around the rather than through bloody battles on the quality of the urban environment increase, ground. so too will the visibility of the local state in the eyes of many residents. Hence, local The challenge for citizenship is the capacity government may become more and more the of local governments to deliver in a wa\ that object against which residents exercise their improves the visibility of the state as a rights - and perhaps obligations. This points democratic state. Ql?0fi\

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 40 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Manufacturing Legitimacy The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Rule of Law

By Richard Wilson School of African and Studies, University of Sussex

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, operating in a context of high level human rights prosecutions and with extensive powers of search, seizure and subpoena, is poised to provide a fuller record of the authoritarian past than any previous truth commission. But ultimately the creation of a 'rights culture' will depend more on the realisation of rights enshrined in the Constitution by making the present legal system accessible, swift and fair.

"Their is ci deep crisis of legitimacy of Since negotiated settlements usually ensure Truth our political institutions. The moral an ongoing role for the previous political commissions fabric of society has been torn. elite, truth commissions become one of the seek to create main arenas for stating that the new Expediency and principle have been legitimacy for blurred. Society is now held together by government is different and is committed to state institutions obstinacy, goodwill and good luck, protecting and respecting the rights of instead of an inclusive moral base. " citizens. How specifically do truth tainted by commissions manufacture legitimacy, and in authoritarian rule Johnny De Lange, African National what ways can the political constraints on Congress MP, Member of the Select them actually encourage a culture of Committee on Justice of the National impunity? Assembly. Cedar Park Conference, September 21, 1995 Reinstating the rule of law "The criminal justice system is in crisis. It lacks legitimacy and is seen as ineffective." Jeremy Sarkin r I \uth commissions have become one A lingering I of the main mechanisms by which Truth commissions aspire to create 'institutional A. transitional regimes seek to create legitimacy for the state generally, but they memory' legitimacy for state institutions still tainted are especially associated with wider by the legacy of authoritarian rule. attempts to overhaul the criminal justice continues to system. impede the Despite elections and the apparently radical development of relonn o Flaws and the structure of The importance of legitimate legal citizens' trust and government in the new South Africa, there is institutions and an independent judiciary allegiance a degree of continuity of state institutions in holds an even greater significance in South traces of structure and organisation, even of Africa than in Chile or Argentina, since personnel. A lingering 'institutional South Africa has invested so much political memory' continues to impede the capital in constitutional sovereignty, as development of citizens' trust and allegiance opposed to a Latin American strategy which "i a new political dispensation. sought to establish strong executives. Part of the role of truth "lis is one reason why President Patricio If Hannah Arendt was justified in writing commissions is Aylwin made a televised apology for state that the first act of totalitarianism is to kill to revive the crimes on the publication of Chile's truth the legal impulse in citizens, then part of the C() juridical impulse mmisMon report (Berryman 1993), even role of transitional bodies such as truth •hough he had been in exiled opposition to commissions is to revive that juridical t,c 'ieral Augusto Pinochet's regime. impulse.

"®ICAT0RSA Von 3 NO 1 Summer 1995 41 L'-tiLLVHiiiL VLl-Llifc' One of the One impediment to the resuscitation of involvement in a massacre, on the g ivniiid strongest juristic people has been the historical that it constituted a 'heinous crime'. S arguments for a inability of the justice system to carry out truth commission prosecutions of human rights violations. One Despite these unexpected high level was lack of faith of the strongest arguments for a truth prosecutions of the more implicated securit\ commission in South Africa was lack of officials of the ancien regime, cn minal in the courts faith in the courts - the perception that prosecutions will not replace or outstrip ihc apartheid crimes could not be given back to functions of the Commission, since ihe the same criminal justice system. criminal justice system simply con hi mu cope with all the human rights violations Previous attempts to investigate apartheid committed over a 34 year period. 'dirty tricks' campaigns through the Harms and Goldstone Commissions resulted only in Such a strategy would be too lengths. justly one significant prosecution, that of former and destabilising, especially in a context Vlakplaas commander Colonel Eugene de where there is little public outcry for Kock. More than anything, the two prosecutions of perpetrators of apartheid commissions demonstrated the limitations of crimes. The legal system cannot handle the using existing structures to unearth past backlog of past abuses it once ignored, and violations. therefore cannot be wholly responsible for its own rehabilitation. Rapid and effective prosecutions of police officers in the new political dispensation has We have to perceive the legal system and also been hampered by repeated accusations Commission as complementary and working that some Attorneys General have failed to in tandem, with the latter compensating lov*" bring prosecutions for political reasons. the limitations and deficiencies of the former. At the same time, the prosecutions The criminal Much furore centred around Tim McNally, against Malan et cil feed directly into the truth commission process since the\ will no justice system the Attorney General of KwaZulu-Natal, who in September 1995 was dragged across doubt convince many wavering lower could not cope the coals by the Parliamentary Select ranking security force officials that with all human Committee on Justice. testifying in the hope of gaining amnesty is rights violations now in their own best interests. committed over Only a month later, McNally confounded his 34 years critics by issuing arrest warrants against former Defence Minister General Magnus Creating legitimacy Malan and 10 other high ranking former "Ultimately, the transformation oi •>ttr defence and intelligence officials in conceptions of what is a justjustu i connection with the massacre of 13 people system is part of the process of nation at KwaMakutha in KwaZulu-Natal in 1987. building, and cannot be divorced from the other processes intended to reinvent These are the most extensive and far South African society." Azhar Cachalia. reaching prosecutions since the demise of Secretary of the Ministry of Public apartheid, and may constitute a threat to the Safety and Security stability of the Government of National Unity. There are three main characteristics > >r mechanisms through which truth So far, President Nelson Mandela has commissions generate legitimacy and trust refrained from intervening in the interests of in state institutions, and legal institutions in 'reconciliation', and General Malan has particular: eschewed making an application to the amnesty committee of the Truth and The prosecutions • Liminality Reconciliation Commission. against Malan et In anthropological parlance, liminality is al will no doubt If the allegations against the 11 former associated with mediation. In the ca-v ol the convince many members of the defence hierarchy are true, South African Truth and Reconciliation wavering officials then it is not at all clear that the Commission Commission it refers to how the that testifying is in would constitute a possible escape route Commission will mediate between different their own best from prosecution anyway. If the Norgaard branches of government. The Commission interests Principles to be adhered to by the exhibits a number of characteristics which Commission are principles at all, then could be described as 'liminal', which make amnesty would not be granted for it neither fish nor fowl.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 42 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 . >s a transitory and fleeting Archbishop ' °f lor'v (xjdy which will function for no fimn two years. It is not the sole '°nfliici >>' an>' one government branch, and •'TnininaHy independent, but lies '\nw»hL're bctwecn a11 three maior inches of government.

•f-hc Commission is formally beholden to the ,X(.cliti\ e - the commissioners are selected wd t'i'ii he removed solely by the President, jt will make recommendations to the Proident regarding reparations and 'the institutional, administrative and legislative measures which should be introduced in order •» prevent the commission of violations of human rights'.

The Commission has an ambivalent relationship to the legal order: it is not a Icuiil institution, in that it is not constituted js'a com t of law. It cannot carry out prosecutions nor can it sentence. In fact it can bypass the legal process by naming perpetrators before they have been convicted and by granting amnesty before a perpetrator lias been through the trial process and been convicted.

Conversely, many of the Commission's functions are overseen and administrated by the Minister of Justice, , including negotiating the pay, terms and conditions of the employment of "...it was argued that under the rule of Positioning the commissioners, liaising over the witness law there was a need to individualise Commission protection programme, gathering responsibility. Otherwise a whole between the information from foreign countries and institution - the armed forces - would justice system dealing with applications for amnesty from remain tainted with the crimes of a and the executive people in custody. number of individuals." and Parliament This positioning of the Commission between Thus truth commissions divert responsibility creates a system the justice system and the executive and for human rights abuses away from of checks and Parliament creates a set of distinctions institutions and onto individuals. In the same balances between those branches of government. This instance as abusive acts are personalised, defining of boundaries is part of the creation state institutions are symbolically of a s_\ siem of checks and balances which is decontaminated and absolved of blame. one of the hallmarks of a liberal democratic order. I 'nder authoritarian rule, it was Closely linked to the individualising of picciseU the lack of institutional boundaries responsibility is a programme of lustration, which meant that the judiciary functioned or purging of the security forces. The Report l;u'gel> as the oppressive legal arm of the of the Truth Commission (1993) in El Truth eKecutise. Salvador called for the purging of all military or civilian officials named in the commissions report, and their banning from further office. facilitate state -J individualising responsibility This extended to include members of the institutions by 1 ruth commissions facilitate the legitimating opposition. individualising l) l Mate institutions by both individualising responsibility and responsibility and indemnifying the state It is difficult to speculate on the extent to indemnifying the Use 11 (rom claims for damages. Francisco which the South African Truth and state i'tini/za (1995) records how in Latin Reconciliation Commission will pursue a America: strategy of lustration. There is likely to be a

IWD1CAT0R SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 43 WiLtUI^L VlifcllliS: The South African public clamour for the removal from office • Constructing a benevolent state security forces of named perpetrators even if lustration is remain riddled not formalised. Two of the three main functions of the with perpetrators Commission (Newham 1995) - hearing of abuses under Purging within the South African security testimony of human rights violations and forces has been ongoing since May 1994, making reparations - are geared towards the previous but they remain riddled with perpetrators of constructing an aura of benevolence around regime abuses under the previous regime, as well as state institutions. As Alex Boraine staled: a smaller number of African National Congress (ANC) intelligence personnel "This will be the first experience of named in the Goldstone Commission report many survivors of a compassionate for atrocities in ANC detention camps. state, which goes out to people. Survivors will be received, respected Recent revelations alleging involvement in and given a cup of coffee. Before, ifthcx gun running and Third Force activities by went to the police, magistrates or the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) MP Themba military they would receive a hostile Khoza and KwaZulu-Natal Member of the treatment. " (Boraine, personal Executive Committee for Safety and communication, September 1995) Security, Celani Mthetwa, have reinforced suspicions of lingering rogue elements The Chilean Commission called for a within state structures. 'National Corporation for Reparation and Reconciliation' which would administer It is hoped that the Commission will deal housing, educational benefits and a pension with such elements in a unified procedure for the survivors of people disappeared and which will not be as thorough or extensive executed, putting them on a par with the as a series of court prosecutions, but will families of war veterans and giving them a The Commission provide actionable information on serving recognised collective role. will remove state officials in a quicker and less piecemeal manner. It recommended special medical care for citizens' rights to those who had suffered physical and civil claims for Inextricably linked to this legitimating medical trauma, and called for mandatory damages process of individualising responsibility and psychological treatment for those invoked purging state officials is the less publicised in torturing others (Ensalaco 1994). Through programme of indemnifying the state itself. such measures, truth commissions seek 10 The Commission will remove citizens' restore a sense of reciprocity and mutuality rights to civil claims for damages: if a in social relations. former government agent is granted amnesty by the amnesty committee, then the state Reciprocity in South Africa lies in the will be automatically indemnified for balancing of remuneration and amnesty in damages. the functions of the Commission. Survk ors tell their story in public, have it officially The state becomes a silent partner, recorded, and they may receive reparation. shadowing each perpetrator who comes Perpetrators also construct their narrative forward and whose amnesty request is and may receive amnesty from civilian and successful. If a perpetrator is on trial at the state prosecution. time, civil proceedings can be suspended until the appeal for amnesty is heard. In the balanced exchange of receiving compensation and renouncing vengeance, To achieve amnesty, the perpetrator does not this reciprocity parallels and reinforces the even need to express remorse, only to exchange inherent in a revitalised social convince the amnesty committee the acts contract, where the individual gives up his Perpetrators only were associated with a 'political objective' or her right to retribution for the past in have to convince and that a full disclosure has been made. return for protection and stability in the the amnesty future. committee that The state then may consider what acts committed reparations it wishes to make to survivors Political constraints were associated through the reparations committee, but these with a 'political will not amount to more than a fraction of • Amnesty Provisions objective' possible civil damages. In this way, the slate is wiped clean and state ministries no longer- Although truth commissions have bear responsibility for the actions of the past. legitimation as an objective, it is not clear at

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 44 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 .,11 wficlher or not they actually can or do 'gross violation of human rights', or more Truth specifically the violation of human rights legit"11 ate state institutions. Often the commissions are )jitical constraints on the search for truth through: geared towards !,,ul ju^ice created by a negotiated constructing an sell lenient lead to the erosion of legitimacy. "(a) the killing, abduction, torture, or severe ill treatment of any person, or aura of This all depends on the contribution (b) any attempt, conspiracy, incitement, benevolence commissions make to an ongoing process of instigation, command or procurement to around state lc(,al reform and whether they enhance the commit an act referred to in paragraph institutions capacity of the criminal justice system to (a)." carry out past and ongoing human rights prosecutions. This brief is significantly wider than previous truth commissions, and has the For instance, the Report of the Truth potential to be far reaching, insofar as a Commission (1993) in El Salvador liberal interpretation of the terms recommended an extensive programme of 'instigation' and 'command' could include judicial reform, which was patently ignored, intellectual authors of acts: that is, high and the amnesty law passed shortly ranking politicians of the apartheid era who afterwards undermined its potential as an are still in government. instrument for radical reform of the security forces. Because of this and similar Yet the narrow restriction of the experiences, Francisco Panizza writes: Commission's scope of enquiry is unsatisfactory, in that it will only deal with "// would be tempting to sum up the those who went beyond the already wide legacy for human rights of the processes latitude of abuse permitted by apartheid of transition to democracy in Latin laws. Judging the past in terms of itself America in a single word: misses many core issues around the It is not clear at iiiii>iinity...Politically impunity eroded routinisation of violence. For instance, cases all whether or not the legitimacy of the new government by involving arbitrary detention without trial blatantly violating the principle of are excluded, since they were a routine and they actually can equality before the law which every legal part of the apartheid order. or do legitimate democratic government is bound to state institutions uphold.' (Panizza 1995) The exclusion of that which was legal under apartheid creates a false distinction between In South Africa, the question of legitimation the normative aspects of a racialised depends largely on how the amnesty authoritarian order - which is acceptable for question is handled. The fact that the the purposes of the Commission - and Commission can supersede ongoing illegal forms of violent coercion, when criminal trials and grant amnesties in the instead one implied the other. Thus the middle of a prosecution may contribute to an Commission can only capture the extreme atmosphere of impunity. If trials are events, not the normality, the everydayness suspended as the accused apply for amnesty, and mundane technicality of apartheid. the Commission could derail prosecutions of crimes in connection with Third Force The Commission's brief suppresses the type activities. of violations and abuses which relied on acts of surveillance, covert information gathering Howe \ or,South Africa is unique in that (such as telephone tapping), harassment, there is no blanket amnesty law in effect as censorship and self censorship, where no occurred in many Latin American countries. 'gross violation' was committed, but where Instead, the process of granting amnesty is a system of abuse still operated. pari and parcel of the truth commission process: individualised and more stringent Whereas the Commission will operate with The Commission conditions-for example around 'political an instrumental conception of violence, will only deal with objectives' and 'full disclosure' - are placed social scientists such as Taussig (1988) and those who went on the applicant. Bourdieu (1991) have drawn our attention to beyond the wide how regimes of terror thrive on uncertainty, latitude of abuse mystery and disguised violence in order to J Terms of Reference permitted by cultivate a 'culture of terror.' apartheid Section l(ix) of the Promotion of National 'lily and Reconciliation Act restricts the An overemphasis on visible, physical •'nihil oi the Commission to investigating violence misses out levels of symbolic

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 45 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' The pervasive violence which are embedded in everyday previous truth commission. This will no social nature of practice and which cannot be expunged so doubt contribute to the perception thai sut^ violence is easily since they are located in that institutions have embarked on a programme perhaps one of amorphous domain of habitual daily practice of reform, and may deter future abuses. where the impact of state law is the greatest indeterminate. However, the mere expression of human limitations on the rights discourses at the level of formal -,i;,te Commission The pervasive social nature of violence - as institutions is in itself not enough, as die opposed to the formalised state aspects - is Latin American experience tells us. perhaps one of the greatest limitations on the Ultimately, the creation of a 'rights culture' Commission's ability to articulate a clear will depend more on the actual realisation ot' break with the past. rights enshrined in the forthcoming Constitution by making the present legal Conclusions system accessible, swift and fair. As Gareth Newham (1995) recently argued, In South Africa, there are clear indications the expectations on the Commission are that the political will exists to reinforce (lie enormous, and the potential for rights to legal representation and a fail trial: disappointment equally high. Whether the for example, the Legal Aid Board has three Commission can be part of a process of times the funds from the Government this restoring legitimacy to governmental and year compared with last year - presenth legal institutions depends much upon R182 million. This wider context both whether it is perceived as accessible and just supports the Truth and Reconciliation in its decisions. Commission in its quest for legitimation, and means that it can afford not to full il all Yet it is important not to overestimate the of the expectations laid upon it. But the South significance of the Commission. If it is seen African to have failed on a number of counts, this will not necessarily jeopardise the overall Commission, is project of creating a 'rights culture', since poised to provide there are many other institutions dedicated a fuller record of to this end, such as the Gender Equality REFERENCES the authoritarian Commission, the Human Rights Berryman PE (1993] Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. past than any Commission, the Public Protector and Boraine A (1994) Dealing with the Past. IDASA, Cnpe Town. previous truth programmes instigated by the Ministry of Bourdieu P (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. Polity Press, Cambridge. commission Justice. Newham G (1995) 'Truth and Reconciliation: Realising the Ideals', indicator SA, Vol 12, No 4, Spring 1995. Indicator The Latin American experience of truth SA, Durban. Ensalaco M (1994) 'Truth Commissions for Chile and El commissions has been a highly mixed one, Salvador: A Report and Assessment', Human Rights to the extent that they can actually enhance a Quarterly 16:656-675. climate of impunity. Panizza F (1995) 'Human Rights in the Processes of Transition and Consolidation of Democracy in Latin America', Political Studies 1995, 43:168-188. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, Act Commission, operating as it will in a context No 34. 1995. Report of the Truth Commission (1993) From Madness to of high level human rights prosecutions and Hope: The Twelve Year War in ElSavador, UN Security with extensive powers of search, seizure and Council, UN Doc. S/25500. Taussig M (1987) Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild subpoena, is poised to provide a fuller Man: A Study in Terror and Healing. University of record of the authoritarian past than any Chicago Press, Chicago.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 46 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Waiting for Utopia Quality of life in the 1990s

By Valerie Moller Centre for Social and Development Studies University of Natal

Immediately after the April 1994 elections - for the first time - black and registered similar levels of happiness and satisfaction. Eighteen months later, the post-election euphoria bubble has burst, with one in two people registering life satisfaction compared with 82% post-election. The good news is that the gap between the perceived quality of life of black and white people has narrowed in some areas. The bad news is that the narrowing gap reflects the growing discontent of the formerly privileged, but no gains in satisfaction among the underprivileged.

A 11 stable democracies aim to create a households, equivalent to 53% of the In the 1980s, / \ nation of contented citizens to population - account for less than 10% of black people J. JLensure peace and prosperity. The total consumption, while 10% of households indicated populations of most Western and democratic - with only 5,8% of the population - unhappiness with societies register happiness and satisfaction account for over 40% of consumption almost all w illi lile. South Africa in the 1980s had the (Office of the President 1995). dubious distinction of a black population aspects of their indicating unhappiness and dissatisfaction The poverty study confirmed the link lives with almost all aspects of thekf lives. between living standards and perceived quality of life. While almost three quarters of the poorest 20% of South African Rich and poor households were dissatisfied with living The legacy of apartheid is a racial hierarchy conditions, almost 70% of the richest 20% of unequal social and economic life chances of households were satisfied. and unequal perceived quality of life. Socio-economic inequalities show up clearly Indicator SA has reported on the life in the key indicators of poverty collected for satisfaction and happiness of South Africans (lie I ,i\ mg Standards and Development at regular intervals. Repeat surveys using 1'rojcci in 1993 (Saldru 1994). identical indicators with representative samples from the same populations showed African households, on average, earn that life satisfaction and happiness in the approximately 2,3 times less than coloured, past decade invariably mimicked the racial 4,5 times less than Indian and 6,2 times less gradient of economic privilege shown in The link between than white households (Table 1). Africans Table 1. living standards have nearly twice the unemployment rate of and perceived coloureds, more than three times the Black South Africans consistently reported quality of life has unemployment rate of Indians and nearly 10 negative life satisfaction and happiness, times the unemployment rate of whites. white South Africans reported enhanced been confirmed well being. Levels of coloured and Indian Currently nearly 95% of South Africa's poor happiness and satisfaction fell somewhere in are African. The poor - that is 40% of between. Then a miracle occurred.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 47 L'-LLLVLtiUL VtctzLlLfc- Table 1: Racial inequalities 1993 throughout life. Although most measures of subjective well being are also sensitive to Poverty Unemployment. : Income0 Satisfied13 advantageous or adverse life conditions, .'.V rates'3 Rand rates % people adjust to new situations and, on % % ' ; average, no major shifts occur in the population as a whole. African 64,9 : 38,3 757 23 Coloured 32,6 20,8 1744 45 Seldom has a single event in history Indian 2,5 11,3 3371 61 achieved such a resounding popular White, 0,7 4,3 4695 75 response among the entire population i if a nation. The April 1994 universal franchise a Percentage of race group who are aqiong the poorest 40% of households b Percentage unemployed elections were heralded as a triumphant

c Average household total monthly wage 1993 s success which captured the imagination of d Percentage of households "very satisfied" and "satisfied" with current living situation the nation and the world.

Source:Key Indicators of Poverty in South Africa, Office of the President'(1995), Saidru (1994) The euphoric mood was reflected in the results of a quality of life survey conducted The election miracle by Markdata at the end of May 1994. Happiness and satisfaction levels soared Immediately after South Africa's first among black voters: for the first time in democratic elections black voters closed the survey history black and white South gap in happiness. This result is remarkable Africans shared enhanced feelings of well in the history of quality of life studies. being.

Satisfaction and happiness indicators are known to produce constant results on Quality of life update aggregate over time. Levels of happiness How do South Africans assess their personal and satisfaction tend to be fairly stable life circumstances 18 months after a new democratic government is in place? Table 2: Quality of life trends: Happiness and life satisfaction The Indicator SA report on post-election euphoria asked whether the elevated le\ el of Average percentages "very" and "happy/satisfied" happiness among black South Africans May September could be expected to last without a material 1983a I988b 1994° 1995 base to support it. The critical question African 51 : 35 83 42 would be whether the levels of happiness Coloured 81 80 81 67 and life satisfaction of all South Africans Indian 89 80 73 71 would converge at an acceptably high point or fall apart to the disadvantage of one group White 91 87 80 67 over another.

All South Africans - 82 50 To test feelings of personal well being and Notes social inequality in the new South Africa, the Quality of Life Unit and RDP Identical items were used in all tour surveys Monitoring Unit at the University of Natal "Taking all things together, how satisfied ate you with your life as a whole these days. commissioned Markdata to apply a set of Generally speaking would you say you are very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied?" (neither/nor) social indicators in their September omnibus survey. The same indicators had "Taking all things together in your life, how would you say things are these days. Would you say you are very happy, fairly happy, fairly unhappy, or very unhappy?" been measured previously in 1983 anil I'JSX. (neither/nor) ; This is the third full survey carried out lor Sample sizes the Quality of Life Project (see box). African Coloured Indian White 1983 1516 970 1316 834 urban 1988 1199 829 99? 752 urban 1994 1208 234 146 631 urban rural Table 2 shows that the post-election 1995 1400 233 169 361 urban rural euphoria bubble has burst. The 1994 and 1995 weighted samples are representative of fhe total South African population including the former homelands. Eighteen months after the April 1994 Sources elections only one in two South Africans, on Melier and Schiemmer (1983) based on HSRC survey average, registered life satisfaction and Mailer (1989) based on HSRC survey , Hems in Markdata May 1994 survey commissioned by M0iler happiness compared with 82% in the Items in Markdata September 1995 survey commissioned by the Qualiiy of Life post-election period. Post-election levels of and RDP Monitoring Unit •• .. , happiness among Africans have dropped

I'liLlVUriiL Vlit-LlLfc- INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 ,. jM 'I'lie racial hierarchy of happiness has Table 3: Quality of life indicators 1995: ^'nnciied and black South Africans are Happiness and life satisfaction JJi,' disadvantaged (Table 3). Percentages "very" and "happy/satisfied"

pomain satisfactions Total African Coloured Indian White ( "o\ eminent of National Unity has Overall well being nromiscd a better life for all South Africans. Global happiness 53 45 68 79 73 The Reconstruction and Development Life satisfaction 46 39 66 63 60 (Rl)l') programme is an ambitious For wording of items see Table 2 programme which aims to create the material base to erase racial inequalities and sustain a fledgling democracy. The South African Quality of Life Project How satisfied are South Africans with various aspects of their lives in the new In the early 1980s the Centre for Social and Development Studies at South Africa? Table 4 groups the 31 social the University of Natal devised a special set of social indicators to test indicators developed by the Quality of Life feelings of personal well being and social inequality in South Africa Project under 10 broad headings for the (M0ller and Schlemmer 1983). The Quality of Life and RDP Monitoring years 1983, 1988 and 1995. Five general Unit is carrying on this work. (rends are evident. Quality of life studies are a specialised field of study devoted to the J The proportions of South Africans development and application of social Indicators which tap the satisfied with various aspects of their degree of well being experienced by individuals and aggregates of lives have generally decreased over the people under prevailing personal, social and economic conditions. past decade. Personal aspects of life are Satisfaction measures are considered to be highly reliable indicators by and large exempt. It is uncertain at of subjective quality of life. They elicit consistent and rational judge- this preliminary stage of analysis ments which are not subject to day-to-day fluctuations in mood. u hether technical factors, such as sample design, exaggerate the overall Participative research methods were employed to elicit the concerns decline in satisfactions (see box on of rank and file South Africans in their everyday lives. Social concerns interpreting social indicators). ranged from basic needs to ideological ones.

J The gap in satisfaction levels between More than 200 social indicators were thoroughly tested before making black South Africans and other groups a final selection of 35 indicators covering general and specific qualify remains. Satisfaction with housing is a of life satisfactions, which were then reapplied in the 1988 and 1995 case in point. surveys. The multi-item instrument is considered ideally suited for systematic monitoring of subjective quality of life across all communi- J Where the satisfaction gradient has ties in South Africa and for the description of changing patterns of lex el led it is due to decreases in white social cleavages. satisfaction levels rather than increases in African satisfaction levels. Examples A feature of the South African quality of life instrument is that all items are the sharp increases in dissatisfaction are immediate and personal concerns. This is reflected in the wording with personal security, against crime and of items. For example, respondents are asked how satisfied they are the standard of public services among with: your family's health, the way you are treated at work, your family's whiles. income if you should become ill or die, your freedom of movement, public services in your community, the housing available for people •J Among all groups the most dramatic like you, the way you get on with other race groups, the respect you drop in satisfaction concerned work and get in your community, your right to vote, and yourself as a person. income. South Africans appear to be increasingly alarmed by declining job The indicators of overall quality of life and satisfaction with specific opportunities. Respondents in jobs domains of life have been applied three times in Markdata surveys: complained about their lack of at the beginning of the 1980s before the state of emergency was independence and poor treatment at declared, towards the end of the apartheid period when reforms were work. Less than a third of people felt already underway, and 18 months after fhe Government of National conhdent of their current or future Unity was installed. ability to provide for their families after retirement or if they were disabled. In addition, two indicators of overall quality of life, satisfaction with life as a whole and general happiness were also tested in a Markdata Q The most significant increase in survey conducted four to six weeks after the first democratic elections satisfaction over the past decade has in April 1994.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 49 L-LLtVLtiuL VUtiLi.Lt" Table 4: Quality of life trends: Domain satisfactions

Percentages "very satisfied" and "satisfied

African Coloured Indian White Total 1983 1988 1995 1983 1988 1995 1983 1988 1995 1983 1988 1995 1995 Domains of living

Family happiness 83 76 59 92 84 82 94 89 81 93 91 81 65

Personal life 71 62 56 82 89 88 85 84 87 91 88 84 64

Food 67 59 49 89 80 96 89 94 92 94 95 86 60

Health 67 58 50 92 77 79 90 74 77 91 89 78 58

Socio-political issues 37 31 42 53 64 68 66 66 86 89 88 77 52

Housing 45 37 35 59 58 54 71 62 72 84 88 80 46

Education 39 26 32 52 64 49 65 60 50 71 74 67 40

Community facilities 30 30 24 47 50 37 52 49 35 73 69 42 29

Work 47 40 15 73 69 41 71 63 38 83 83 42 22

Income & social security 27 18 14 59 54 30 59 51 35 78 75 41 2-

Notes

Survey respondents evaluated 31 domains of living on a five-point scale ranging from "very satisfied" to "very dissatisfied".

Domains are grouped under the headings: Family happiness (1 indicator); personal life (7 indicators), self, respect and intimate relations, friends, peer group adjustment, leisure and fun in life; food (1), qualify quantity of food consumed; health (2), own and family's health; socio-political issues (5), voting rights, racial comparisons, respect from other race groups, race freedom of movement; housing (4), size of dwelling, current dwelling, availability and choice; education (1), own education; community facilities (3), public services in area, transport costs, security against crime; work (3), job opportunities, independence and treatment at work; income (4), own wages, ability to provide for family, income in the case of illness/disability and old age.

Respondents evdluated only domains which were reievont in their lives. Aspects of work and own income were not evaluated by a substantial sample proportion, between 35% and 50% in 1995, a reflection of South Africa's high unemployment rates.

Sample sizes, see Table 2.

occurred in the socio-political sphere. The switch over between levels of The post-election Three quarters of Africans and over 90% satisfaction with socio-political and bubble has now of all other South Africans stated they economic aspects of life suggests that the burst were satisfied with their right to vote in new South Africa has brought reduction in 1995. Higher proportions of South political discontent but has had little impact Africans felt race relations had on the material base needed to sustain a improved and life chances were more fragile democracy. similar for all South Africans. More coloureds and Indians felt they were respected by their fellow South Africans The gender challenge than formerly . The Government of National Unity is committed to reducing gender inequalities Domain satisfactions among Africans and empowering women. Preliminary results highlight the above quality of life trends in suggest that South African women are less the period 1983 and 1995. Table 5 shows content than their menfolk with job that satisfaction with personal concerns, opportunities and the manner in which tliev mainly family and private life, was feed, house and can provide for their The proportion of consistently ranked highest. Satisfaction families in case of adversity and in old age. South Africans with socio-political issues increased from eighth to fifth rank over the three time Women in jobs were more likely to satisfied with their periods, while satisfaction with work issues complain about low wages and lack of lives has dropped from fifth to ninth rank. independence in the workplace. Women also decreased over Satisfaction with income issues always appeared to be less satisfied after hours than the past decade figured in the bottom rank. men.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 50 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 O-nilicantly more women than men Table 5: Average satisfaction levels: Africans •' hcaU'd dissatisfaction with intimate "'[•Ui'ons. the fun they have in life and their 1983 1988 1995 rL a '-'.|L> ol friends. Women reported less Rank % Rank °/o Rank % '"•tisluclion with self than men, suggesting Overall well beingb ' (',n aggregate, South African women Happiness 53 38 45 'iilVkick self confidence. Life satisfaction 48 32 39 Result^ which run counter to overall trends may reflect new job opportunities opening Specific domains° 1 83 1 76 1 59 p to v\ omen of colour as a result of Family u Private life 2 2 2 •ilfinuative action measures to redress past Health 3 4 3 ili-,ad\ai!tage. Although numbers are small, Food 4 3 4 Indian women, on average, tended to be Socio-political issues 8 7 5 more content than their menfolk with job Housing 6 6 6 opportunities and their ability to provide Education 7 9 7 financially for their families. Community facilities 9 8 8 Work 5 5 9 Income 10 27 10 18 10 14 The generation gap a Average percentages indicating "very satisfied" and "satisfied" The satisfaction ratings of people under 30 b See Table 2 for wording of items c See Table 4 for list of indicators grouped under the different headings years ol age were compared with those of two older age categories (30 to 46 and 46 plus years). Young people were more optimistic about their life chances now and Table 6: Quality of life projections 1995 in future than the older generations. Young South Africans were more likely to think Past, present and future life satisfaction Coloured Indian White (heir situation had improved since the Total African % % % % % elections and that their life chances in five years time would also be better. Past satisfaction (five years ago) These altitudes were particularly pronounced among African and Indian Satisfied 44 34 52 60 76 youth, who also were more likely than Dissatisfied 31 40 23 9 5 others to sec life as 'rewarding'. More older Current satisfactiona than younger South Africans thought they had heen more contented with life five years Satisfied 46 39 66 63 60 ago. Dissatisfied 38 46 18 28 21

African, coloured and Indian but not white Perceived change since April 1994 elders gave themselves a poorer health elections rating than their younger counterparts. This I hiding may reflect differentials in life styles Better 33 41 36 21 4 and li\ ing standards as well as age. Same 43 41 47 50 46 Worse 24 18 17 29 50 Only coloured youth expressed significantly greater dissatisfaction than their elders with Life in five years time their housing circumstances. Black youth Better 38 45 44 20 13 were less discontent than their elders with Same 40 41 39 47 31 loud and fun in life but less satisfied with Worse 22 14 17 33 56 prospects of job opportunities and social security. Life is currently

* Rewarding 25 21 33 33 36 Kelali\ e to their elders, white youth were In between 41 39 43 55 46 satisfied with basic needs, such as food Frustrating 34 40 24 12 18 and housing, and more intrinsic needs '"eluding independence at work, fun and * Getting better 31 32 37 28 24 leisure, respect received from other South In between 42 39 43 56 54 Alrieans and race relations. However, Getting worse 27 29 20 16 22 vttislaetion levels were still higher than in a See Table 2 for wording of item tlK' t'Ual sample.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 51 L'-LLLVLtiUL VtctzLlLfc- South Africans It is difficult to tell whether the relative The survey response also struck a cautious generally dissatisfaction of white youth is merely note. In 1995 many South Africans app^r l() projected transitory - related to life stage - or a sign of be reserving their judgement and feeling cautious optimism scepticism and deeper seated alienation. The neither one way nor the other. Feelings of fact that twice as many white youth than ambiguity about the quality of one's life elders perceived life as 'getting better' may be symptomatic of the transition period suggests that the life stage interpretation which may be as frustrating and exhausting ' holds. as it is exhilarating.

It is possible that lower satisfaction ratings on respect and race relations are born of Future quality of life feelings of solidarity and egalitarianism: There were major differences in how groups white youth may be less smug about their of South Africans saw the future relatix e to personal relations with fellow South their present circumstances. Africans than their elders. In September 1995, Africans achieved t be- lowest level of life satisfaction and Cautious optimism happiness among South Africans. Hov\c\er. To overcome the large gaps between they were also most likely to indicate that surveys, respondents in the Markdata 1995 progress had been achieved since the survey were asked to project feelings of elections and to express optimism for the happiness into the past and the future. Table future. The current level of frustration 6 shows that South Africans generally reported by black South Africans was also projected cautious optimism. higher than any other group.

• The proportion of survey respondents Coloured South Africans consistently indicating satisfaction with life in 1995 expressed the highest sense of achievement Africans were was slightly higher than the one and optimism for the future. most likely to projecting satisfaction with life the year Nelson Mandela was released from Indians were far less optimistic about the express optimism prison. However, more South Africans future than their African and coloured about the future indicated that they were dissatisfied at counterparts but, on average, less present (38%) than five years ago (31%). pessimistic than white South Africans.

• A third perceived that their lives had White South Africans projected greater life changed for the better since the April satisfaction in the past than present, which 1994 elections compared with just under compares with trend results. One in two a quarter who perceived changes for the stated that their lives had changed for the worse. worse since the elections and 56% expected life chances to deteriorate in five years lime. • Over a third anticipated that in five years time life for people like themselves Respondents were asked to qualify then- would be better. Less than a quarter future projections of greater or lesser life thought things would be worse. chances.

• A higher proportion (31 %) indicated that the life they were leading now was • Optimists getting better rather than worse (27%). Every second person who believed in a better future hoped the new Government's • Overall, only a quarter of South election promises would be realised. Asa One in two whites Africans perceived their current life to few people put it, the new Government stated that their be rewarding while over a third saw life should be given a chance to prove itself. A lives had as frustrating. small proportion of respondents referred to changed for the specific RDP projects. In particular, optimistic people expected more job worse since the The items on perceptions of current life getting better or worse and yielding rewards opportunities and a stronger economy. elections and frustrations were put to South Africans in the earlier surveys. The proportions Gains in civil rights and international indicating that their lives were not rewarding recognition were gratifying for a few, while or getting better have declined steadily since hopes of material gains and a higher 1983. standard of living pointed to a brighter

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 52 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 tiiiure for others. A few respondents stated Interpreting social indicators thai improved race relations or religious convictions made them optimistic for the The interpretations of trend indicators is a hazardous task. Shifts in levels future. of satisfaction result from a number of factors including changes in external social conditions which impinge on personaf well being, the j Ambiguous demographic composition of the population, levels of expectations of the population, and technical artefacts. Respondents who expected life to be about the same in five years time were mainly hesitant to project the future or predicted no Shifting quality of life trends may reflect real changes in objective life or slow change. circumstances of South Africans during the review period. All other things being equal, positive interventions aimed at improving living standards are expected to register in higher satisfaction rates in affected areas. j Pessimists

Many pessimists also foresaw no or slow Satisfaction results from people's subjective appraisal of their objective change. Pessimists were mainly concerned life circumstances. Individuals measure the appropriateness of their life thai the economy would remain weak and circumstances against various standards. Personal quality of life may be the job situation would deteriorate. A large seen to improve or deteriorate because reference standards shift. group of pessimists were anxious about South Africa's high crime rate and the breakdown of law and order in the country. Rising expectations and rapid adaptation to new living standards may Reference was made by a few respondents result in a more critical assessment of life conditions. Thus popular ID continued strike action which threatened discontent may emerge especially during periods of social to retard economic growth. transformation.

Others predicted that weak, incompetent or Although social indicators are measured under identical circumstances corrupt leaders would be the country's in each repeat survey, this is rarely the case in practice. The research downfall. A minority feared a loss of their instrument employed for the Quality of Life Project was refined and cultural values and discrimination in future. shortened after the first wave of research which resulted in minor A few people predicted that personal changes in the wording of some items in the 1988 survey. Thereafter circumstances, such as advanced age or a identical items were used. meagre retirement income, would depress their future quality of life. The initial aim of the Quality of Life Project was to explore the nature of Impressions of pessimism varied. Pessimists social cleavages and racial inequality in South African society. The among Africans were mainly concerned that samples used in the 1980s canvassed representative cross-sections of promised changes would not materialise, the then four official population groups. Due to financial constraints bears for the future among other pessimists samples were drawn among urban populations in metropolitan areas, were associated with predictions of an and larger and smaller towns. Data collected from an exemplary rural exclusively 'black' government and a one sub-sample drawn in the former homelands In 1983 are not reviewed in party state. Indian respondents were very this article. an\ious that the high crime rates should not jeopardise future life chances. In the 1990s a new South African sample design was devised by Markdata which was inclusive of the former homelands and allowed for Although numbers were small, Indian and coloured South Africans tended to be more breakdowns by the new provinces. The new South African sample was concerned about job discrimination in a breakthrough for quality of life research: it yielded the first estimates hilure, and whites about incompetent people of average South African perceived well being. taking leadership positions. More white and coloured than other South Africans gave Strictly speaking, the preliminary analysis presented here is flawed in that religious reasons for expecting a better it compares time series data generated by samples which do not match future. perfectly - the samples were drawn under conditions of the old and new boundaries. Nonetheless the results do give insight into the dynamics of Happiness for all inequalities under apartheid and since the birth of democracy. I he quality of life trends reviewed above suggest that there is ample room for An alternative approach would be to use the 1995 quality of life survey "iiprovement in the lives of ordinary South as a baseline study. In this case the September 1995 levels of happiness AI ri cans. In 1995 the overall level of well and satisfaction would serve as the benchmark against which being of South Africans has not converged - improvements in perceived quality of life could be measured relative to ;is hoped - between the very high white delivery on RDP programmes.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 53 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' The narrowing level of the pre-election period and the of South Africans. The following scenario gap between abysmally low black level. Levels of emerges if results are combined for three black and white happiness have dropped generally and measures of life quality: current satisfaction with life as a whole, feelings that life is satisfaction inequalities in perceived quality of life remain. getting better now, and projections of quality merely reflects of life for people like yourself in five \ears " the growing This analysis has focused on race and time. anxiety of whites gender inequalities and used age differentials to point to future trends. Rural, Coloured South Africans are fairly urban and regional differences and income optimistic in the longer and shorter term. dimensions of inequality need to explored in Indians, and whites, in particular, appear to further analysis. be satisfied in the short term but less confident of their continued well being in Encouraging is that preliminary results future. Comparatively fewer Africans appear suggest that the gap between the perceived to be satisfied with life in the shorter term, quality of life of black and white South but their longer term prospects are very Africans has narrowed in some areas of life, good. The longer term positive prognosis notably civil rights and political freedom. In holds for 61% of Africans but only 35(;< of 1995, the universal franchise is no longer a whites. quality of life concern. On aggregate, satisfaction in this domain is saturated. The results on short and long term Statistically, satisfaction with voting rights projections of life satisfaction suggest thai no longer contributes to enhanced well being. Africans, few of whom enjoy the good life The focal now, are willing to wait for their due. Oilier concern of all Worrying, on the other hand, is that the South Africans are still relatively content al South Africans narrowing of the gap between black and present. The challenge will be to presen c appears to be the white satisfaction rates merely reflects the the patience of poorer South Africans w hile future of the growing discontent and anxiety of the instilling greater confidence among the economy formerly privileged and indicates no gains in better off in their prospects for happiness in satisfaction among the underprivileged. the distant future. M&

Now that the political dimension of unequal life quality has been resolved, the focal concern of all South Africans appears to be REFERENCES Moller V and Schlemmer L (1983) 'Quality of Life in South the future of the economy. The main Africa: Towards an instrument for the assessment of difference of opinion between optimists and quality of life and basic needs'. Social Indicators pessimists among survey respondents was Research 12: 225-279. Moller V (1994) 'Post-election euphoria' Indicator SA Vol 12 whether the economy would meet their No 1: 27-32. aspirations. Moller V (1989) 'Can't Get No Satisfaction: Quality of life in the 1980s', Indicator SA Vol 7 No 1: 43-46. Office of the President: Reconstruction and Development The study of poverty referred to at the outset Programme (1995) Key indicators of poverty in South found that job creation was at the top of the Africa. Saldru (1994) South Africans Rich and Poor: Baseline wish list of South Africans from all social Household Statistics. School of Economics, University of backgrounds. In the 1995 quality of life Cape Town, Rondebosch. The challenge will study, job opportunities evidenced the be to preserve the lowest satisfaction rates among African, patience of coloured and white South Africans, and the poorer South second lowest satisfaction rate among Indians. Africans while ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS instilling greater The Quality of Life and RDP Monitoring Unit is funded by Past projections of satisfaction appear to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The confidence author thanks the HSRC for financial support to conduct have no bearing on current well being, but the 1995 quality of life survey, and Markdata for making among the available the 1988 quality of life dataset and carrying out feelings of optimism for the future do. This the 1995 survey. Views are those of the author and better off finding augurs well for the future well being should not be attributed to the HSRC.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 54 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 ECONOMIC MONITOR

Official SA Trade Unions Directory Labour Statistics

REGISTERED TRADE UNIONS AND THEIR MEMBERSHIP, 1979 TO 1994

Year Number of Number of i Year Number of Number of Ended Trade Unions Members Ended Trade Unions Members

1979 167 727 000 i 1987 205 1 879 400 1980 188 781 727 ! 1988 209 2 084 323 1981 200 1 064 405 I 1989* 212 2130 117 1982 199 1 225 454 ! 1990* 209 2 458 712 1983 194 1 288 748 i 1991* 200 2 760 400 1984 193 1 406 302 i 1992* 194 2 905 933 1985 196 1 391 423 i 1993* 201 2 890 174 1986 195 1 698157 ! 1994* 213 2 470 481

* As on 31 October Source: Department of Labour

STRIKES: EMPLOYEES INVOLVED AND MAN-DAYS LOST, 1979-1994

Year or quarter Strikes Employees involved Man-days lost

1979 101 22 803 * 1980 207 61785 174 614 1981 342 92 842 226 554 1982 394 141 577 265 337 1983 338 64 469 124 596 1984 469 181 942 379 712 1985 389 239 816 678 273 1986 793 424 390 1 308 958 1987 1 148 591 421 5 825 231 1988 1 025 161 679 914 388 1989 942 197 504 1 511 499 1990 885 341 011 2 729 522 1991 613 170 784 1 348 809 1992 790 138 015 1 731 567 1993 781 161 504 836 317 1994** 804 326 649 2 148 823

* Figure for 1979 not availabie ** As on 31 October 1994 Source: Department of Labour THE 1996 IPM HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTORY AND HANDBOOK The IPM Human Resources Directory and Handbook is Managements Buyers Guide to human resource consultants, products and service providers in South Africa. The ability to outsource highly qualified Human Resource Specialists offers business a cost effective alternative to increase their "People Performance" in a deliberate and definable manner that reflects favourably on the bottom line.

IF YOUR ORGANISATION WANTS TO KEEP UP WITH LEADING EDGE TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT THEN YOU NEED THE IPM HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTORY AND HANDBOOK r — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —• — — — — — — — — — ^ YES, please supply me with a copy of the IPM HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTORY AND HANDBOOK 1996 (Publication date 23 October 1995) Cost R160-00 (incl. VAT, P&P) Organisation's Name: Surname: Initials: Order No: Job Title: Tel: Fax: Code: Postal address: Code: I I Herewith my cheque for R160-00 for the 1996 IPM Human Resources Directory & Handbook (Cheques to be made payable to IPM. VAT No: 4960104372) dl Please invoice my organisation for R160-00 for the 1996 IPM Human Resources Directory & Handbook (NB: Order No. must be supplied) Signature: (Who by this signature warrants authority) QUICKFAX TO: (011) 642-1074/3526 or POST TO: P O Box 31390, Braamfontein, 2017

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Our Directory summarises all labour legislation into layman's language and gives comprehensive intormation on '. all trade unions, employer organisations, industrial councils, government departments, labour statistics etc. This information is completely up-to-date at time of printing each year.

Also, because our Directory is now published in a ring-binder format, as new labour legislation is passed we summarise it, print it and mail it out ready to be slipped into the Directory.

The 1996 Directory will also deal with legal duties and obligations in respect of governance of retirement funds.

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ADDRESS: 3rd Floor, Trades Hall East, 90 Anderson Street, Johannesburg 2001. PO Box 4874, Johannesburg 2000. TEL: (011) 838-2001, 838-2002 FAX: (011) 838-5347, 836-6763 A Lifdoruj Task The RDP in Perspective

By Chris Heymans Manager: Policy Coordination Development Bank of Southern Africa

The Reconstruction and Development Programme could be successful if it genuinely became the flagship of government, was openly debated and challenged, the functions of different levels of government were properly analysed, sectoral arrangements were clarified to enable roleplayers to participate, if partnerships assumed real meaning, planning was properly done and the process was continually assessed and improved.

he Reconstruction and Development Star October 21, 1995; Taking the RDP The RDP should Programme (RDP) is an ambitious Forward), including: not be judged by initiative. Amid dire backlogs and delivery only, but rinstitutional paralysis, it commits the • 28 000 jobs through 489 projects as a strategy to relatively new Government to accelerated transform • Final preparations for new water service delivery and a fundamental government turnabout in the way government operates. supplies to four million people Willi this agenda, complete success would be spectacular. • Funding already programmed for 614 municipal upgrading projects, affecting Anal\ sing the period from April 1994 to some three million people November 1995, this article reflects on the nature, achievements, shortcomings and • Free health care for pregnant women future of the RDP. It contends that the RDP and small children should not be judged by delivery only, but as a strategy to transform government through O Free meals for 3,5 million school policy and institutional change. children Delivery matters, • Electrifiction of 2,7 million new houses Delivery matters but being able to Government is under much pressure to • Land reform affecting 4 100 families respond to needs deliver tangible RDP outputs. Poor access to in the long term basic services, opportunities and facilities • Several community policing and school is even more den> millions a decent living. To rigidly upgrading projects. crucial insist that policy and institutional changes must pre-empt delivery, will therefore be While the Minister concedes limited insensitive in the extreme. success, more delivery would not have constituted greater success. Delivery hi October 1995, RDP Minister Jay Naidoo matters, but being able to respond to needs "('led some RDP achievements (Saturday in the long term is even more crucial.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 57 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' In reality and The RDP's main goals are: democratisation, First, such a new government was unliM , meeting basic needs, economic and human to produce anything more. The White perception, 1 everything resource development, and managing and itself called for further policy analysis uV monitoring reconstruction and development. clarify the basis for and nature of choices government does While working with others towards these and the institutional and fiscal mecluinisins is not yet RDP goals, the Government of National Unity to pursue those choices. Priorities identified first has to transform itself so that, as the included urban, rural and human resources RDP Office's Dr Bernie Fanaroff puts it: development and capacity building, and how to link expenditure to objectives. " "...everything government does is RDP." (The Star, August 31, 1995) Second, its shortcomings should not obscure what the White Paper achieved. It placed This implies that the RDP is not an add-on: reconstruction and development tit the core departments should reorientate their of the Government's agenda and made the expenditures towards RDP objectives; the RDP state policy, underwritten bj all parties RDP Office cannot take sole responsibility in government. for the programme; and a framework for consistent application of the RDP is essential. What policy change? At least six significant RDP related polic-. This is the Government's official approach, themes have come to the fore. but it is not applied consistently. New policy documents - of varying quality and 1 Growth and redistribution arc mutually specificity - and coordinating committees supportive goals, not alternatives illustrate some reorientation across The RDP White departments. As a growth strategy, the RDP seeks in Paper placed make the economy internally vibrant and reconstruction However, reluctance among some civil globally competitive. Yet, anticipating that and development servants about the RDP, the fluid policy growth will not automatically trickle down, at the core of the environment and the tendency to level it also pursues redistribution. Government's criticism about RDP delivery at the RDP Office only, suggest otherwise. In reality By grappling with these issues, government agenda and perception, everything government does has illustrated an increasingly nua need is not yet RDP. approach to economic policy. However, it has yet to prove its willingness to make the complex and politically controversial A policy framework choices which its stance on growth and Elected with a mandate for change, the distribution implies. African National Congress (ANC) majority in the Government of National Unity moved While most departmental white papers and rapidly to set the RDP process in motion. policy statements emphasise equitv. few show how departments will support Once in power, they created a ministry economic growth. It is unclear what choices within the Office of the President to oversee ministries will make when they ha\ e to the RDP, established some capacity to balance growth considerations against manage it and sought to align other parties equity trade-offs. This lack of clarity affects and interest groups behind the programme. policy from education and health through to investment in infrastructure and spatial Within five months, the Government of economic development. Government has National Unity produced a White Paper on yet to prove its Reconstruction and Development (Govern- 2 Integrated urban and rural willingness to ment Printer, November 1994). The White development make the Paper was criticised for not being specific and politically for not making critical choices and resource In November 1995, a new Green Paper set controversial allocations. Critics rightfully pointed out that it out the Government of National Unity's presented a list of ideals rather than - as one perspective and intended strategies choices which its might expect of a government document - regarding rural and urban areas. Although stance implies attainable commitments. general, the visions for integrated rural and urban development provide a basis for wide Two points place these shortcomings in ranging transformation. Furthermore, while perspective. spatial matters receive attention, especial! >

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VTitrlLlit- 58 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 . tlK urban strategy, the strategies strongly they could substitute action, either by default Redistribution asise the institutional aspects of or deliberate delay. But they signal a process from richer to ppment. of reassessment essential for a government poorer in transition. households is The Office and Departments of inevitable Housing- Land Affairs and Water Affairs Similarly, such policy groundwork seems look a lead, but more than a year's essential within the newly established deliberations among departments, levels of provinces. These governments inherited nin eminent and other stakeholders ensured many apartheid structures and have to broad alignment behind these strategies. systematically think afresh about their Some departments have already begun objectives and programmes to support them. investigating how it applies to them. A lack of clarity and periodic conflict about pri>\ incial and local government support is the roles of and funding for different levels still less pronounced, but their involvement of government, as well as the lower tiers' in the drafting of the strategies ensured a capacity constraints, have made it difficult to definite emphasis on their policy and translate policy into practice. implementation roles. The development planning process, set up Hollow up work to make the strategies more jointly between the RDP Office, other specific has already started - even national departments and the provinces, concurrently with the more general policy aims to reconcile policy development, processes. The Municipal Infrastructure planning and programming for budgeting Investment Framework (MIIF), for example, and implementation and to synchronise their quantifies infrastructure and service efforts towards achieving RDP objectives. The aim is to backlogs and needs, and spells out some of This has been complex, almost inevitably secure private the choices required to provide all South slowing down delivery. Africans with affordable services. sector 4 Public-private sector partnerships participation in The MIIF proposes different levels of services services, based on affordability. It calls for The Government of National Unity has traditionally capital costs to be spread among high repeatedly called for private sector associated with income households (through rates and participation in the RDP. It no longer government taxes i, local service providers (by confines this to private sector representation redirecting existing capital budgets), private on forums, committees and commissions or sector investment in service delivery limited tendering. The aim is to secure companies, and the national Government private sector participation in the (through capital grants). management and administration of certain services traditionally associated with In asserting that operating funding will government, private investment in service increasingly be generated at local level, it delivery and private sector finance, confronts South Africans with stark realities: especially for infrastructure. (See the later all consumers will have to pay for services section on institutional development.) at appropriate levels, tariffs and taxes will likel\ rise annually, and redistribution from 5 The role of local government in richer to poorer households is inevitable. implementing the RDP Noting many poor households' inability to pay |'i ir services in full and the constraints on The recent Urban and Rural Development redistribution through local taxes and Green Paper commits government to a The Urban and charges, it calls for systematic culture of local governance and an enabling Rural intergovernmental transfers to local environment for local government. It authorities. recognises the value of local government, Development calling for the its transformation and greater Green Paper 3 Sectoral, departmental and provincial public awareness of its role in a democracy commits pdicy renewal (Government Printer, November 1995). government to a culture of local Mo^t departments have or are in the process The notion of local economic development governance of producing Green or White Papers, has gained ground, and while there is an indicating their contributions to the RDP. irony about local economic development I lie quality, specificity and practicability of strategy led by central and provincial lhe»e papers vary and there are fears that government, several departments are

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 59 UHIILCME VLTL-LllLt" The notion of investigating how local roleplayers can 1 Relating policy to the planning ;in(| local economic make the RDP happen. programming of resources, budgeting implementation, monitoring and development has But policy statements in this regard are evaluation gained ground ambiguous. In emphasising the implementing role of local government, The RDP White Paper and other policy central and provincial spokespeople often statements articulated government's supp()rl downplay the potential policy role of local for a systematic decision making system. An structures. Centralised policy making might, interdepartmental Macro-Economic Workiiiji of course, aim to ensure that institutions at Group therefore developed a Medium Term all levels are viable and their programmes Expenditure Framework to guide central and and projects sustainable. However, there is a provincial budgetary allocations. fine line between such a strategy and a patronising, top-down approach which The proposed Framework's expenditure disempowers local government to become a projection model links RDP policy to each functional subsidiary of the centre. budgetary function. The model is already being tested and - if politically acceptable - 6 Performance management could herald a new era of goal orientated decision making and budgeting. The RDP aims to enhance efficient, accountable and user friendly government. It The RDP Office envisages a development proposes departmental business planning planning system to link multi-year planning which sets goals and delivery targets, plans to budgeting across departments and processes and resource allocations for provinces within the parameters of the programmes and projects, and shows how Framework. To build consensus around this All Presidential results will be measured. - and around reform of the spatial planning Lead Projects system - the Forum for Effective Planning already report Key performance indicators are also being and Development was formed. Chaired quarterly on key developed. All Presidential Lead Projects jointly by the RDP Office and the performance already report quarterly on the key Department of Land Affairs, it involves indicators performance indicators, specifying, for provincial ministers in development planning example, the employment, training and supervision with the central government. gender impact of projects. Some provinces are progressing well with The intention is to spread this approach to their plans, but others are unable to develop everything government does. Because the functional perspectives and plans. The Rl )l' procedures are still rough and practical Office has assisted them, but many pro\ incial know-how is limited, the RDP Office has governments experience such problems designated specific capacity to the definition becoming operational that they cannot engage of a key performance indicators system and effectively in visionary planning. the development of skills to oversee it. The RDP Office believes that a National To conclude, the RDP has to undo many Growth and Development Vision could soon problems inherited from the past, mobilise be formulated jointly by the national and manage scarce resources, motivate staff government and provinces in consultation towards a vision of something better, with business, labour and other development redefine government's core values and interests. However, even if a vision is now improve its mode of operation. produced, capacity constraints make a sustainable development planning s\ stem a Many provincial So far, some shifts have occurred across matter for the longer term. governments departments and levels of government, but experience such countless problems remain. To succeed the To build consensus between government problems RDP has to overcome these problems and other roleplayers around strategies, becoming through policy change which makes delivery programmes and projects, the RDP Office operational that sustainable. has called for the formation of consultative forums as part of a development planning they cannot system at all levels of government. effectively plan The public sector The transformation of the public sector in However, several local and provincial support of the RDP revolves around eight delegates at meetings about development aspects. planning and other RDP policy initiatives

Lilili-lililiLlr Uifcliiit- 60 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 1 -1 ve expressed fears that these structures \vill complicate the institutional environment, entrench unrepresentative interests and undermine elected bodies.

2 While all departments have to pursue the R1)I\ it needs a dedicated champion

Attempts were made - with mixed success - to establish such dedicated agencies at all levels of government. At national level, a Ministry without Portfolio - the 'RDP Office' - lias to promote the RDP in government and mobilise support from other roleplayers. It regards line departments as responsible for implementation, but has established a capacity to 'unblock' obstacles.

It also initiated interdepartmental strategic task teams dealing with Urban and Rural Development, Capacity building and Development Planning.

Willi other departments, work was also done on institutional questions like the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the The RDP Office reviews its first year mobilisation of experts in support of decision making processes. Responsible for the Central Statistical Services, it spearheads Critics argue, however, that the Fund Critics question attempts to make official information more introduces a dual budgetary process and that the sustainability accurate, development orientated and user 'progressive' departments will in any event of some RDP friendly. align expenditures to RDP goals, while more conservative ones are unlikely to change projects An RDP Fund, accounted for by the theirs in response to the relatively limited Department of Finance, was formed to assist 'topping up' capacity of the RDP Fund. the RDP Office in four ways: Some critics also question the sustainability of some projects. More recently, provincial J 1 ast tracking delivery through high maladministration of the primary school profile projects: Presidential Lead nutrition programme was alleged. Projects The RDP Office has faced five major J Kick starting budget reprioritisation institutional problems:

_) Introducing a performance culture into • Staffing. It depended initially on government secondments from other departments, parastatals, private companies and _1 ('apturing lessons of experience from NGOs, while developing a skeleton the Presidential Lead Projects to benefit permanent staff. It has now appointed future development projects. more permanent people, but still finds it difficult to recruit the range of skills it I he RDP Fund had R2,5 billion available in needs. The RDP Office IW-1/95 and R5 billion for 1995/96. While still finds it allocations did not proceed at the anticipated • The RDP lacks champions at the difficult to recruit pace, the Fund nonetheless moved some provincial and local levels. After the the range of skills resources towards RDP priorities. It 1994 elections, virtually all the slrategically supplemented departmental provinces and some local authorities it needs budgets for housing, municipal either established RDP units or in Ira structure and urban renewal, health, designated RDP coordination to specific 'Hilrition, water and sanitation, and transport. departments. Many of these

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 61 UHIILCME VLtL-LllLt" Some officials arrangements have not yet come to Forum draws together all the provincial fruition and some have been terminated Premiers with the central Government. resent the RDP altogether. RDP units either never built Office for its sufficient capacity or could not Officials serve on interdepartmental 'meddling' in overcome political, administrative and Functional Committees which address the their other constraints. full spectrum of government busmen as puil departmental of the ongoing budgetary process. R Dp management • Territorial resistance from some line issues feature here because the RDP is M> departments. Coordinating departments prominent on the Government's overall either work because their hierarchical agenda, but the RDP Office has lacked the power base is uncontested, or by resources to be sufficiently active within performing their cross cutting role with functional committees. finesse. Task teams were also established to The RDP Office enjoys special status by facilitate synergy around priorities, being in the Office of the President, but activities, strategies and policies for I Than. also relies on process management to Rural and Human Resources Capacitv align departments to the RDP. Yet, it is Development. However, continuity lias been somehow not sufficiently associated a problem because some departments and with the President, and parts of the civil provinces are often not present or send service regard it as inexperienced and different representatives to each meeting. idealistic. Some officials resent the RDP Office for its 'meddling' in their 4 Reforming the development finance departmental management. system

Transforming • A delicate relationship with Parliament. The Department of Finance spearheads the institutions and Tasked to be creative, the RDP Office transformation of existing institutions like forming new might in theory have to seek its mandate the Development Bank of Southern Africa ones has been early from Parliament, but in the heat of (DBSA) and the Industrial Development the moment simply not do so. Its wide Corporation (IDC), and the formation of complex and focus also complicates its relationship new ones in several RDP related sectors. time consuming, with Parliament. and has impeded Five public sector wholesale loan finance RDP delivery The RDP Ministry might, for example, systems will be set up for: infrastructure meticulously work at its relationship (DBSA), industrial development (IDC), with the RDP Standing Committee, housing (an envisaged National Housing while other committees feel that they Finance Corporation), small business need a more direct say in RDP issues. development (Khula Enterprises), and rural Recently, some parliamentarians (for and agricultural development. Meanwhile, example, the Standing Committee on provinces are either transforming old Finance) expressed frustration with the development corporations or establishing RDP Office for this very reason. new ones to provide multi-sectoral retail finance and development support. • The temptation to justify itself periodically on the grounds of delivery. The RDP Office is driving attempts to The problem is that the RDP Office's establish a national grant funding institution own budgetary allocation is aimed at to support NGO capacity building and gearing resources towards RDP perhaps NGO driven projects and capacity objectives, rather than full scale building for weak local authorities. An implementation. It therefore has to interim trust for grant funding was recentK emphasise policy and institutional established, but this process remains fraught change while enabling line departments, with difficulties around focus, participation provinces and local authorities to deliver. and its relationship with the DFS. The Masakhane Campaign has 3 Coordination and cooperation across The decision to establish various national not yet convinced national line departments and the institutions, rather than one channel of as an overall different tiers of government funding, also poses a coordination transformation challenge. And defining roles, transforming strategy A number of formal intergovernmental and individual institutions and forming new ones interdepartmental structures were formed to have been complex and time consuming, enhance coordination. The Intergovernmental and have impeded RDP delivery.

lIU-L'l;LmIUU.V VTItrlLlIt- 62 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 5 A fiscal and financial system to 'troubleshooting' unit to undo obstacles - Government underpin the RDP often institutional - in project context. structures are often either 'flic (iovernment wants the private sector to At the provincial level, the RDP Office has misdirected or help fund the RDP and has therefore - with - with the support of donors, parastatals, lack financial and other roleplayers - explored ways in which non-governmental organisations, the private il can achieve this. However, while larger sector and educational institutions - initiated appropriate local authorities (with strong rates and a provincial support programme. It entails human resources service charge bases), parastatals and DFIs Project Preparation Facilities to support in be able to access private sector funding, the preparation of project proposals, 'skills many public sector institutions cannot do so. audits' of provincial governments and technical support for development planning. Most local authorities, facing vast demands Capacity building needs are, however, so for services and infrastructure in poor areas, vast that these efforts can at most be seen as require direct support from the central and part of the solution, and they have provincial governments. Reshaped fiscal progressed with varying success. relations between the different levels of government - and especially the long term Other roleplayers financing of local authorities - are therefore critical in order to address priorities like Government alone cannot implement the housing, infrastructure, transportation and RDP. It has therefore: regional and local economic development. 1 Interacted regularly with organised 6 The transformation and strengthening interests of local government Apart from ad hoc meetings, structured There is not Most rural areas have no proper local discussions took place at an RDP Investment sufficient clarity authorities, and transformation of urban Conference in mid-1995, and preparations about what l( real authorities has only started. The are underway for another investment incentives would (iovernment launched the Masakhane conference in April 1996. Furthermore, the lure the private Campaign to strengthen local government National Economic Development and and to get residents to pay for the services Labour Council facilitates structured sector into rendered by local authorities. However, interaction between the Government, the participation at payments have not been forthcoming and the private sector, labour and development the required scale campaign has not yet convinced as an sector interests. overall transformation strategy. 2 Promoted the notion of 7 The overall transformation of the civil multi-stakeholder partnerships service is part and parcel of the RDP While discussing this with the private sector, The introduction of a performance culture labour and others, the Government expects and greater synergy between departments the Development Bank of Southern Africa enjoys high priority. Line departments to actively pursue 'co-funding' with the should take up this challenge because, like private sector for infrastructure development. the RDP, public sector transformation will fail if it becomes the responsibility of the However, there is not yet sufficient clarity Public Service and RDP Ministries only. about what incentives would lure the private sector into participation at the required scale. 8 Very basic capacities must be developed Housing indemnity schemes, for example, within and outside the public sector have often disappointed and the Government has largely ruled out guarantees for loans by Controversy Government structures are often either lower tiers. surrounds the misdirected or lack financial and appropriate extent to which human resources. Communities supposed to It is also not clear whether the Government the Government benefit from the RDP often lack and the private sector understand should guide information, know how and resources to 'partnership' similarly. The Government's development support for partnerships and its pragmatic take charge of their own development. funding for NGOs attitude towards private sector participation The proposed national grant funding agency in financing and implementing the RDP will presumably focus on some of these could nonetheless herald a new era in problems, while the RDP Office has a public-private cooperation.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 63 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' It is time that 3 Explored, through the RDP Office, stubborn civil servants be made to stubborn civil ways to mobilise 'community interests' realise that the RDP has voter support servants be in the development planning process and they simply have implement it. made to realise that the RDP has It promotes the notion of development • The RDP is openly debated and forums at all levels. Critics fear that such challenged, instead of becoming an voter support structuring of stakeholder participation untouchable gospel. In this way its finer could undermine normal democratic aspects will receive due attention and institutions, create a group of (not the nation will feel more secure thai the necessarily representative) 'insiders' and need for the policy framework has been threaten the independence of civil society. tested and remains under scrutiny. Precious and necessary as the RDP 4 Depicted NGOs as additional channels might be, it is a policy framework. In for financing, capacity-building and contrast, democracy is a value system. delivery and as innovative change The former is negotiable, the latter not. agents, willing to test new ideas • The political and implementing roles of However, controversy surrounds the extent different levels of government are to which the Government should guide properly analysed and recognised. development funding, especially for NGOs. Lower tiers will not easily accept It seemed that the RDP Office might political ownership of a programme they become a clearing house for donor funds - did not politically conceive. They should purportedly to ensure synergy in support of therefore not only be the 'arms and legs' NOTE RDP objectives. Jay Naidoo has now made of the RDP, but should also be part of The views expressed in this article are those it clear that this is not his intention, but the brain power. Systematic and clear of the author and do many NGOs remain concerned about the intergovernmental relations are fiscally not necessarily reflect the Development autonomy of their relationships with donors. and institutionally vital. Bank of Southern Africa's position. Donors have been ambivalent. While legitimate government opened the door for • Sectoral arrangements are clarified lo REFERENCES more direct funding of government enable roleplayers to define their roles initiatives, most donors seem apprehensive and commit their resources to the Kl)l' Office of the President about the Government instructing them how in complementary ways and in terms of (1995) Taking the HDP Forward, Ministry to apply their resources. clear investment criteria. without Portfolio in the Office of the President, Parliament, 5 Made the role of donors an issue • Partnerships assume real meaning w ilh Cape Town, June 8, 1995. different roleplayers committing Republic of South Africa Donor agencies often relieve pressure on resources - whether they be financial, (1994) White Paper on Reconstruction and government by supporting delivery priorities technical or political - to the RDP. Development, and institutional and policy development. Government Gazette No 16085, The RDP Office and Department of Finance • The right things are done at the right Government Printer, have attempted to systematise their time and for the right reasons. There Cape Town, November 1994. relationships with donors. However, this is should always be a short term plan and a Republic of South Africa likely to be a complicated relationship: long term one, probably proceeding at (1995) Urban Development Strategy donors act in terms of their own national the same time. Delivery should start of the Government of considerations and set criteria which because needs are so vast, yet policy anil National Unity and Rural Development recipients often find uncomfortable. institutional changes are preconditions Strategy of the Government of for sustainable delivery. National Unity, Government Gazette The way forward No 16679, • Principle and practice are clearly Government Printer, Pretoria, November 3, The RDP can be a success if: distinguished. The toolkit to make the 1995. RDP happen should be assessed N Nattrass (1995) "The • It genuinely becomes the flagship of continually. The reformed budgetary Two Faces of the RDP" in The Mail and government as a whole. The perception process, the RDP Fund, strategies and Guardian, 15-22 that the RDP Office is responsible for all other means supposed to ensure September 1995 S Friedman and M the RDP is still too strong. Despite some implementation and planning of the Reitzes (1995) "Civil progress, departments and lower tiers of RDP should be seen as instruments, society and Development in government are neither sufficiently open to change if alternatives arise. South Africa's New aligned nor have they all accepted full Democracy", Development Paper ownership of the RDP. In addressing Together, these approaches should ensure 75, Development Bank of Southern this, the RDP Office should remain that the RDP is well planned and effectiveh Africa, Midrand, 1995. gradualist, but it is also time that implemented. Q®3

(MiUmOi WFC@IL££ 64 INDICATOR SA Voh3No1 Summer 1995 BUILDING BLOCKS LOGJAMS IN HOUSING DELIVERY

By Mary R Tomlinson Centre for Policy Studies

A host of problems are holding up housing delivery in South Africa. They include bureaucratic logjams resulting from government restructuring, long winded plan approval procedures and land availability agreements, local government transition, land tenure problems, unavailability of finance, lack of institutions and problems with local builders. But the key problem is a housing policy underpinned by conflicting principles included to fudge differences between the key stakeholders.

outh Africa's new Housing Subsidy • The National Housing Forum (NHF) The Housing Scheme - now into its second year - and National Housing Board (NHB) Subsidy Scheme Shas entered a critical phase in restructured themselves in line with new has entered a demonstrating its ability to succeed. The realities. critical phase first year, while it may have seemed a failure with respect to on the ground While the resolution of outstanding elements delivery, produced a significant number of of the policy have dragged on into the milestones in moving the policy beyond second year, the lack of significant housing simply being a vision and a strategy. delivery this year - fewer than 12 000 housing units have materialised - indicates a _] Government housing institutions were need to scrutinise both the new policy and restructured in line with the Interim its implementation carefully. Constitution. The first section of this article will briefly _J The Provincial Housing Boards (PHBs) describe the first year's progress, focusing awarded more than 150 000 subsidies. on behind the scenes activity that took place in the housing sector to develop the _) A housing accord was signed by key necessary programmes to ensure stakeholders. implementation of the scheme.

_l A White Paper on housing was written. The second section will take a closer look at the views of the implementors and deliverers Fewer than •_] The logjam over a mortgage indemnity of the policy with respect to whether the 12 000 housing scheme, designed to bring banks back policy is 'imploding' - as is currently being units have into the low income housing market, reported in the press - or if it is simply a was finally broken by an interim matter of 'teething problems' slowing down materialised this agreement with the building industry. delivery. year

HCAT0R SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 65 UlrliliLLltUi Vlxtlilit- In the first year Finally, the article offers an analysis of what defect warranties which needed to be ironed there was the key problem may in fact be with respect out. significant behind to the lack of housing delivery. From the outset, banks had made it clear that the scenes they would not re-enter the low cost market housing activity Year one without the warranty, since they claimed On the face of it, the housing programme they were often singled out by irate home made little progress during its first year in buyers when defects surfaced in their operation. But a closer look reveals that it houses. Unable to locate unscrupulous was in fact a year of significant behind the builders, new owners would shift their anger scenes housing activity. For example, to banks by withholding bond repayments. housing institutions were restructured in line with the Interim Constitution. Just prior to the summit, Minister Slovo cracked a deal - although the final The Housing Arrangements Act passed in agreement was months away - with the September 1993, which replaced racial Association of Mortgage Lenders in w hich housing departments with a single National the Government committed itself to Housing Board (NHB) and four Regional persuading residents to abandon boycotts, Housing Boards (RHBs), was amended in and mortgage lenders agreed to return to the July 1994 to replace the four RHBs with low income market provided the building nine Provincial Housing Boards (PHBs) and industry agreed to a product defect warranty. provide for the extension of the Housing Subsidy Scheme into the former homelands. The last significant accomplishment during the first year was the restructuring of the This rationalisation and restructuring of the National Housing Forum and the National Restructuring of housing sector was necessary to achieve a Housing Board. The housing summit and the the housing more efficient allocation of state resources. completion of the White Paper brought lo an sector was end an effective era in housing policj ; necessary to Other significant accomplishments were the making. For more than two years, the Nl Il achieve efficient adoption of a National Housing Accord at had been taking the lead in the policy Botshabelo and a White Paper on housing process. allocation of state towards the end of 1994. In August, 1994, resources then Minister of Housing, , Shortly after the summit it was announced outlined the Government's thinking on that the NHB would be restructured into a white papers. statutory body to advise the Departmenl of Housing on national policy. The new Nl IB He noted that in the past white papers came would be made up of 18 representatives ol" down from 'on high'. This time, the civil society and government, who together Government intended engaging with the would formulate housing policy, then being housing constituencies before its release. A handled by the NHF and the Departmenl of process was therefore put in place to Housing through joint technical commiiices. negotiate the details of a white paper. This move reflected the fact that with the While the details of the white paper were political transition complete, it was no incomplete when the Housing Summit in longer necessary to have an 'interim' body Botshabelo was held, Slovo had by then in place to formulate housing policy. mobilised stakeholders to support a 'sustainable housing process'. Shortly after One year down the road, the money w as the summit, he completed his task and there, the vision and strategy were in place presented a housing White Paper to the and many, but not all, structures and A National cabinet. programmes were falling into position. Housing Accord was adopted, a Even with the publication of the White Year two White Paper Paper, much work remained to be done on produced and the details of the housing programme that Notwithstanding the achievements in the would give content to the agreed strategy. first year, by the end of 1995 it was clear banks brought For example, even though much of the that the new Housing Subsidy Scheme w as into the process groundwork with the banks - necessary to running into severe problems on the ground. rekindle the availability of end user finance - had been completed, there were Articles continually appeared in the press outstanding issues surrounding builders' describing problems around, for example

Llrlili.liLi.lt VtlULLLf 66 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Housing waiting to happen outside Durban Picture courtesy of Natai Newspapers

lack of political commitment to the Some of the comments included: By the end of incremental housing policy, rejection of the 1995 the new policy by the beneficiaries, bureaucratic "The policy is basically good...its Housing Subsidy formulation mobilised many sectors and logjams and so on. Scheme was that is a major achievement. " Research conducted by the Centre for Policy running into Studies midway through the year tried to "It is better if more people get severe problems determine what the logjams really are. something if it enables them to live. "

Contrary to what was expected, in But while there appears to be a degree of interviews carried out with the implementors acceptance of the new policy, it is clearly the of the policy, the Members of the Executive case that provinces are regularly ignoring Committees for Local Government and the national policy, modifying it by adding I lousing, and the Provincial Housing Board further resources, such as serviced land, to Chairmen, around their commitment to the increase the subsidy amount. 'incremental housing policy', six of the nine MI-.Cs expressed general acceptance of the The dissenting views argued that the subsidy need for breadth over depth. amount is insufficient, for example:

I lie 'broader versus deeper debate' has been "Government made promises about between those who say housing must reach housing. It now needs to deliver on •is many people as possible, which them. The subsidy will therefore have to »ie\ itably means everyone gets less, and be increased." those who say policy should provide for a ( ' >ur room house, even if it means fewer The interviews suggest that the 'consensus' Provinces are benefit. It was surprising to find that the on policy is not as deep as it seems. They regularly ignoring broader view has the upper hand. also revealed a further message. The policy the national policy

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 67 LIIRILU'ILTTCII TFAANSJ The policy is - all nine chapters of it - is riddled with participation, as time consuming riddled with 'teething problems' that are the real reasons consultation tends to erode profits. 'teething for bottlenecks. problems' that Incrementalism, by its nature, implies that low income households will be looking i.) are the real Further research carried out with developers has reinforced this perspective. For example, find more resources to improve their reasons for social compacts - agreements between the housing situation. But banning subsidies bottlenecks 'community', the developer and other from other (than national) government stakeholders to ensure participation in the sources (double subsidies) eliminates a housing process - often fall apart at the 11th potential avenue of assistance. hour, causing delays and cost overruns. How did we get into this situation? The r.cw Bureaucratic logjams, resulting from the policy, we need to recall, is the result of restructuring of former provinces and lengthy negotiation between the Nai ionai homelands into nine new provinces, have Housing Forum, a multi-party negol ialing still not been fully resolved. Approval of body, and government. layout plans, the opening of township registers, land availability agreements and so The Forum not only saw itself as a \ ehiele on - long winded processes at the best of for negotiating a housing policy and times - are taking longer because of strategy, but as a mechanism for eliciting bureaucratic delays resulting from local consensus among key groups. This was government transition. essential, given that housing comprises organised interests whose support for policy- Unresolved rural land tenure issues, the is essential if it is to be implementable. unavailability of end user finance, the need Consensus can for bridging finance for developers, a lack of Consensus can be achieved either b\ hard be achieved by institutions and sources of funding to carry bargaining during which parties settle for hard bargaining out bulk infrastructure provision, increasing 'second best', or by fudging vital differences or by fudging vital prices of building materials, problems with between them. The housing agreement, it differences organising local builders - the list is endless. seems, was achieved at least partly h\ the second route: by including conflicting But what do all these problems mean? principles and priorities in order to eit-nre that each key interest endorsed the agreed Conclusion policy. In examining the evidence surrounding the Nearly two years after the policy's launch, it failure to deliver houses, there seems to be may be necessary to stop and examine something more than 'endless problems' whether hard won consensus is the real impeding delivery. reason behind the lack of housing delivers. if^

The key problem is that the housing policy is underpinned by conflicting principles. Immediate and visible delivery, community participation, developer driven housing, REFERENCES economic empowerment of communities Housing Arrangements Act No 155 of 1993. Housing Subsidy Scheme Introduced in Terms ot the and so on seem to clash when put into Interim Arrangements for Housing practice. Agreed between the DNH and the NHF, April 11,1994. Hard won Department of Housing (1994) White Paper: A new Housing For example, immediate and visible delivery Policy and Strategy for South Africa, December 1994. consensus could Housing Amendment Act, No 8 of 1994. does not meld well with economically Record of Understanding Between the Department of be the real empowering communities, as the latter relies Housing and Association of Mortgage Lenders for a reason behind Resumption at Scale of Lending to Lower Income on unskilled and inexperienced small Borrowers, October 20, 1994. the lack of builders. Developer driven delivery does not The Housing Accord, October 27, 1994. housing delivery sit well with the need for full community Proposed National Housing Strategy, October 27,1994.

LlrtiLLliLiLLr VLiirlilifc' RR INDICATOR SA \/nl 13 Mn 1 Summer 1995 MONITOR

Official SA Trade Unions Directory Labour Statistics

HIGH-LEVEL AND MIDDLE-LEVEL MANPOWER ACCORDING TO OCCUPATIONAL GROUP, NON-AGRICULTURAL SECTORS

High-Level Middle-Level Semi/ Total Manpower Manpower Unskilled

1965: Total 296 444 978 477 2 176 342 3 451 283 Whites 220 768 735 475 159 435 1 115 686

1979: Total 643 228 1 583 252 3 023 238 5 249 718 Whites 466 440 973 616 138 857 1 578 913

1989: Total 880 051 2 048 872 3138196 6 067 119 Whites 566 355 1 052 916 122 886 1742157

1991: Total 829 669 1 998 018 2 888 885 5 816 572 Whites 569100 1 018 266 84 070 1 681 236

Sources: Manpower Surveys, Department of Manpower and Central Statistical Service

NUMBER OF PUPILS AND STUDENTS BY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

Year Schools Colleges of Technical Technikons Universities Education Colleges

1970 4 291 221 22 943 — .— 82 909

— 1980 5 487 780 34 506 — 152 346 1985 6 250 896 40 386 — . — . 211 756 1990 7 684 486 60 084 72 174 83 424 286 910 1992 8 374 584 57 076 89 933 113 870 318 944 1994 9 007 199 65 877 91 974 147 391 337 573 Who will fill the gap?

Sanlam have for years been quietly funding tertiary education in our country. Providing improve- ments to buildings, pur- chasing new and more ad- vanced equipment... and, most recently, helping- struggling libraries. It's all part of our philosophy... that assisting higher education is one of the best ways of assuring all our tomoirows. _ Sanlam Assuring your tomorrow i pemooracy Development By Sue Rubenstein Development Consultant

The idea of a formal role for civil society in development has become a sacred cow, with any challenge to it seen as authoritarian or anti-democratic. But elevating often self appointed organs of civil society to positions in which they have de facto veto rights is to give them the authority of elected bodies without the concomitant accountability, and to allow them to hamstring development while taking no responsibility for delivery.

outh Africa has a well documented government officials and professionals alike South Africa has history of imposing development on were all beginning to champion this a history of impoverished and marginalised approach, has led to some questioning of its S imposing communities with greater regard for political basic premise. ideology than for their real needs and development with aspirations. The challenge is appropriate, certainly at the greater regard for local level, if for no other reason that the ideology than for 1 ihink, therefore, that the perspective that notion of a role for civil society has become real needs beneficiaries of a development initiative something of a sacred cow, with any should be enabled to participate effectively challenge to it seen as necessarily in its planning, together with the view that authoritarian or anti-democratic. development has something to do with the development of people as well as roads and This article argues that elevating the organs sewers, has been hard won by disadvantaged of civil society, which it must be communities. remembered certainly at the local level are Local often largely self appointed, to positions These underpinnings of what has come to be where they have de facto veto rights, is to participation has known as a developmental approach - which permit such structures to borrow authority been hard won by is lliat beneficiaries should participate from elected bodies without being required disadvantaged effectively in decision making and that to carry any of the concomitant accountability communities development has a human as well as a for progress in development initiatives. pliv Meal dimension - now seem to act as a bulwark against the potential for The argument does not seek to relegate the inappropriate or actively damaging importance of civil society participation, but interventions. rather is an attempt to move towards a clearer definition of the roles of local govern- h is in this light that the notion of a role for ment and civil society in development, and a civil society has emerged, with processes of less woolly view of community But the notion of community empowerment and capacity empowerment and capacity building. building seen as key requirements for a role for civil successful development. society has Competing interests become I ill ink the rather unnerving realisation - The basis of the argument for a central role something of a certainly for me - that community leaders, for civil society and local development sacred cow

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 71 UHIILCME VLtL-LllLt" The notion of a decisions is that elected local government development forums nonetheless become conflict free does not always reflect the diversity of alternative powers bases to elected beneficiary interests among beneficiaries. structures of local government, representing particular interests in a given community community is It is interesting to note that the organs of now thankfully civil society that frequently present this They have the power to hamstring all treated with argument are the same organs that are most development initiatives with no real some scepticism likely to hold themselves up as the sole and accountability for delivery and, most legitimate civil society representatives of the importantly, no effective mechanism to community. unseat them should the community w ish u> do so. The notion of a harmonious, conflict free beneficiary community with a uniform set of The most important thing, from my own needs and interests represented by a single experience, is that the civil society siruciiires organisation, which has so often asserted have a veto right without any sense of joint itself in the past, is now thankfully treated responsibility in the determination ol with some scepticism. It is increasingly solutions. Very often developers, planners or recognised that communities more often local government are told to go away and reflect division in competing interests than 'do it again', because people do not like they do harmony and common purpose. what has been done: there is no real sense of co-responsibility. However, if we agree in principle that citizens, whether unified or divided, should Even if community structures are models of participate in local development planning, democratic restraint, the type of structure the obvious question becomes: how do we invariably results in a situation in which Community facilitate that participation? particular groups land up playing a role in structures have decisions around which they may ha\c little demonstrated a Unfortunately, the dominant mechanisms expertise or even little real interest. developed in an attempt to enable tendency to development planners to get to grips with A key part of the way in which such become the views of civil society at the local level structures, social compacts, communis authoritarian still reflect a perception of civil society development forums, local development gatekeepers interests as somewhat monolithic. forums and the like are set up, is that they reflect the view that participation is an all or This perception is reflected in the tendency nothing affair. to bring groups together into single forum type structures, although this has been Even if one was to accept that such explained as an attempt to coordinate and structures are an effective and desirable way streamline a process that could become of facilitating civil society participation and extremely unwieldy. development initiatives, the fact that the right to participate is claimed in such a crude In essence, what is attempted is an and ill defined way is part of the reason for application of corporatist arrangements in the immobilising role that forums so often the local context among partners who have play in development processes. no power to bind their constituencies and have demonstrated that they do not have the power to bind their constituencies, which is Social compacts exactly why they become such immobilising A hypothesis worth testing is that the forces at the local level. defining feature of social compacts that work - and I am led to believe that there are Civil society some that work - as opposed to those that structures have a Not so democratic flounder in perpetual stalemate, is the degree veto without any Often, rather than facilitating coordination to which the contract between stakeholders sense of joint among diverse interests, community reflects something more than a 'moiheiliood and apple pie' statement about the responsibility in structures have demonstrated a tendency to become quite authoritarian gatekeepers. worthiness and importance of participation the solutions by the community. These structures accord with definitions of organs of civil society in the sense that they It should be remembered that in the past, wish to engage with the state without taking broad based organisations of civil society it over. But in many instances local emerged organically from a process of

EHIliEEeUMiA- VLiiUlit- 72 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 sll U11gle against apartheid. They had the At the local level we have an obligation to People centred inbuilt common starting point of a rejection ensure that local government understands development is ()f existing apartheid structures. This that a crucial part of its role is to create about the way in common starting point facilitated a process accessible communication pathways which we ihioiigh which organisations could carve between it and any structure of civil society structure common negotiating positions. that chooses to use those pathways. It is not local government's role to attempt to herd government

:\l ill is point, however, the shift in focus of organisations into a forum for bureaucratic these organisations from resistance to convenience. do elopment has resulted in the amplification of differences and particular Local government interests. This is an entirely healthy and desirable situation. The move towards local government as the engine for development offers a spectrum of But it seems strange, then, that the platform opportunities. A particular benefit emerges offered to civil society in the local from the reality that the relationship between development process uniformly requires that local government and its consumers is very such organisations join together to speak clear and direct. with one voice. By making consensus a prerequisite to being heard, we are Ideally, the relationship is one in which a compelling the heterogeneous force called spectrum of services are provided to a civil society into a position in which there community of consumers. On this basis it are three likely outcomes. becomes nothing more than intelligent practice for local government - or any The first is that powerful interests will development agency - to provide a high highjack the process and impose a consensus quality service that meets the needs of its It is not local that does not factually exist. The second is consumers. government's that civil society interests are forced to role to herd return to an adversarial and oppositional Any structures or mechanisms set up should organisations relationship, with local government as the be nothing more than a vehicle through into a forum for common enemy necessary to create unity. which local authorities identify needs, And the third is that such structures will be develop and communicate programmes in bureaucratic coopted by the state as a delivery agent in service of those needs, and monitor convenience service of predetermined goals and performance in meeting them. objectives. In terms of this model, the existence of Key among the difficulties with the organisations of civil society, no matter how mechanisms through which organisations of they choose to structure themselves, does civil society are now invited to participate in not mean that the local authority can or the development process, is that they tend to should abdicate any of its roles and he an artificial recreation of the types of responsibilities. structures that emerged organically through the apartheid era. This should be emphasised because I believe that one of the unintended outcomes of the The broad movement to reject and emphasis on institutionalising the role immobilise the system of black local between civil society and local government authorities, for example, was not facilitated has been that it has given local government hy anybody. It emerged from the somewhat the right to abdicate its responsibilities. To intangible relationship between government, simply say, 'we are waiting for the local however illegitimate at the time, and the development forum to decide'. In a situation governed: a relationship with its own in which many people in the bureaucracy Local authorities momentum that produced appropriate have very little interest in serving the needs cannot or should responses to fit the times. of the vast majority of their constituents, this not abdicate their gives them an enormous out, and this should role and be avoided. The crux of my argument is that there are no responsibilities rules and there are no formulas in this process. In essence, people centred The structures that need to be created, then, development is about the way in which we are those which enable consumers (citizens) structure government at whatever level and to air their needs, complaints and problems not about our attempts to structure civil so that the people delivering services are society. able to improve the services they provide.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 73 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Delivery is one It is recognised, however, that communities It is my strong view that if stakeholders highly effective are mistrustful of the democratic process and understand their role at a given time within a given interaction, and have the skills to way of building a have a long history of being without adequate services. There are also unequal execute that role and appropriate robust civil power relationships, because of capacity expectations of the role of other- society problems in civil society, between stakeholders, they will find an effective way government and civil society. of engaging with one another, with or without the expertise that consultants Building civil society provide to the process. But what should be recognised is that building capacity in civil society does not Experience necessarily presuppose that relationships Reflecting on practical experience, two between civil society and representative recent incidents have reinforced my view of government first have to be institutionalised. the impossibility and undesirability of On the contrary, as Maxine Reitzes has attempting to apply formulas to the role of pointed out, delivery is one highly effective civil society in development. way of building a robust civil society. In one project in which I am involved, it was It is also important that structures which are reported that a large and seemingly established do not operate on the assumption amorphous group of women had marched on that democracy at the local level will a local police station to complain of inevitably fail. Progress will not be served perceived police inactivity in addressing by confusing or blurring the roles of civil crime. society and government structures. In the Local authorities end, the clarification of roles is to a large The response of the project team, which and developers degree what the current debate is about. included the security establishment, was need to perceive essentially one of irritation that the group had failed to use the elaborate mechanisms that the citizen is In particular, local authorities and developers need to perceive that the citizen - that had been established by various organs the client not the funding authority or the province or of government to institutionalise their the national Reconstruction and relationship with civil society. Development Programme - is the client. This is a crucial role definition that is about Among the resolutions was one which dul\ transforming the way in which local recorded that the use of appropriate channels government perceives itself. would be encouraged in future. It occurred to me that the least likely reason for the The mechanism with which communication group of women not using the channels was between communities and service providers that they did not know about them. takes place may be highly sophisticated, but each party to the communication has both The second example draws on my own the right and the responsibility to decide experience as a member of 'civil society", how they are going to engage, and the and has to do with plans to desecrate Zoo mechanisms need to emerge organically. Lake by constructing a shopping centre T he groundswell of outrage by ordinary citi/cns Attempts to impose a protocol or recipe to that greeted the proposal took everyone In facilitate interaction may be tempting and surprise. give a warm feeling to all concerned, while simultaneously satisfying the bureaucratic It cut across traditional boundaries of race, need for order, uniformity and predictability. gender, class, geographical location and Attempts to But it will not achieve the desired result. political allegiance - in fact, every category impose a recipe that might have defined how government to facilitate Empowerment and capacity building in this could structure relationships with civil interaction will context are largely activities that enable each society. It emerged organically, and stakeholder to clarify their role and acquire developed a structure and strategy all of its not achieve the the skills necessary to execute that role. In own. It is entirely autonomous, and once the desired result this sense, empowerment is not broad and issue is resolved it will dissipate. embracing but rather a relatively narrow process that is clearly defined and relatively And so it should, because that is the nature easily measured. of civil society.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 74 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Planning for AIDS HIV/AIDS and Town and Regional Planning

By Alan Whiteside Economic Research Unit University of Natal

More than a million people in KwaZulu-Natal could have AIDS by the year 2011, according to projections by the Economic Research Unit. Clearly AIDS will have a devastating impact on the province's social and economic well being. The epidemic will alter the demand and supply of services and the ability of people to pay for them, and planners need to build these factors into their plans.

he election of the new government in terribly seriously. Part of the reason is that The HIV epidemic South Africa in 1994 brought many people find it difficult to respond to a is a reality in Tchanges to the country. For the problem unless they have some idea of what South Africa, the majority of people it brought hope and, solutions there are. AIDS epidemic indeed, one of the planks of the African soon will be National Congress (ANC) platform is to With HIV and AIDS the experts in the field improve the lot of the poor. This means have, in the past, been guilty of failing to providing services, particularly education, provide the solutions. This is not good enough housing, and health. - the HIV epidemic is a reality in South Africa, the AIDS epidemic soon will be. The challenge is two-fold: firstly, services have to be provided to people and this Planners need to take cognisance of the means building homes, providing clinics, epidemic and build it into their plans. The and developing new schools. Secondly, epidemic will alter the demand and supply The spread of HIV services have to be paid for - the State of services and the ability of people to pay. simply cannot afford to provide them free. and AIDS has the As a result, there is not only emphasis on potential to derail providing services, but also on people taking Planning Commission development responsibility and paying what they can The first attempt to address the issue of HIV afford for them. and AIDS by planners took place in November 1994, when the Town and The spread of HIV and AIDS in South Regional Planning Commission of Africa has the potential to derail some of the KwaZulu-Natal signed a contract with the development that is taking place. It is ironic Economic Research Unit (ERU) at the that the disease should be spreading most University of Natal for a study of the impact rapidly at the time when there is much of HIV/AIDS in the province. The aims and Outside of the reason for optimism. objectives of the project were to: health providers, Furthermore, HIV/AIDS is an issue that has • Assess Commission activities and nobody seems to been noted as a problem, but outside of the structures to determine where HIV and take HIV/AIDS health providers, nobody seems to take it AIDS would be of importance. seriously

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995, 75 mWLbWM: WiWOLtf AIDS will change • Assess the current status of the epidemic regional planning aims to manage elements the speed of in the province. within the social, economic, institutional and population physical environments; achieve a sustainable and optimal living environment growth and its • Provide projections of the increase in HIV and AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. and create maximum opportunity for structure realisation of human needs. • Assess the demographic, social and economic impact and their implications The study identified three main ways in for the planning process. which the epidemic will impact on the planning process. They are:

Table 1: HIV in South Africa 1990-1993 (%) • Demographics. AIDS will change the speed of population growth and its Region 1990 1991 1992 1993 structure. Cape 0,16 0,37 0,66 1,33 KwaZulu-Natal 1,61 2,87 4,77 9,62 • The demand and supply of services. T he OFS (Inc QwaQwa) 0,58 1,49 2,87 4,13 epidemic will affect the demand for Transvaal (inc homelands) 0,53 1,11 2,16 3,09 certain services due to the changing RSA (exc TBVC) 0,76 1,49 2,69 4,69 demographic profile and increases in morbidity and mortality. Note: Specimens were recorded and reported according 1o the provincial demarcations of pre-election South Africa. Source: Swanevelder R (1994) page 71 • The impact on the economic environment. AIDS will have an effect on the economy, initially at the microeconomic level (household income HIV/AIDS in context will be adversely affected), and later at the national economic level. Here, a The situation with regard to HIV and AIDS worst case scenario will see a reduction in KwaZulu-Natal is extremely worrying. in the growth of the national or This province is the worst affected in South geographic product. Africa. AIDS will have an HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal The key features of the disease are: the impact on the majority of people affected are young adults; The current HIV data was used to project economy the disease is sexually transmitted and, as a the increase in numbers of people who are result, it infects people in their twenties and sick or dying as well as the total population. thirties; and HIV is predominantly transmitted The projected HIV prevalence in through body fluids through sexual intercourse KwaZulu-Natal and projected number of and blood and blood products. people infected are shown in Figures 1 and 2 respectively. The effect on the total annual death rate is shown in Figure 3, while the Planning and HIV effect on population is illustrated in Figure The first task was to establish how 4. The summary indicators are illustrated in HIV/AIDS would affect planners. Town and Table 3.

Table 2: AIDS data in South Africa Reported AIDS case totals by province and year, as at February 1995

Province 82-86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 Total

Eastern Cape - - 1 4 10 32 68 145 208 468 Western Cape 12 2 20 32 39 44 63 86 56 354

Northern Cape - - 1 1 3 10 9 64 73 161 KwaZulu-Natal 4 5 19 37 140 170 335 811 1 606 3 127 Free State 1 2 4 9 8 38 45 59 343 509 Gauteng 29 31 44 92 118 153 253 174 80 974

Mpumalanga - - 1 2 9 64 40 120 186 422 North West - - 1 - 3 4 5 68 146 227

Northern Province - - 1 1 5 2 7 127 225 368 Total 46 40 92 178 335 517 825 1 654 2 923 6 610

! Source: Epidemiological Comments 22(2) February 1995.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 76 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 The implications Figure 1: Projected adult HIV prevalence in KwaZulu-Natal, 1991-2011 25 The population of the province will continue to grow as is illustrated in Table 4. This is important to note, as it puts paid to ill informed views that 'AIDS will solve the population problem' or that fewer facilities are required. a. to /V The structure of the population will also 7/ change, with a rise in mortality in the under Legend /s five year age group and the 25 to 40 year —— Projection 1 age group. This will affect the size of the —--- Projection2 labour force, the availability of skills, the 1996 2001 2011 dependency ratio, household size and Time structure, and incomes. Figure 2: Projected number of people Infected with HIV in KwaZulu-Natal, 1991-2011 There will be a marked and significant rise in the demand for health and social services, 1400 notably health care and care of orphans. ^—' — "— 1200 / / / / Impact on services •O 1000 AIDS will reduce the projected population, / / but this effect will only be felt towards the year 2000. 3 400 ~77 // Legend The present provision of services such as 200 // Projection 1 health, housing, education and infrastructure ———- Projection 2 is constrained by supply rather than demand 1991 1996 2001 2006 and there is a huge backlog. This means that Time (years) the HIV epidemic should not reduce the speed with which services are provided or Table 3: Summary HIV/AIDS indicators (Projection 1) new housing is planned.

Year 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 The epidemic does have implications for the HIV Population: type of household requiring services and Total 85 000 920 000 1 296 000 1 320 000 1 220 000 their ability to pay for such services. The Males 35 000 380 000 538 000 548 000 506 000 bulk of cases will be in the poorer Females 50 000 540 000 759 000 772 000 713 000 socio-economic groups which currently Adult prevalence 1,7% 15,9% 20,6% 20,2% 17,6% have the fewest services and the least ability New AIDS cases: to purchase them. Total 7 000 66 000 157000 185 00 170 000 Males 3 000 29 000 68 000 80 000 73 000 Planners operate with socio-economic data, Females 4 000 37 000 89 000 105000 97 000 and the AIDS epidemic will alter underlying 1996-01 2001-06 2006-11 assumptions concerning the structure, size Period 1991-96 Annual HIV-positive births: and wealth of households. For example, Total 10 000 27 000 39 000 39 000 primary schools are normally provided with Percent (of all births) 3,4% 9,2% 14,7% 16% one primary school for every 450 to 550 Annual AIDS deaths: housing units. Total 42 000 109 000 167 000 174 000 Per thousand 4,9 11,8 17,2 17,4 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Table 4: Population projections for KwaZulu-Natal ('000)

: Year Without AIDS With AIDS (Projection 1) % difference Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total 1 1991 3 779 4 176 7 955 3 779 4 176 7 955 0 0 0 1996 4 365 4 719 9 084 4 296 4 626 8 923 -1,6 -2,0 -1,8 i 2001 5 004 5 312 10316 4 692 4 902 9 594 -7 -7,7 -7 2006 5 679 5 939 11 618 4 934 4 983 9918 -13,1 -16,1 -14,6 ! 2011 6 380 6 591 12971 5 113 4 996 10 109 -24,2 -19,9 -22,1 1 2016 7 115 7 275 14 391 5 322 5 053 10 376 -25,2 -30,5 -27,9

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 77 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Figure 3: Projected total annual deaths in KwaZulu-Natal, 1991-2011 One cost effective and compassionate source of care for patients who are Legend terminally ill is the hospice movement. The —• Base - no AIDS 'low technology' used means that ordinary 400000 —___ Projection 1 houses can be adapted for hospice care and ""tin Projection 2 local authorities could be urged to be sympathetic to changes in use from housing to hospices. Z 200000 A rather more macabre impact will be on the

100000 provision of cemeteries. Cemetery space will not have to increase in size as the demand will not increase in absolute i—i—i—r numbers - each consumer will consume one 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 Time space once - but they will have to be provided sooner than would have been the Figure 4: Projected total population in KwaZulu-Natal, 1991-2011 case due to the increase in mortality among people who would not normally have been occupying plots for several decades.

Conclusion In order to assess the implications and the actions that town and regional planners can take, a table was developed setting out the effects of the epidemic, the indicators that planners should look for and the actions that they could take.

The issue is extremely complex and there are some overriding guidelines: Time • Assumptions underlying the planning process about population size, structure and growth must change to take account The HIV epidemic The question is, firstly, will there be the of the epidemic. should not same number of children in housing units reduce the speed and, secondly, will parents be able to send • Assumptions about household income and expenditure, and the ability to pay with which children to school, particularly if HIV is a problem in the household, and will the for housing and services, must be services are families be able to afford any fees? re-examined in the light of the epidemic. provided or new housing is We certainly expect an increase in the • The demand for health and social planned demand for health care and, here, clear input services will change, and planners needs to be sought from health authorities as should liaise with the relevant to how they are going to handle the departments to assess how these changes epidemic. If they are going to choose to will be met. provide the maximum amount of hospital care, then additional hospitals will need to LI The fundamental importance of be planned and constructed. prevention should be constantly emphasised. If, however, the responsibility for health care and management of AIDS cases will be • Planning for the epidemic is better than given to the primary health care network, reacting to it. An increase in the then neighbourhood clinics and community demand for health centres will experience an increase in • Planning should be innovative and health care is demand. There may be merit in exploring geared to helping people cope with the consequences of the epidemic. expected the standards and design of such buildings and, perhaps, providing dedicated areas for the counselling and care of HIV positive It is clear that AIDS will have an adverse patients. effect on KwaZulu-Natal, on its social and

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 78 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Table 5: The implications of HIV and AIDS for planning in KwaZulu-Natal

Effect Indicator Action for Planners

1- Demographic Slowing of population Fewer births, higher mortality Monitor demographic data; revise growth population projection Changing structure Higher mortality in 15-39 year Monitor demographic data and group and higher infant mortality identify implications of this for planning norm

2- Demand for services Decline in school Enrolment rates decline Monitor enrolments, ensure children not entrants excluded because of poverty, liaise with Education Department Increase in health More patients at clinics, hospitals Monitor demand, identify how it will be met care needs and hospices and change planning standards accordingly. Liaise with Health Department Increased mortality More deaths Monitor mortality, provide cemetery space more rapidly Increased dependency Adult deaths, increase in orphans Monitor and protect orphans, plan for ratio (elderly, orphans) and destitute elderly their and elderly people's needs. Liaise wifh relevant departments Housing needs Declining rate of population growth Monitor demographic trends Ability to pay Changes in household income Evaluate the importance of this data to and expenditure patterns planning, develop mechanisms for monitoring changes and possibly assisting vulnerable groups

3- Provincial/national environment Variable sub-regional Increased HIV seroprevalence, Assess sub-regional vulnerability. vulnerability high number of AIDS cases, Consider making most vulnerable areas mobility, poverty priorities for development Change in economic Decline in savings and Include potential decrease in growth in growth rates investment, increased mortality plans, consider potential migration Demand for services Increased demand on state donor Include potential demand in planning process, couples with decreased funds, with an increase in donor and indicate issues to government and NGO ability to pay dependency sectors dealing with donor agencies Development projects AIDS spread speeded by project/ Consider AIDS Impact Analysis for major project made less viable by AIDS projects - currently under development Provincial socio-political KwaZulu-Natal seen as 'plague' De-mystify HIV/AIDS plan to mitigate environment province impact, advocacy of prevention economic well being. Responding to it ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The study was carried out by Alan Whiteside and Nick Planning for the requires a new way of thinking. Wilkins, both of the Economic Research Unit, and Barbara Mason and Mr Greg Wood, both of Mason and epidemic is better Wood. The report titled 'The Impact of HIV/AIDS on However, what is certain is that the Planning Issues in KwaZulu-Natal' was published by the than reacting to it epidemic does need to be addressed and no Town and Regional Planning Commission in October 1995, and is available from the Commission for R18.00. planner should ever submit a document Address: Private Bag X9038, Pietermaritzburg 3200, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The projections were which mentions AIDS as 'a wild card' carried out by Greg Wood of Mason & Wood using three again. public domain software programmes, namely Epimodel, Demproj III, and the AIDS Impact model.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 79 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Aids and the Highways Sex Workers and Truck Drivers in KwaZulu-Natal

By Tessa Marcus, Karen Oellermann and Nonceba Levin Department of Sociology and School for Rural Community Development University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg

Commercial sex workers and long distance truck drivers have been identified as core groups in the spread of HIV and AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. There is an urgent need for a multi-faced prevention and education intervention aimed at containing the spread of the disease in the long term and at supporting its victims.

Globally, there he need for an AIDS prevention and The AIDS epidemic education intervention with long are an estimated distance truckers, commercial sex Globally, there are an estimated 19,5 to 26 19,5 to 26 million T million people who are HIV positive, of workers and other vulnerable groups has people who are been recognised by the Government. whom 11 to 17 million live in sub-Saharan HIV positive Minister of Health, Nkosazana Africa. The number of full blown AIDS Dlamini-Zuma, describes the National AIDS cases is recorded by the World Health Plan as having three objectives: Organisation as being over one million in 1995, although given under reporting this "The first is to prevent the spread of the figure is likely to be closer to 4,5 million. epidemic. This will be done by promoting safer sexual behaviour, In South Africa, there are an estimated 1,2 ensuring the adequate provision of million people who are HIV positive, with condoms and controlling sexually around 700 new infections occurring every transmitted diseases (STDs). Education day and 7 000 cases of AIDS reported. programmes will be directed at schools, vulnerable groups - including truck HIV and AIDS were first manifest among drivers - and the community at large. " white homosexual and bisexual males in (Fleetwatch 1994) 1982. Within four years, heterosexual contact had become the dominant route of The other two objectives are related to the HIV transmission. The male to female ratio reduction of the personal and social impact is 0,73:1 and the doubling time is 15,4 of HIV/AIDS and the mobilisation and months. Most HIV infected people are 15 to unification of resources to prevent and 35 years, with infection in women tending to reduce the impact of the disease. occur at a younger age than in men. In South Africa, around 1,2 The study on which this article is based was In Africa, the epidemic has been compounded by economic and social million people commissioned by ATICC (Natal conditions such as unemployment, are HIV positive, Midlands)/AMREF to help develop a sustainable intervention with commercial malnutrition, illiteracy, widespread poverty, and the doubling sex workers and long distance truck drivers the low status of women and poor access to time is 15,4 living or passing through the midlands of adequate health services - conditions typical months KwaZulu-Natal. Information was gathered for South Africa's black population. through a literature review, observation, mapping, questionnaires, focus group In South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal has the discussions, key informant interviews and highest prevalence of HIV infection. A participant observation survey of antenatal clinics in November

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 80 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 1994, for example, showed the prevalence of Table 1: National Surveys of Women HIV infection was 14,35%, compared to Attending Antenatal Clinics 7,57% for the country as a whole (Table 1). At King Edward VIII Hospital, the 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 sero-prevalence rate among antenatal clients had risen to 21% by February 1995, and the RSA 0,76% 1,49% 2,69% 4,69% 7,57% figures from STD clinics show infection KZN 1,61% 2,87% 4,77% 9,62% 14,35% rates approaching 45%.

There are a number of features which might work to take them off the streets, and only contribute to the province's high incidence returned to commercial sex when in need of of infection. They include population money. Others engaged in informal sector It is clear there movement and dislocation across activities, and sold sex if it was asked for. are cogent international boundaries due to war, reasons for social protracted endemic violence, large numbers Poverty is the overriding pressure pushing action to prevent of migrant workers, the long distance people into commercial sex work. Poverty in the further spread trucking routes, an international port, a low South Africa is endemic and is not likely to of HIV and AIDS incidence of male circumcision and other be overcome quickly or universally, which factors associated with poverty. suggests that sex work is likely to remain a source of livelihood for many for a long It is clear that globally, nationally and within time to come. the province there are cogent reasons for social action to prevent the further spread of HIV and AIDS and to support those people Mobility who are already directly or indirectly Physical mobility is a general characteristic affected by it. of commercial sex work. In developing regions sex workers are frequently mobile, they often come from rural areas to work in Core Groups unfamiliar urban settings (Celentano et al Commercial sex workers and long distance 1994) and there is generally a high turnover truck drivers have been identified as core rate (Sawanpanyalert et al 1994). groups in the spread of the disease. This is a Commercial sex convenient and functional concept for public In addition to transnational and workers and long health policy as it legitimates the 'targeting inter-regional migration, sex workers are distance truck of limited resources to groups that are most also mobile between and in towns for work critical for transmission' (Mann et al 1992). purposes, as well as between their work drivers have settings and homes. Mobility is also affected been identified However, the concept of core groups does by client preferences. Servicing truckers as core groups in not account for how social relations actually often means travelling with them and the spread of the work, and can impact negatively on the beyond the region or even the country. disease success of an intervention. This is evident in interventions which have promoted As an important feature of sex work, increased condom usage with clients but mobility has significant implications for the have failed to address the issues of spread of the disease as well as the planning non-paying partners. of interventions.

Sex and poverty The law The general conditions which stimulate Whether commercialised sex is legal, illegal commercial sex work arise from the or unregulated by the law directly affects the structural inequality between women and social standing and working conditions of men, and are most often driven by people operating in the sector. There is conditions of poverty as well as a demand much debate around whether sex work for the service. should be legalised or decriminalised. Commercial sex In Pietermaritzburg, commercial sex Experience of legal sex work has been workers workers interviewed all indicated that sex mixed, but among the advantages for sex indicated that sex work was a survival strategy. Most of them workers is that they have a measure of work was a were mothers, either never married or protection as part of an institution such as a survival strategy divorced. They did not like sleeping with brothel, a place to work and live, health different men. Many sporadically looked for precautions and facilities to keep clean.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 81 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Mobility has This compares shaiply with conditions of through a relatively elite segment of the implications for street work. Interaction is hurried, covert working class which is skilled, educated and the spread of the and exposed. Among the women in trained. The links go backwards into the disease as well Pietermaritzburg, where ukujika - the act of families of truckers and sex workers and giving a guy access to your body in they move forward through physical as the planning exchange for money - occurs is determined mobility onto each new population that of interventions largely by the client and is usually in his truckers pass through. vehicle, on open land or in a room. They have no possibility of inspecting and The consequences of the AIDS epidemic arc cleaning clients' genitals and no immediate not only felt by the individuals, but have a access to water to clean themselves. direct bearing on a major link in the industrial and service production chain that Where selling sex is illegal, women and men is integral to economies. Hence, the are persecuted by the law. The women in pertinence of the observation that the Pietermaritzburg had been arrested, charged, disease could, in a matter of years, destroy brought to trail and paid fines - between the trucking industry in South Africa R200 and R500 - or spent time in jail. They (.Fleetwcitch September/October 1994). also reported entrapment by police.

Illegality further exposes women selling sex Working conditions to abuse by clients, passing strangers and the Preliminary findings from a recent parallel police. In Pietermaritzburg, the women study of truck drivers passing through the reported that clients had beaten them, KwaZulu-Natal midlands (Marcus et al) abandoned them in isolated places, left them reveal that truck workers live and work naked, thrown them from vehicles or forced under very hard and pressured conditions. them to jump from moving vehicles in order Their work shapes all aspects of their world. There is much to escape. They also reported being robbed debate around and raped by passing men. The study found that truck drivers worked whether sex work an average of 16 hours a day. Their lives should be They have no recourse to the law, no were mostly spent on the road, alone. legalised support and limited access to services. Their Although most were married, they saw their relationship to the health system is wives and families infrequently, with many problematic, as it is often tied to their only touching their home base once a contact with the legal system. There is a month. Some did not even have a home base strong case for the decriminalisation of sex (Madime cited in Fleetwatch). work to establish the basic human rights of sex workers and help in interventions. Good road conditions mean they cut across South Africa more quickly and frequently The persistence, inevitability and long term than their counterparts in many African nature of the profession needs to be a core countries. Pay and conditions vary, and are a assumption of intervention development. It source of considerable grievance. critically affects the degree to which success can be achieved (Pickering et al). They lead lives that are hard and lonely. Intervention also has to be developed in a Their work is intensely fatiguing and way which empowers them to improve their stressful. The scope to unwind is very legal, health and rights status. limited and centres on women they meet along the way. In short, the working conditions in the road haulage industry have Truck drivers a direct negative bearing on truckers' social In Africa, the spread of AIDS has been lives and are integral to social sexual Illegality further linked to the main transport routes through mobility and risk taking behaviour evident exposes women Africa. South Africa is intimately connected among long distance truckers. selling sex to to the transnational and international road network and services, with the result that abuse by similar routes of social and geographical Knowledge clients, passing spread of HIV in the country seem to be This section draws from the survey of truck strangers and the developing. drivers and the case study of commercial sex police workers conducted in the midlands of The social transmission route associated KwaZulu-Natal to assess and compare their with the haulage industry is of particular knowledge, attitudes and practices with interest as it links vertically and horizontally regard to HIV and AIDS.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 82 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 Ninety seven percent of long distance truck reported having had sex once and 28% twice Working drivers interviewed indicated that they knew in the past week. And when asked how conditions in the about, or had heard of AIDS. The most many different people they had had sex with road haulage important source of information for the in the past week, at least a quarter had had industry are drivers was the radio, followed at a distance sex with two different people and 18% with integral to social by the medical profession (a doctor). Only a three or more different partners in the last sexual mobility minority (12) reported learning about the week. and risk taking disease from their sexual partners. Eighty one percent of long distance truckers among truckers Eighty three percent of truck drivers knew stated that they always had penetrative sex, that AIDS is incurable, with only a minority 90% indicated that they do not always use a (11%) believing that people could recover condom and 67% indicated that they had from it. Most perceived it as a serious threat never used a condom. to their own health (76%) and to the well being of their families (70%). Conservatively, this means that 43% of the truckers interviewed are having sexual This knowledge has practical application for intercourse with more than one sexual the truckers, at least in theory, as 71 % said partner, the intercourse is most likely (81%) that they would use a condom every time to be penetrative and it is highly unlikely they had sex if they knew that it would that they will be using condoms. protect them from AIDS. At the same time, the fact that 22% did not view AIDS as a For sex workers, knowledge of A TPS does threat to their health is cause for concern. not appear to impact significantly on their practices. Penetrative sex was the Interviews with sex workers show that the commonest sexual activity. The issue of majority of them knew about AIDS but trust and condom use was commonly 83% of truck levels of understanding ranged. Most expressed, and relates to an assumption that believed that they were vulnerable to AIDS. it is possible to see an HIV infected person, drivers knew that Significantly, this vulnerability is associated that somehow they look 'dirty'. AIDS is incurable. for some with their regular partners, rather Most perceived it than with their clients, reflecting a common Familiarity with the person - client or sex as a serious practice of not using condoms. partner - also influenced women not to use threat to their condoms. This highlights the limited health and to the In both studies, there is a knowledge gap, effectiveness of interventions around 'core well being of their groups', given that their networks and suggesting that education about AIDS families probably has to be built in as a continuous associations extend in a myriad of ways. component of AIDS education policy. There appears to be a general awareness about STDs: 93% of the truck driver sample Testing and practice agreed that there was a connection between A high percentage (46%) of long distance having many sex partners and getting STDs, truck drivers interviewed had been tested for 91% said STDs are bad for health, 28% HIV, with just over half (50,5%) tested by a reported having had an STD and a further private doctor and 35% by their companies. 14% indicated that they had had them often.

In sharp contrast, 8,8% of the sample knew of anyone with HIV and nearly half who did Institutions and companies described that person as a stranger. A higher Institutional involvement and capacity was percentage indicated that they knew of explored through two case studies. The first someone who had died of AIDS (13%). The focused on nine strategically selected health majority of the sex workers did not know care and social service providers in the There is a need anyone who had died from AIDS. Pietermaritzburg and Msunduzi area. The for a social second focused on 11 long haul transport compact on companies. Clearly, only a minority of the two groups AIDS, which have had direct contact with HIV and AIDS mobilises all infected people which possibly influences The major health care providers for most the credibility of the danger of the disease people are state hospitals and clinics. Of the strata in society and therefore, actual practices. nine selected health-care centres, three hospitals diagnose, treat and care for STDs, When asked about how often they had had AIDS and related diseases. The clinics do sex in the past week, 52% of truckers the same, but most do not test for HIV.

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 83 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A preliminary assessment suggests that the One of the major problems with both The study was conducted by STD, HIV and AIDS units within these trucking companies and site managers is that a field team under the health care sites are under strain, heavily they have no vision of the role that they guidance of Dr Tessa Marcus and in close under resourced and lack physical space. might play in any intervention. But is consultation with Ms Rose Smart (Manager, ATICC Staff are few and they are grossly over evident that they need to be involved. Pietermaritzburg). Special subscribed. Most of the sites lacked thanks to William Okedi of AMREF. The project was computers, which impacts negatively on made through grants Conclusion donated by PFIZER (USA) record keeping, referrals, follow up and through AMREF, the general statistical information. The nature and the scale of the HIV and AAC/De Beers Chairman's Fund and the Australian AIDS epidemic makes no allowance for any High Commission (Pretoria). The general training programme for nurses one level of social organisation - be it state, tends to be specialised and does not include business or civil - to exclude itself or be AIDS intervention and counselling. It is excluded from efforts to contain its spread REFERENCES clear that the main public health care service and respond to its effects. There is a need for Alary M (1993). "HIV infection providers have little capacity to engage in a a social compact on AIDS, which mobilises in European female sex meaningful way in an intervention with all strata in society to address a common workers: epidemiological link with use of commercial sex workers and long distance national and international crisis. petroleum-based lubricants", in AIDS, Vol.7. truck drivers. No.3. For an intervention initiative, such as that Campbell C. (1991). The responses of human resources managers envisaged around commercial sex workers "Prostitution, AIDS and Preventive Health of 11 large cargo hauliers, were instructive. and long distance truck drivers in the Behaviour", in Social Science and Medicine, Only three of the companies had a work KwaZulu-Natal midlands, the starting Vol.32. No.12. based AIDS education programme. The one assumption must be that all the relevant Ceientano D, Akarasewi P, transport company that did have an AIDS parties participate in its development, Sussman L, Suprasert S, Matanasarawoot A, Wright education programme did not have any of management and implementation, from the N, Theetranont C & Nelson K. (1994). "HIV-1 infection the key principles considered necessary for beginning to the end. among lower class some measure of success in intervention. commercial sex workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand", in Such an approach is likely to ensure that the AIDS, Vol.8. No.4 Only two of the companies have a formal immediate goals of the intervention are Conover T. (1993) "Trucking through the AIDS belt", in policy document on AIDS but neither were more realisable. It will also serve to broaden The New Yorker, August 16. exclusively in transport. The rest were and deepen the social and institutional Cross S and Whiteside A. driven by inertia, saying they were waiting capacity of people to combat the epidemic (1993). Facing up to AIDS: The socio-economic impact for the government to set out guidelines or and engage in their own development. of AIDS, St. Martin's Press: Great Britain. were 'waiting for things to happen'. Hilton A. (1992). "Back to the The intervention needs to be multifacetcd Branches- abortion and All the human resource managers and sustained, with a clear understanding of prostitution get the cold shoulder", in Work in interviewed indicated some willingness to institutional entry and exit points. It needs to Progress, No. 84, September. either support an intervention, or be take account of the commonalities and the Mann J, Tarantola D, & Netter involved in one. However, some of the differences between sex workers and truck T. (1992). AIDS in the World, hauliers that were contacted indicated that drivers, and to explore the possibilities that Harvard University Press:London. they were too busy and anyway, were not exist where their worlds overlap. This Marcus T. (1994). "Land particularly interested in the problems of requires careful thought around how the reform in rural restructuring programmes: Comparative HIV and their workforce. specific interests in each group can be policy approaches and brought in and actively involved. experiences from the developing world", in Generally, there was an awareness of the Development Southern Africa, Vol 11, No 4, AIDS related problems affecting the Information and education about AIDS is November. industry and a tentative indication of central to the policy and practice of Smallman-Raynor M & commitment to some kind of action. Most of intervention. The Government is developing Haggett P. (1992). Atlas of Aids, Biackwell the reservations about intervention centred a mass communication intervention Publishers:Oxford. on the level of commitment that it would specifically around condoms. In group Sawanpanyalert P, Ungchusak K, demand of the companies. The bottom line interventions an approach which takes into Thanprasertsuk S & was always the immediate cost factor, both account the beliefs and views of the target Akarasewi P. (1994) "HIV-1 seroconversion rates in terms of time and actual money. people needs to be adopted. The teaching of among female commercial sex workers, Chiang Mai, practical skills is also essential for a Thailand: a multi Service site managers indicated willingness successful intervention. cross-sectional study", in AIDS, Vol.8. No.6. to participate in an intervention 'depending Pickering H, Quigley M, Pepin, on financial implications' and provided that Any intervention has to encourage and Todd J & Wilkins A.. (1993). "The effects of post-test it was 'practical'. They felt that a condom support institutional cooperation and counselling on condom use vending machine would be acceptable and development. It also has to engage among prostitutes in The Gambia" in AIDS, Vol.7. this was the present extent of their proactively with the forward and backward No.2. commitment to any intervention process. linkages of both 'core' groups. QP0&

liliULLIitULUV tLL'lUit- 84 INDICATORS A Volt 3 No 1 Summer 1995 o

Responding lo the 'Global Challenge'

By Raphael de Kadt Department of Politics, University of Natal

How South Africans, individually and collectively, relate to global systems will be crucial to their prospects in many spheres. This raises the question of how centres of teaching and scholarship - especially universities - ought best to respond to this reality. There are important gaps in what our universities do, particularly in the areas of comparative studies, the implications of new technologies and systematic theorisation.

he 'rehabilitation' of South Africa as Nature of universities How South Africa a respected member of the world relates to global Tsystem of nation states has brought At this point I ought to say a little about how systems will be I see the distinctive role of universities. with it new challenges. It has, especially, crucial to its emphasised the extent to which political and Conventionally, universities are referred to prospects in economic isolation made South Africans as 'centres of higher learning' which, on inward looking. closer analysis means 'centres of teaching many spheres and research' with the dual task of training The turn inwards was, understandably, 'elites' through the transmission of reinforced by the need to focus intellectual appropriate skills and knowledge, and energies on the daunting task of reshaping generating new knowledge and information the domestic polity. Thus, during the either for its own sake or to serve some apartheid years, the awareness of South social puipose. Africans of both their country's global and more immediately regional contexts was I should like to suggest that universities in dimmed. the contemporary world should be seen under a further and related aspect. They are, What has since become clear is that South under this aspect, the principal 'institutions Africa is indeed an integral part of both a of reflexivity' in societies. global economy and a global society. This, in turn, has sharpened the sensitivity of They arguably constitute the most important South Africans to both the benefits and intellectual spaces within which the actions burdens, the opportunities and and interactions of a multiplicity of different responsibilities, that attach to such agents are analysed and evaluated. They membership. thus constitute a kind of 'cerebral space' of Universities the societal organism, an organ crucial to the constitute a kind How South Africans, individually and steering functions of the society. of 'cerebral collectively, relate to global systems will be space' of the crucial to their prospects in many spheres. However seemingly chaotic, internally societal organism This raises the question of how South fragmented and diverse they may seem, African centres of teaching and scholarship however 'pandemonic' their discourses - especially its universities - ought best to might appear, they probably contain richer respond to this reality. networks of dialogic and deliberative

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 85 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' Scholarship and rationality than any other modern analytical purposes might usefully be intellectual life institutions. They are crucial centres of separated. today are discursiveness. In this they contribute vitally increasingly to the task of mapping the lived environment The three areas identified are: comparative and defining the perceived reality within civilisation studies, the study of the international which social actors pursue and defend their implications of new technologies for various ends. contemporary societies, and the coherent and systematic engagement with the tasks of Thus, universities are among the 'axial' theorisation, which I have termed institutions of modern societies. What they 'theoretical reconstruction and renewal'. do and how they do it, has substantial implications for the way in which the Each of these is significant in two very ambient society functions. The capacity of specific ways. First, it makes a vital the society effectively to address its many contribution to the creation of informed challenges will turn, in no small measure, on contexts for decision making. In this it the quality and appropriateness of its contributes crucially to the fostering of universities. Today especially, this public reason and debate so pivotal to 'reflexive' role of universities includes responsible policy formation in engagement with the global contexts in democracies. Second, it forces South which they are situated. Africans - and citizens everywhere - to recognise the limits of excessive localism. For all that societies have many local concerns and intellectual preoccupations, and for all that these are often best pursued Comparative civilisation through the marshalling of local resources The first area is the question of contexts, and the mobilisation of specifically local understood as 'cultural' or 'civilisational' knowledge, scholarship and intellectual life phenomena. This addresses the issues of Universities have today are increasingly international. globalisation, regionalisation and become localisation. There is a sense in which we all important in The 'informed conversation of humankind' now live, as McLuhan famously put it, in a 'intermediating' to which, historically, universities have been 'global village'. We are not, however, all between global host is now a truly global conversation - as equally citizens - or even members - of this anyone who has attended international village. In a moment of Orwellian disenchant- and local contexts conferences or published in international ment it could be said that membership for journals knows. Thus universities have also some is more equal than it is for others. become increasingly important in 'intermediating' between global and local This village, furthermore, defines only part contexts. of our field of reference, only one among many contexts or spaces within which In the light of this, I have decided to identify people articulate their identities and what appear to me to be some important coordinate their actions. However, it is gaps in what South African universities do. impossible properly to apprehend our times This article is meant merely to be in a manner that ignores, or is innocent of, suggestive, to provide a kind of 'activities this global context. As the late Norbert Elias list' of things that might be done or are at said in 1987, all sociology has now, of least worth thinking about doing. In necessity, to be world sociology. particular I have focused on issues which are of global significance and which have, or are Anthony Giddens recently stressed that likely to have, profound local or national among the central concerns of contemporary implications. sociological studies are those of the coordination of action across great distances in space and time. It could be argued that the There are some Frameworks of action rhythms and routines of everyday life are important gaps in It is important to explore the 'frameworks of increasingly being defined by institutional what South action' within which people in the complexes at the 'centre', as opposed to the African contemporary world make their choices, 'periphery', of the global village. universities do negotiate meanings and engage in relationships both cooperative and To appreciate precisely how global and conflictive. It seems to me that there are regional or local rhythms intersect, and with three areas in particular that need to be what implications, requires a comparative addressed. They overlap somewhat, but for perspective.

liU-L'l;LmiUU.V VtitrlLlit- 86 INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 It is, I think, common cause that understand contemporary societies. Are the Comparative comparative studies are very poorly models and metaphors with which we studies are very developed in South Africa. It is interesting apprehend societies, which mostly had their poorly developed to note, for instance, that very little attention origins in the ages of scientific and industrial in South Africa has been given to Asia. Yet, as Peter Vale revolutions, still adequate? pointed out in a recent Weekly Mail and Guardian article, it could be argued that in Many issues and questions arise in this terms of the global economy the 21st context. First, it seems clear that new Century might well 'belong' to Asia. technologies have profoundly altered the relationship between the 'technological Certainly, projections suggest that China and disciplines' and the humanities. The India - as well, of course, as Japan - will juridical questions alone posed by the become major forces in world affairs in the information and biological technologies next century. Europe too is a theatre whose make this clear. To take just one example: to global economic prospects and significance whom, if anyone, does one's genetic should not be underestimated. Yet even information belong? Europe, which is so much better understood in South Africa than Asia, stands in danger Such questions raise large issues, such as of being inadequately studied. And what what it means to take seriously the dignity applies to Asia also applies to the Middle and integrity of the individual human being, East and Latin America. and whether the relationship between the public and private spheres is being The almost total absence of scholarly fundamentally reconfigured. enterprises in South Africa concerned with exploring these issues is troubling: the Clearly, dialogue across Snow's celebrated absence, for instance, of Sinology or even 'two cultures' is more imperative than ever Indology of a properly established kind leaves before: indeed, some developments in the South Africans without an appropriate 'natural sciences', technology and the The challenges resource system to draw on when confronted contemporary philosophy of science cast posed by with the challenge of reflecting informedly doubt on the very validity of a distinction technologies and intelligently on Asia. between these intellectual 'cultures'. have implications for ethics, culture, How many South African scholars have Thus the emergence of an acute politics and even a passing acquaintance with, much less environmental awareness reflects the need to economics a deep and substantial knowledge of, inform the development and deployment of Confucianism? How many have a working new technologies with a consideration of the knowledge of Mandarin - likely, along with full range of their implications for human English and perhaps Hindi-Urdu and flourishing and the 'lived environment'. The Spanish to be among the most widely dialogue across such established disciplinary spoken and important languages of the next boundaries is insufficiently developed in century? Further dimensions of this will be South African universities. explored in the next section. There are further, and fascinating, questions that flow from a reflection of the relation New technologies between science, technology and culture. It might be argued that the extraordinary These questions have, I shall argue, a crucial technological developments of the post bearing on how we interpret and relate to World War era have redefined, on a global other cultural or civilisational contexts. scale, the frameworks of human action . Especially important in this regard are Central is the question of how developments in biotechnology and 'homogenising' the technological and information technology. Crucial to the organisational dynamics of Western New welfare of all contemporary societies is the industrial and post-industrial type societies technologies question of how their individual members are. Is modernisation a single 'neutral' and institutions address these new process, or is it invariably 'culturally have also altered technologies. inflected', as Charles Taylor recently and the relationship provocatively asked? How do different between the The challenges posed by technologies have cultures, civilisations and religious world 'technological implications for ethics, culture, politics and views relate to the phenomena of disciplines' and economics. They have implications, too, for modernisation, globalisation and the the humanities the very way in which we define and implications of the new technologies?

INDICATOR SA Vol 13 No 1 Summer 1995 87 liLil'L'LliL ULilil' VUirliLfc' We need to grasp Are we witnessing the emergence of an perspectives. But there have been and the extent and increasingly unified world civilisation for doubtless will be many others. depth of the which the values, structures and dynamics of normative crisis Western modernity are more or less Also of fundamental importance is the need paradigmatic? Or, as Taylor suggests, are we fully to grasp the extent and depth of the of modern witnessing the emergence of multiple and normative crisis of modern societies. As we societies complexly differentiated 'modernities'. approach the end of the millennium, it is clear that much of the promise of the If it is the case that 'multiple modernities' enlightenment - so triumphantly embraced are emerging, what kinds of civilisational in what Eric Hobsbawm has called the systems will they constitute? Will they be 'Golden Years' of capitalism that followed internally monolithic, or will they display World War II - remains unredeemed. the kind of 'value pluralism' supposedly defining of Western modernity? How will This moral crisis is of global reach. Global 'Western modernity' relate to them? Are we inequality is greater than it has ever been beginning to witness a clash of competing and, in many respects, is still growing. modern civilisations? The jury may still be Irresponsibility in the pursuit of power and out, but there is little doubt that the very profit is rampant and the miracles that new questions themselves point to developments technologies can deliver are miracles only of world historical moment. for the relatively rich and privileged.

With respect to new technology, not only do A situation like this is clearly a recipe for we need to ask how it inflects - and is catastrophe. Everywhere there is evidence or inflected by - diverse figures of thought: we disturbing intimations of what Hans Magnus also need to ask whether there are common Enzensberger has called 'molecular civil issues that, globally, technology has forced wars': wars that turn out to be disastrous for people to address, perhaps with a lexicon the innocents caught up in them as well, so Global inequality and theoretical registers that are both new often, for the politicians who promote them. is greater than it and unavoidably universal. has ever been, Examples can be drawn from many and is growing Specifically, we need to question whether or continents, from Los Angeles to Bosnia, not the consequences of the revolutions in from Sri Lanka to Somalia. These are wars biotechnology and information sciences that turn on dispossession and injustice, on have profound implications for the ways in the mobilisation of resentments that flow which identities come, globally, to be from exclusion. They are the squabbles negotiated and defined. And whether new among those who do not occupy Royal contexts of action, power and interest are Circle seats in the black political theatre of being defined in ways that transect more the 'late modern age'. established contexts. The point, however, is that they are an integral part of the seamed yet seamless Theoretical renewal world system to which I have referred. They It is not accidental that sociological thought can only be understood through an has arguably gone through its most creative appropriate theoretical enterprise - and it is period since the days of the great 'founding only through the renewal of moral fathers'. This renewal has been occasioned, philosophy and of social, political and in part, by the limitations and inadequacy of economic theory that we can begin properly earlier perspectives. There is clearly a need to respond to and rectify, them. for a new 'social cartography', for a mapping of the social world that accurately It is an illusion to believe that South Africa reflects, and provides the basis for plausible is guaranteed immunity to their influence, interpretations of, the transformed however this may express itself. Thus again, Universities need frameworks of action already alluded to. to fulfil their reflexive tasks, South African to rekindle a universities need to rekindle a much neglected These developments in sociology have been neglected tradition of engaged theoretical tradition of accompanied by related developments in and philosophical enquiry. Years of engaged philosophy and political economy. Old isolation had deleterious consequences for theoretical and schemes of classification, explanation and the social sciences seen as moral and philosophical justification have been called into question. theoretical enterprises - notwithstanding the enquiry One obvious instance has been the many very admirable accomplishments of articulation of various broadly 'postmodern' practitioners in these fields. QE8S1

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