Forget bombast – let’s see real results

Just after his release from prison in February 1990, our revered former president

Nelson Mandela went on an international tour which included the United States of America.

During that tour, in June of that year, one of the most memorable interviews that Mandela gave was anchored by popular British-born American broadcast journalist Ted Koppel.

It was during that town hall meeting, in front of a capacity crowd at the City College of New York that Mandela made one comment which was to be repeated for many years to come.

Asked about what economic policy direction the country would pursue under an ANC government – whether it would go the socialist route or whether the liberation movement (at the time) would embrace the free market system – Mandela responded thus: “We don’t care if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”

The comment may have come across as cheap political rhetoric but it was quite significant in that Mandela went on to explain that all that he, and the ANC leadership at the time, were concerned about was about improving the lot of the poor and oppressed people of South Africa.

Obviously to get to that point, certain policy direction would have to be taken. But all that Madiba was reminding us of was that we should not get bogged down by bombast but rather we should focus on results.

I was reminded of that Mandela interview as I went through the policy speeches of the various MECs, which they delivered in Bhisho last week.

In all the speeches – where they outlined their plans to spend the billions of rands allocated to their departments in the recent provincial budget – the common thread running through the text was “radical economic transformation”– which has become the ANC’s latest catch-phrase for the current year.

Apart from the usual promises ranging from job creation, roads construction, providing teachers for Grade R classes, fighting corruption and improving government efficiency, almost every MEC promised radical economic transformation.

As to what this exactly means in practical terms, no one has a definite answer. Many interpretations have been given to the phrase and its attendant meaning.

Radical economic transformation is the phrase on every “comrade’s” lips. But I would suggest that we should not dwell too much on what it means. In a province as depressed as ours we do not care much about slogans.

As one politician once opined, the poor won’t eat slogans but rather they are looking for practical ways in which their lives can be improved.

Economic transformation must mean jobs for the Eastern Cape – especially the eastern part of the province which continues to haemorrhage jobs amid slow economic growth.

Let it be about the realisation of the promised entrepreneurship opportunities for young people and less red tape. It should also mean a serious clamp-

down on corruption.

The reality is that we are very far from achieving that economic transformation when councillors in Buffalo City are at each other’s throats and where council meetings have less to do with the business of council but more about shouting matches between rented-crowds supporting either factions. Across the Kei, Mnquma Local Municipality is as dysfunctional with the same scenario playing itself out there. No council meeting has gone ahead without an attempt by one faction to unseat the other.

If the governing party is serious about radical economic transformation, then it should be about results. Let the politicians return every three months and give account of how radical they have been in delivering on all the promises they made in their policy speeches. That way none of us will be taken by surprise when hundreds of millions in conditional grants are returned to the National Treasury.

Monitoring and evaluation, by the premier’s office, should be happening constantly to make sure that each and every cent is used for its intended purpose.

Yesterday President Jacob Zuma visited Ginsberg – the home of revered Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko – to mark Human Rights Day.

This day is not just about guaranteeing political rights and civil liberties for the population but is also about ensuring that water is carted to all areas affected by the recent drought and not used by a spiteful councillor – as we saw recently in Tyutyu village, outside King William’s Town – as a tool to punish those who are seen to be supporters of opposition parties. Let us spend less time mouthing slogans but fixing the dysfunctional municipalities whose councils and communities have been held ransom by feuding factions. Let radical economic transformation mean one thing, or rather a few things only – creation of jobs for the unemployed and delivering services. How we get to that point, whether radically or at a normal pace, is not of our concern – we just want change. Frankly, as Madiba eloquently put it, we don’t care what radical economic transformation means or what form it takes as long as it results in improvement of people’s lives for the better.