Johannesburg - Former President Thabo Mbeki has warned against relegating government functions to the private sector.
Mbeki said the government should prioritise service delivery as non-delivery had a negative impact on the country’s social fabric, adding that this had resulted in the private sector now leading in the delivery of services that the state failed to provide.
The Chancellor of Unisa and Patron of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, was speaking during the South African Association of Public Administration and Management‘s (SAAPAM) annual conference in Ekurhuleni on the East Rand.
The conference was held under the theme, ‘Repositioning African Governments in the Changing Global Order and Disorder.’
Mbeki, who delivered his address virtually, slammed the lack of service delivery, saying there was a major disconnect between ordinary citizens and those in authority.
“Here we have this receding power of the state, its loss of authority and credibility, its inability to translate plans into action, and the growing disconnect between the ruling elite and those they govern, and this is where South Africa’s greatest opportunity for the future is to be found, in its innovative and resilient private sector and civil society, which are solving problems in the growing absence of the state and doing so successfully."
"In years to come, South Africa will become a case study of how private initiative succeeds where states fail. In political science, this is characterised as a counter-revolution, and a counter- revolution is not innocent, but in our case, a direct threat to our democratic state and the welfare and wellbeing of millions of our people, “Mbeki said.
He said the country’s woes were a reflection of its lack of leadership.
“As I have said, to emphasise what you know, this negative observation about the democratic state is, in essence, a negative comment about the place and role of our public administration and management in our democratic polity. "It calls for the right response from public administration and management themselves. I would like to imagine that most of us present and participating at this conference have read the 2007 seminal book by Naomi Klein,” he said.
The SAAPAM conference aims to contribute towards the development of good governance and effective service delivery.
“As the state becomes less and less capable, it is being increasingly bypassed by private actors. This process has been underway for a considerable amount of time already. Those who can afford it rely on private healthcare and schooling of a quality far higher than that provided by the state. In the absence of reliable electricity from the state-owned utility, those who can afford it install solar power on their roof tops,” Mbeki said.
The Star