Political Overview: Beneath and beyond the waning “Ramaphoria”
This is a Special Report on South Africa by Dr. Mzukisi Qobo, formerly Chief Director of Trade Policy at the Department of Trade and Industry.
In the past eight months, South Africa has experienced a slight change in the tone of policy. A number of moderate reforms have been carried out, including interventions in some of the key state institutions. Changes have been afoot at pivotal state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and Transnet, marked by overhaul of the executives in these entities. These changes are not deep enough to suggest serious institutional and economic reforms, which are much needed to restore confidence and set the country on a better governance and economic trajectory.
One of the barriers to reform is the intractable institutional legacy of President Jacob Zuma as well as the long-standing structural tensions between the two centers of power – one at Luthuli House (The ANC headquarters with an array of factional interests) and a policy and institutional nerve center at the Union Buildings (the Seat of Government) – and this political reality may take many years to overcome. This is precisely because of the deep-seated culture of factions within the governing party. Seeds of factionalism within the ruling party predate the era of President Zuma, but these have worsened over time, especially with the intensification of contestation over access to instruments of patronage. Further, the governing party has been slow at reforming itself in line with the demands of running a modern state and a complex economy.
The challenge of reforming the party and the state now falls squarely on President Ramaphosa’s shoulders, whose vitality is undermined by the slender electoral mandate he notched at the party’s elective conference in December 2017. Yet there are high expectations that he should carry out bold reforms at a brisk pace, something that will prove difficult in the context of deepening fissures within the party. Inability to assert authority over the party may soon translate to half-hearted reform measures, as proposals for economic and institutional restructuring could be slowed down by factional battles masquerading as intra-party contestations over policy and ideological direction of the state.
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