- SA state institutions are “dysfunctional and weak”, according to former SA Revenue Service Deputy Commissioner Ivan Pillay.
- While there are no magic formulas for rectifying the country’s institutions, a long-term solution is to simultaneously focus on repairing them and fighting corruption.
- Pillay said most SA leaders and managers are interventionists and their approach often ends up leading to “disjointed and fragmented governance.”
- For more financial news, go to News24 Business Cover.
South Africa is facing a political crisis with “dysfunctional, weak and retreating state institutions”, while focusing on repairing them and fighting corruption is the only way forward, according to the former deputy commissioner of the SA Revenue Service ( SARS), Ivan Pillay.
“A weak state doesn’t interest us, it only interests criminals,” Pillay said at the annual Helen Suzman memorial conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday night.
Suzman was the sole representative of the Progressive Party in the apartheid Parliament, where she opposed various apartheid laws and exposed atrocities committed by the regime.
“Unfortunately, many of the undemocratic practices that he dedicated his life to combat persist, despite a new democratic order and a constitution that is admired by all Democrats,” Pillay said.
The state of our institutions
The performance of state institutions is “unpredictable,” and one of the threats these institutions face is uncontrolled group interests, Pillay said, citing “the taxi industry, the construction mafia, organized crime, and the manufacturing and sale of illicit cigarettes” as examples of this. .
Getting rid of the corrupt in the state isn’t the only solution, however, Pillay said.
“Our well-being is linked to the institutions,” he said. “If we have failing institutions, we’re going to be in trouble.”
According to Pillay, every year there are damning reports from the Auditor General, whether at the national, provincial or local level, and while the government initially responds to the outrage that followed such reports, ultimately “nothing happens.”
Pillay referred to this as “back-end governance”, which neglects the core business of state institutions, leading to ongoing crises and “enormous delays”.
“It doesn’t make sense to audit an institution when the basic elements have not been established,” he said.
“So you’re auditing transactions, you’re not auditing systems.
“Most of our leaders and managers are interventionists, not system people.”
This approach forces people to work at lower levels than they should be, breaking systems and giving rise to “disjointed and fragmented government,” he said.
design flaws
“Design issues” have also contributed greatly to the state of SA institutions, Pillay said.
The three spheres of government have added complexity to an already complex situation, and “we have neutralized the public service commission” by removing it from the center of government. Pillay said the government’s attempt to govern public finances solely through the Public Finance Management Act is inadequate.
Subjective factors such as political interference and the instability of the roles of the main public servants are also contributing to the weakening of state institutions, he said.
“We kicked out most of the technical and managerial competition,” he said. “And newcomers to government have no government experience.”
Pillay attributed this to the fact that “apartheid was not benign, it was evil.”
“He kept us out of government, he did everything he could to keep us out of power,” he said.
“The most important role of governance is to ensure that the management that is in place does what it is supposed to do.”
Pillay referred to the effort made by SARS that allowed it to become a “world-class institution.”
“There was no magical thinking in SARS,” he said. Rather, the institution made use of data and evidence to build its competency model, focus on systems thinking, and improve and standardize its processes.
‘No silver bullets’
There are no “silver bullets” to fix the state of the country’s institutions, Pillay said. Rather, medium to long-term efforts are required.
“We need to convince politicians that institutions are important and that we need to protect our institutions; politicians are quick to attack institutions,” Pillay said, adding that civil society has an important role to play in building consensus on this. theme.
Governance systems also need to adapt and become more explicit, he said.
“We have to fight corruption and fix the institutions at the same time” to maintain stability and synergy in the country while moving forward, Pillay said.
As a country with limited resources, Pillay recommended a “bottom-up” approach that involves concentrating these resources on specific issues and using currently functioning state institutions.
“Helen Suzman set a great example and it applies to us at this difficult time,” he said. “She was never afraid of being in the minority, not even one, and, like her, we should not deviate from our main goals.”
Pillay identified the main objectives of South Africa as those that can be found in the Constitution: building the capacity of the state with strong institutions, creating energetic civil society organizations, voting in a competent government and creating more stability in the country.
