VIEWPOINT BY GWEDE MANTASHE
Making public representatives more accountable through a clear monitoring and evaluation system
During the election campaign we make specific commitments to the electorate and society, and when we win the elections, there is a reasonable expectation from the people of South Africa that the ANC will deliver on its commitments. As a result, the movement is interested in keeping a close eye on the implementation of its policies by its government. >>> MORE

WASHA TSOTSI
Communities are largely responsible for criminal prosecutions
We cannot free the full potential of each person and law enforcement cannot succeed if the social, economic, ideological and cultural conditions continue to spawn criminality. We should harness all the people's creative potential to deepen the culture of civic responsibility and human solidarity. Hence, the decision taken by the ANC at Polokwane to form the street committees. >>> MORE

Viewpoint by GWEDE MANTASHE

Making public representatives more accountable through a clear monitoring and evaluation system

Over the past few weeks we have been bombarded with articles and editorials that seek to question the appropriateness of the ANC intervention in government. There was particular outrage at the Secretary General's " summoning" of cabinet ministers to Chief Albert Luthuli House in relation to two incidents.

There was the facilitation of discussions between the COSATU unions and the relevant ministers on how to resolve the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) dispute; and thereafter, the questioning of the pronouncement by a minister that non-performing State Owned Enterprises would be disposed of.

Without getting into the content of the discussions one has to talk to the correctness of such intervention. Will we see more of such interventions or has the ANC learnt a lesson and will, therefore, observe the "distance" between the party and the state?

Our premise is, we have a political system wherein political parties contest elections on the basis of their policies. The manifesto of each party is its summary policy position, and the ANC is no exception. During the election campaign we make specific commitments to the electorate and society, and when we win the elections, there is a reasonable expectation from the people of South Africa that the ANC will deliver on its commitments.

In the past fifteen years we committed a mistake of taking it for granted that when the movement deploys its cadres they will, of necessity, implement the policies of the ANC. The assumption was that policies of the movement were not an area of contestation. Therefore we would all move in the same direction like a stream of water.

As a result, we discounted individual passions for certain aspects of policy, and the inherent danger of individual temptation to follow their own passion. For example, the discourse on our HIV and AIDS policy and the debate on economic policy, accompanied by sharp disagreements among the alliance partners, are testimony to the imperative of the movement keeping a close eye on the implementation of its policies by its government.

Emboldened by fourteen years of experience, the 52nd National Conference of the ANC took specific and deliberate resolutions on how to manage cadre deployment, policy formulation, and monitoring and evaluation. Let us highlight few points from this resolution:

Conference re-affirmed that the ANC remains the key strategic centre of power, which must exercise leadership over the state and society, in pursuit of the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution.

Conference instructed the incoming NEC to review and strengthen the deployment process with the view of strengthening collective decision- making.

These two points capture the longing of conference delegates to ensure the ANC is not relegated to the periphery, only to emerge during the elections. This is a call on the leadership of the ANC to provide leadership in line with the policy sold to the electorate. Delegates were reminding the leadership to take responsibility for the performance of the cadres deployed in government.

The Polokwane conference reaffirmed the centrality of the structures of the ANC in the policy formulation process. The branch as a primary organ of the ANC is critical to the success of the ANC. Hence the decision to establish a Policy Institute and a Political School, respectively, with the sole purpose of developing the capacity of branches to play their role in policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation.

Informed by this resolution the ANC has elevated Monitoring and Evaluation to the level of a ministry in government. In addition to this, one of the three units of the ANC Policy Institute will be the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. We are presently refining tools thereof. Furthermore, a tool for evaluating performance of public representatives is being reviewed, in order to avoid evaluating them at the end of their term.

We will assess them on an annual basis. Feedback will be given to them so that weaknesses can be corrected early, instead of waiting for opposition parties and the media to do an unscientific performance assessment. We should, ourselves, give the rating of the performance of each public representative.

Inherent to this is an ambitious programme of evaluating the development impact of the programmes implemented by the government. We seek to progress from an output to an outcomes approach, that is, not just a head count of what has been achieved but also delve on the impact of a project on society. For example, assessing the impact of a water or sanitation project on the prevalence of water borne diseases in a particular community. Monitoring will help us in track progress on priority areas and baseline requirements as set by the ANC.

In the event of deviation from the set objectives, corrective measures would be taken in time before the project is derailed. This will result in ministers not only seen from a distance by the party leadership, but will be elevated into true champions in their areas of responsibility. In return the ANC will be in a better position to defend its cadres when they are attacked. Decision-making will be more transparent and based on scientifically tested information, and talk of non-performance will not be based on anecdotal information.

The relationship between the party and its cadres will improve as everyone involved will know exactly what is expected of them. Monitoring and evaluation will force the ANC to engage directly with the deployees on an ongoing basis.

This worldview would assist us, particularly in relation to community protests.

First, we will be able to understand the underlying factors and address them.

Second, we will be in a position to appreciate situations where protests are more a manifestation of political infighting and people positioning themselves for the next list processes.

The intervention in any situation should not be ad hoc, but be informed by the objective circumstance. In dealing with all these protests the ANC must take direct responsibility, and the deployees in government must see it as a call of duty to address these problem diligently in defence of their party.

Service delivery is, therefore, not just the responsibility of the minister but, equally, that of the ANC. When the ANC reconfigured the cabinet structure, the driving force was the desire to deliver on our manifesto as the ANC, not just an ANC led government.

At the end of this term, the electorate will judge us on whether we have delivered on the much-pronounced priorities, namely;

• Creating more jobs, decent work and sustainable livelihoods.
• Education
• Health
• Rural development and
• Fighting crime and corruption.

In the final analysis, it is not the individual minister who will face the electorate, but the ANC.

Let me conclude by emphasising that we will not get into the engine room of government and micro-manage departments. We will keep a healthy distance for the individual deployees to prove their ability and expertise. The engagement will be at the level of policy and the monitoring and implementation thereof. South Africans must expect a more dynamic interaction between the ANC and the deployees in government.

Our experience is that the media treats such engagement on the basis of the person involved and the issue that is being raised. For calling in the minister on the issue of possible privatisation of state assets, the Business Day gave me a red robot. Engaging a number of ministers on finding a solution on the OSD dispute there was no robot at all.

The headlines on who runs the country reflect the position taken by the different media houses. Some would like to see an ANC that is an absentee landlord so as to create space for critics and the opposition. For us, the debate itself sent a clear message that there is something that we are beginning to do right.

>> Gwede Mantashe is the Secretary General of the ANC and this is the lecture he delivered at Wits Business School: P&DM

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WASHA TSOTSI

Communities are largely responsible for criminal prosecutions

Recently a British newspaper ran a story that Britain is the most violent country in Europe and also has a worse rating for all types of violence than South Africa and the US does. The figures were compiled from reports released by the European Commission and United Nations.

Soon after this report, the Sunday Times, a local weekly newspaper, reported that the Independent Complaints Directorate was investigating some police officers in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng who had been accused of manipulating crime statistics and some police stations who were allegedly under-reporting rape.

Instead of focusing on our collective responsibility and how we could individually and collectively contribute in the fight against crime, the discussions in the media are now overly preoccupied with questioning the reliability of police crime statistics.

The ANC believes that expressing victims as crime statistics can never replace the impact of crime on the individual victim. We have consistently admitted that crime is a major national challenge and that the fight against crime and corruption needs to be stepped up. We have said fighting crime and fighting the causes of crime will be a priority of the ANC government in the next five years and there is a need to overhaul the criminal justice system to ensure that the levels of crime are drastically reduced.

It is not about the statistics. The war against crime must be taken to a new level. The time for indifference, inefficiencies and lethargy is over. It is time for the subject of crime to be on the agenda of every home, private or public organisation, not only in the form of a passive debate around statistics, but as part of the effort to reclaim our peace, security and comfort. We all have an ongoing responsibility to improve our capacity to prevent crime before it is committed.

The aspirations contained in the Freedom Charter including peace, security and comfort for all, define the tasks that we must all accomplish. The preamble to our Constitution reasserts the profound statement that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it." It further binds all of us to work to "improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person."

We cannot free the full potential of each person and law enforcement cannot succeed if the social, economic, ideological and cultural conditions continue to spawn criminality. The living environment must itself be less conducive to crime. Together we must change this situation. We should harness all the people's creative potential to deepen the culture of civic responsibility and human solidarity. Hence, the decision taken by the ANC at Polokwane to form the street committees.

An improving quality of life also means better and improving conditions of safety and security of the people in their homes, in their communities, in their places of work and entertainment. Crime undermines our efforts aimed at defeating poverty even as poverty contributes in various ways in creating conditions that breed crime.

A relatively small proportion of criminals commit the majority of crime in most societies. It is estimated that 10% to 20% of criminals are responsible for 80% of all serious crimes. These are professional criminals, and criminals involved in the organised crime milieu and criminal gangs who are behind a significant number of car hijackings, vehicle thefts, armed robberies (especially cash-in-transit and bank robberies), burglaries of homes and businesses, commercial crimes and even certain types of shoplifting. In most instances crime is opportunistic on the absence of vigilance.

The question we are supposed to be asking ourselves is how are we going to partner with government in the fight against crime to ensure a better life for all. Effective contemporary crime prevention relies heavily on partnerships and multi agency approaches. These partnerships and multi agency approaches involve using different resources, skills and capacity. Some of these resources and capacity are not available within the police themselves. Partnerships and multi agency approaches help to harness these resources and capacity.

The issue of rural safety is going to receive dedicated attention as there is a tendency for criminals to seek refuge in these areas when the situation gets too hot for them in urban areas and towns.

Role players in the media and advertising industry should also engage with how the images they present impact on perceptions of personal worth. Measures to promote a non-violent and law-abiding society and respect for justice and the law should be strengthened by:

Strengthening the condemnation of violence against women and extending this to a general condemnation of violence in social relationships and in society more broadly.

Articulating the values embodied in the constitution in a manner that clarifies their meaning in relation to personal conduct, notably in emphasising the issue of dignity and by implication the importance of acting in accordance with standards of respect and civility towards others.

Motivating members of the public at all levels of society to report criminal activities and to refrain from conduct that supports crime, including the purchase of stolen goods.

Emphasise the need for public officials to conduct themselves in terms of standards of integrity.

Children who grow up in an environment where there is domestic violence are particularly at risk of engaging in violence, or of other social practices that may feed into violence, particularly if the domestic conflict is also associated with neglect, inconsistent or inappropriate discipline, or other abuse.

Public education measures should be produced, focusing on the problem of acquaintance violence, highlighting its destructive consequences and assisting the public with steps that they can take to prevent violence. The harm caused by school bullies need to be highlighted.

There must be increased local community influence and control over policing priorities and practices (and) the relationship between the police and the policed should be one of reciprocal control. We want the Community Policing Forums (CPF) to be intermediaries between the people and the police to create conditions for the real empowerment of communities to determine policing priorities and to assess police performance against verifiable standards.

We believed then, and still believe now, that crime prevention and combating is a joint project between the police and the people. There are many instances where this principle is understood, where the police are working side-by-side with the people as crime-fighters. But, we need more people to do this so that we can flush out of our areas the criminals that have been preying on our innocent people, especially vulnerable communities.

The vulnerable people include women and children. Many of them are victims of domestic violence and many of these crimes are committed by people who were under the influence of drugs and alcohol. In the communities where we live we know who sells the liquor and the drugs. We know that those substances are sold to our children as well, who in turn, become addicted to them. And we keep quiet.

The search for accurate data should be combined with active participation in the efforts to fight crime. Statistics and analytical data though they are an indication of some success, also reflect a long journey we still need to travel to ensure that our society is free of the scourge of crime as there is no denying by everybody that crime remains intolerably high and nobody working alone could succeed to eradicate crime.

The formation of street committees is contained in the original M Plan (Mandela Plan). The process of establishing a street committee calls for activism of a small group of people;

• Know your neighbourhood by going door-to-door in the street where you live to discuss incidents of crime in your area and how neighbours can communicate with each other;
• Develop a street action plan, to keep your street safe;
• Get to know members of the other street committees and together work to form a block committee;
• From each block select one representative to form a neighbourhood committee.

Let us revive this old structure of organising to deal with crime in our communities. Together with the police we must be part of crime fighting in our country as people who love peace and stability and as law-abiding citizens who wants to maintain law and order.