The African National Congress (ANC)

The ANC has ruled South Africa ever since the end of the Apartheid era in 1994. The ANC has a tripartite alliance with the South African Communist Party and The Congress of South African Trade Unions, however each alliance partner is an independent organization with its own constitution, membership and programs. In the 2009 election ANC won the elections again with a majority of 65.9% of the votes. It is considered the left-wing political party and had John Dube as its first President. The ANC was formed on January 8, 1912 to fight against the racial discrimination by the whites against black South Africans. In 1961 the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military arm of the ANC was formed. The ANC resorted to violence against the government, after protesting in vain for peace. The main goals of the ANC, as listed on their website are: meeting basic needs, developing human resource, building the economy and democratizing the state and society.

Today, even though the ANC played a huge role in bringing racial equality to South Africans, they have been criticized for having corrupt members who pay bribes to big companies, taking kick-backs and giving out lucrative contracts to family members, relatives and friends. It is believed that about 17 ANC candidates vying for office in 1999 were either convicted criminals, standing trial or appeal. 

In order for SA to move forward, fight crime and to improve their economy, the government needs to first deal with its fair share of bribery and corruption. This is needed to be able to effectively govern and serve as positive role models to the SA people.

Decentralization of Authority and Policies

The unemployment rate in SA is between 24% and 44% leading to a wide spread of unemployment. Most of the unemployed citizens living in this neo-liberal State are able and strong youth between the ages of 15 and 24. Because, there are no job opportunities for these young people to channel their energies towards, they turn to crime and other forms of social vices to make ends meet. They realise that the goverment more or less exists to better only themselves and not the good of society.

However, Glenn Ashton, a writer and researcher working with the South African Civil Society Information Services in Johannesburg shared an excellent idea on ways to curb the problem of unemployment in SA. His states in his article, "Perhaps the answer is to turn things on their heads and look at creating jobs from bottom up, trickle up instead of trickle down". He gives an example in the Guateng area, where the "Pothole Brigade" project took place. This project was sponsored by both government and insurance companies. It was instituted to give more jobs to the local people and it succeeded in employing three different groups to repair thousands of potholes in roads with simple technology, which in turn reduced insurance premiums, facilitated travel and gave these locals job experience which may increase their chances of getting jobs, instead of turning towards crime. 

Ashton shares the view that there needs to be "a local framework for sustainable, mandated sub-agencies". This would distribute responsibilities to other local agencies to get work done quicker, more efficiently and it is cheaper to regulate the process of projects with this method. Decentralization would make problems such illegal dumping of rubbish, water problems, illegal signage, illegal stray animals and many others easily regualted and more effective in punishing offenders. The federal government can focus on more pressing needs and leave the less pressing and localized problems to local authorities and NGOs who may have better control of the problems and the people.

This solution would challenge the status quo and distribute power to the local governments and people, which is largely concentrated in the hands of the federal government and the rich few. Decentralization may also help the problems of inadequate service delivery, which I blogged about last week and which has sparked many protest in the last few months. It may be the best way to give the locals more authority and have their voices heard, so as to encourage patriotism and faith in governmental institutions.

Protests in SA

There seems to be an outbreak of protests all over the world and especially in Africa. Since 2004 SA has seen its fair share of protests against the quality of service delivery of the governments. It is intersting that the poor have found their voice and are calling atention to their situation rather than simply sitting back and doing nothing, but complaining.


The protestors, who are mainly groups of minors and youths are calling on the government to improve the provision of basic services and the local governments response to residents' complaints. These protestors are dissatified with the poor housing, roads, illegal dumping and water problems. Some of the protests turned violent and had to be controlled by the police. It has been reported that some locals took advantage of the protests, looted shops and damaged public property. 88 people have been arrested for public violence, but the protests have been calmed and many of them have returned to normal life. There was only one casuality reported, which was an injured cop who was hit in the head with a stone.

Also, recently thousands of students in Pretoria protested to have free tertiary education (university and higher education). Earlier they protested to have an increase in financial aid, however, their demands went unheard, so they have now resorted to protesting for free tertiary education.

In my opinion, protests are a good thing and a very smart way for minority groups who never get attention from people in power to finally get their voices heard. The only dangerous aspect is that you never know when a protest might turn violent! I hope that the SA government would pay as much attention to the needs of the local people as they would otherwise pay to those in power.