A few weeks ago, during what turned out to be his last public address as finance minister, Tito Mboweni delivered one of his famous nuggets of wisdom. When asked about the decision to restore the R350 social disaster relief grant up to end-March 2022, he indicated that the decision had not involved consulting the ANC. Rather, it was taken by the president and the finance ministry.
What was curious about that statement was the long-standing question of the role of the party in influencing the practices of state institutions. Institutions such as the finance ministry and Reserve Bank have occasionally had to explain whether they act as part of the ANC-defined collective or see themselves as autonomous institutions.
Between the two, one is responsible for co-ordinating fiscal policy and the other for co-ordinating monetary policy. The National Treasury is led by politicians, while the Bank is led by bureaucrats. The distinction between the two is that the decision-making protocols at the Treasury are more dominated by political considerations, whereas the decisions of the Bank are primarily influenced by data.
In its preferred governance model, the ANC assembles various subcommittees at the party and parliamentary levels. These provide direction for members of the executive, who are expected to execute the overall ANC policy orientation within their different portfolios. For the Bank and the Treasury, past conflicts have centred on whether the incumbent Bank governor or finance minister was executing ANC policy or simply doing what they thought appropriate at the time. The reason this conflict arose was a simple question: if party policy will not be implemented by the government, what is the point of winning elections in the first place?
The difficulty faced by those leading these institutions was that despite their own political affiliations, decisions made at those institutions are so wide ranging and intersectional that they require the active consideration of multiple stakeholders and interest groups. So while the ANC may put in its policy document the idea of free higher education, implementing agents can only achieve that if the resources are made available. In the absence of resources, such leaders run the risk of being accused of going against ANC policy, or even ignoring it altogether.
Bureaucratic tap-dancing
When that occurs it escalates tensions that are not assisted by the fact that the party is so split along factional lines. In 2017, new finance minister Enoch Godongwana, wearing his hat as chair of the ANC’s economic transformation committee, was given the task of explaining to the nation that the ANC had undertaken resolutions to nationalise the Bank, among others.
These resolutions are the unique domain of ANC delegates who show up at conferences. Once such pronouncements are made, there is an expectation that they will be implemented at government level. However, due to bureaucratic tap-dancing and the rise of the pandemic, the Bank nationalisation conversation has managed to remain at resolution stage and is nowhere near implementation.
Whether this is good news for SA depends on whether one believes government credibility relies on its ability to implement whatever announcements the governing party makes, or one finds comfort in having a party and government that make pronouncements and then promptly forget about them.
For Mboweni, his occasional resistance against party directives about bailout and public servant wages was underpinned by a cogent articulation regarding the lack of affordability. Godongwana — the man who would have crafted many of the resolutions that eventually died within the methodical bureaucracy of the Treasury — now needs to figure out which hat he will be wearing for the remainder of his term.
For as long as ANC policy resolutions conflict with reality and resources, his will be a rather difficult job.
• Sithole (@coruscakhaya) is an accountant, academic and activist.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.