Nothing captures most powerfully the depth of incompetence and the wrong mindsets of the people who run of the City of Johannesburg than this week’s statement by the Office of the Chief Justice — a government department responsible for the management of the judiciary. The office said that the Constitutional Court has had its operations “hampered by water supply challenges” since the beginning of November.
The interruption of the workings of the Constitutional Court because of Johannesburg’s water supply problems adds to the many challenges faced by the courts because of the incompetence of the executive arm of the government.
The state’s doctrine separates the powers of the three branches of the government: the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. Each has separate and clearly defined powers, roles, duties and functions.
But as the Constitutional Court water case illustrates, the incompetence of the executive has been impinging on the workings of the judiciary.
The latest annual report of the Office of the Chief Justice details many other instances in which the executive arm has let the judiciary down. It notes the continued failures by the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) to provide the judiciary with a decent service, a matter that has continued despite the office’s “several escalations to Sita’s MD”. The issue has also come up before the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services, a wing of the legislature.
TANK’S CAPACITY
The workings of the judiciary were also affected by power cuts — euphemistically referred to as load-shedding. Six of the 23 superior courts didn’t have generators during the 2023-24 financial year. In some cases, such as the Supreme Court of Appeal’s, the generators could not “fully supply the court”. Power cuts, the 2023-24 annual report noted, had also affected water reserves. Of the 23 courts, only eight had water tanks.
The office said this week that even though the Constitutional Court has a water tank for ablution facilities, “the City of Johannesburg is unable to refill it promptly on a daily basis” to enable the court to run without interruption. The tank’s capacity can only meet the needs of the court for one working day.
The office said that the management of the Constitutional Court was “in regular contact” with the management of the city and Rand Water, the bulk water supplier to Gauteng municipalities.
The court’s water supplies were also affected by leaks, but these had since been addressed by a plumber — and the office deemed it fit to stress that it was a “professional plumber” — brought in by the departments of public works and justice & constitutional development.
What the Office of the Chief Justice’s statement conveys is simply this: the City of Johannesburg has been unable to guarantee a normal flow of water to the court. The city has also been unable to guarantee the court a daily refill of its water tank.
BECOME OBSTRUCTIVE
The highest court in the land is now experiencing what the residents of the city of gold have been living with for a long time. When there have been water cuts, either because of problems with Rand Water or Johannesburg’s own facilities, the municipality has been unable to guarantee reliable supplies of water to residents.
Johannesburg’s problem goes beyond competence; it is also about mindsets. The people who run Johannesburg — the political heads and the bureaucracy — have become obstructive instead of being “a collective-supportive force”. None of Johannesburg’s failures will be addressed until the mindsets of its political heads and bureaucracy are transformed.
Economist Kaushik Basu makes this point clear when writing about India in his reflections on his time as India’s chief economic adviser in 2009-12. He noted that India’s bureaucracy had become protected from the harsh reality of a dysfunctional India.
“For them it is psychologically very difficult to appreciate what life is like outside. Since I entered the gated community by practically jumping over the wall, the memory of what life in terms of all interaction with government was outside the wall was fresh.”
To illustrate how “living in the ivory tower distorted thinking”, Basu quoted the reaction of the bureaucracy to a discussion in 2010 about deregulating petrol and diesel prices.
“The policymakers spoke angrily about how the rich corporate honchos freely drove around their large sports utility vehicles using subsidised petrol and diesel which the government provided.”
What Indian policymakers missed was they also had free petrol and diesel because they all had a car with a full tank and a driver supplied by the government.
• Sikhakhane, a former spokesperson for the finance minister, National Treasury and SA Reserve Bank, is editor of The Conversation Africa. He writes in his personal capacity.
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