One of the critical roles of opposition parties is to continuously interrogate the wisdom of the decisions made by those in government. Keeping incumbents in check serves the dual purpose of casting an eye on the management of public resources, while also indicating how things could be done better.
Over the past three decades, as the ANC ruled in parliament, opposition parties criticised its patterns and excesses, and in some cases were able to aid in reining in some of the more ambitious ideas.
At the same time, when deliberating on public resources that would benefit political parties — especially the bigger ones — like the funding of political parties, consensus was found and distinguishing between the government of the day and its opposition became difficult.
In relation to the management of public resources under difficult circumstances, opposition parties such as the DA went to great lengths to explain why we needed to tighten the purse strings. The motivation was clear enough — since everyone understood that we were constrained, everything had to be squeezed to balance the books.
VIP security costs were one such issue because they represented so many political talking points. The first would be on the need to secure politicians in the first place, which could always be explained away by the security risk profile of certain politicians. To some people, the idea of protecting those in power using public resources while citizens labour under a scourge of crime, seems problematic.
The secondary issue focused on the nature of protection advanced to them, which includes cars and bodyguards that always seemed to be on the higher end of the cost scale. The usual defence — that a handbook allows it — left many a bitter taste when opposition parties said the money could be redirected to more basic services aimed at serving citizens.
In relation to the cost-cutting drives, it didn’t need political parties to promote this since the paucity of resources meant the National Treasury was implementing it anyway, through creative means such as directives and recommendations for some public servants to retire early.
As the opposition party that held the loudest voice, the DA led the gospel of how public resources should be managed differently. And then it got into front-line government after President Cyril Ramaphosa cobbled together a coalition of the ideologically irreconcilable parties that make up the unity government.
For those who still take politicians at their word, the expectation was that once those who have been leading the call for leaner and cheaper government were in the government themselves, they would then lead the charge within the portfolios they were allocated. But remarkably, the opposite materialised.
At the department of basic education, Siviwe Gwarube is lamenting the lack of resources that are undermining the department’s ability to carry out its mandate. At home affairs, Leon Schreiber has also asked for more resources to digitise systems and make the country’s access points safer.
These calls to the Treasury for additional resources represent an acknowledgment that rooftop calls for austerity have particular consequences.
In Johannesburg, politicians took the view that some of their number needed extra security, and only the courts eventually reminded them of the need to balance security risks with fiscal discipline.
But perhaps the most glaring exhibition of the duplicity of political players relates to agriculture minister John Steenhuisen’s newfound embrace of everything he once loathed. While cadre deployment was a sin from the opposition benches, Steenhuisen imposed an immovable object in his office that he now does not even know how to dismiss.
When blue lights and VIP cars were unavailable to him, they were an unnecessary vanity. These days we learn that his fleet has such perks. This all serves as a reminder that we should not measure politicians like Steenhuisen on the strengths of their rhetoric, but rather on the weaknesses they exhibit once granted access to public resources.
• Sithole is an accountant, academic and activist.
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