Bee: Helping or Hurting?. Anthea Jeffery
systems with this poor level of performance had doubled since 2009. Overall, 143 waste systems (17% of the total) were performing poorly, while 317 (39%) were in a critical condition.86
In 2013 the Democratic Alliance reported that 26 Free State towns, including Bloemfontein, the seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal, were without running water or had constant supply interruptions. In August 2013 all water was cut off for two weeks from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, almost compelling Rhodes University to close. During the year, there were also persistent water shortages in Kimberley (Northern Cape), Krugersdorp (Gauteng), Rustenburg and Potchefstroom (both in North West), and parts of Mpumalanga. In Mothutlung (North West) water supplies failed over the December 2013 holiday period, when a poorly maintained pump broke down and two badly neglected back-ups could not be made to work. This breakdown in supply, coming on top of previous disruptions, fuelled violent protests in February 2014 in which four people died. Breakdowns in water and sanitation services have often also played a part in sparking the approximately 500 public demonstrations (20% of them violent) that took place in a host of towns in the first two months of 2014.87
Underpinning these breakdowns in water supply are both failing municipal capacity and a shortage of skills at the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. At the municipal level, only one engineer remains out of every seven employed by local authorities in the 1980s. As City Press reports, this exodus has largely been fuelled by ‘frustration and disillusionment among municipal engineers over political appointments in management positions with supervision over technical functions’.
The water affairs department itself is also chronically short of engineering skills. In May 2013 only 78 out of 280 civil engineering posts were filled, while only seven out of some 50 senior managers had engineering qualifications. The skills crisis was also set to worsen, as half of the most senior engineers were due to retire in the next five years and it would be difficult to replace them. In addition, fewer and fewer technicians were being trained, so water pipes were not being maintained and leakages had increased to the point where small municipalities were losing around 73% of the water they pumped.88
In 2011 the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) highlighted the poor quality of sanitation across the country. It gave sanitation in major urban areas a rating of C minus and commented that ‘waste-water leakage and spillage into major rivers was still too high’. Sanitation infrastructure in all other areas was given a rating of E minus or ‘unfit for purpose’. This rating meant that infrastructure in these areas ‘had failed or was on the brink of failure, exposing the public to health and safety hazards’. In 2014 SAICE added that the lack of water infrastructure maintenance was now ‘leading to people dying’.89
Combating crime
South Africa’s murder rate has halved since 1994, partly because of a sharp decline in political killings since the transition. It nevertheless remains very high, at 31 per 100 000 people in 2012/13, which is twice the average of 17 per 100 000 for Africa as a whole at this time. Moreover, though the budget for police services has increased from R6 billion in 1994 to R67 billion in 2014 (a rise of more than 1 000%), conviction rates as a proportion of reported crimes have remained low, at around 14%.90
Many factors have contributed to the ineffectiveness of policing since 1994. These include the ANC’s downgrading of the detective service, which prompted a spate of resignations and left the police short of some 30 000 detectives. Further damage has resulted from the repeated restructuring or disbanding of specialist police units, along with a persistent failure to counter growing corruption and criminality within police ranks.91 However, affirmative action has also played a major part in declining police efficiency.
When the ANC came to power, one of its key goals was to make the police more racially representative, especially at senior levels where whites predominated. Experienced white policemen were thus encouraged to resign, while black policemen, some of whom had little practical expertise, were leapfrogged up the command chain. In addition, though the first national police commissioner appointed by the ANC government was George Fivaz, an experienced police officer, each person since appointed to this key post (Jackie Selebi, Bheki Cele, and now Riah Phiyega) has been parachuted into the SAPS without policing expertise or operational know-how. These individuals seem to have been appointed for their political loyalties rather than their competence in fighting crime, which has undermined efficiency and morale still more.92
In 2007 a previous minister of police, Charles Nqakula, was forced to acknowledge that ‘many policemen were not up to the job’ and that police management at station level was particularly inadequate. In the same year, he admitted that about a hundred station managers would have to be replaced. However, Johan Burger, senior crime analyst at the Institute of Security Studies, warned that the problem was in fact far worse, saying: ‘Most of the country’s police stations are headed by inexperienced and inadequately trained police officers, most of whom have been employed simply to reach national equity targets.’93
Burger also cautions that murder (and other) crime rates that have dropped are likely to start rising again unless police efficiency improves. ‘Criminals have a poor perception of the police,’ he says. ‘They see the police as inept (unable to shoot straight) and corrupt (willing to make dockets “disappear”), and know they lack experienced investigators and a strong, independent, national operational commander.’ In addition, skills shortages at forensic laboratories have grown worse, delaying the completion of DNA and toxicology tests for up to five years in many instances.94
In 2014 Gareth Newham of the Institute of Security Studies commented that political interference in the SAPS had stymied its ability to achieve what its substantial budget ought to have made possible. Too many inappropriate and irregular senior police appointments had been made over the years. Added Newham: ‘The damage that disgraced former national commissioners Jackie Selebi [convicted of corruption] and Bheki Cele [dismissed for corruption] and crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli [soon to face charges of fraud and other crimes] caused during their tenures cannot be underestimated. This not only undermined the ability of the SAPS to promote a professional policing ethos, but substantially weakened systems for internal accountability.’ 95
Government denials
The government generally denies that affirmative action has undermined public sector capacity or that any public servants have been displaced to make way for ‘equity’ appointees. But in February 2007 a senior ANC provincial office-bearer in the Western Cape, Marius Fransman, broke ranks by warning that the skills shortage was undermining administration. He proposed a three-year moratorium on affirmative action as this would make it possible to ‘appoint white scarce skills’.96
However, this suggestion was quickly rejected by Manuel, then finance minister, who said: ‘The Employment Equity Act is there. In its practice it is frequently very poorly used. It is sadly abused but it is there and the intent of the Act is abundantly clear.’ The then minister of labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, added: ‘Affirmative action and employment equity legislation will never be repealed but will be intensified instead.’97 The government’s determination to intensify affirmative action is now reflected in recent amendments to the Employment Equity Act, as described in due course.
In the interim, the National Development Plan (NDP) – supposedly the country’s policy blueprint from now until 2030 – has put great emphasis on the need to overcome skills shortages in the public service and build ‘a capable developmental state’. Manuel, who chaired the commission that produced the NDP, has also repeatedly stressed the need for increased state capacity. In 2012 he said: ‘Talking about a developmental state makes no sense if it is incapable of delivery to its citizens – you first have to build a “capable state” staffed by competent people.’ In 2013 he returned to this theme, warning that none of the NDP proposals to boost growth and jobs would succeed if the public service continued to ‘misfire’. Added Manuel: ‘So the clarion call is: let us fix the engine room.’ Implementation of the NDP would critically depend on ‘fixing the machinery of the state, so that it delivers efficiently’.98
Manuel’s emphasis on the need to ‘fix the engine room’ is significant. However, little can be achieved for as long as the ANC remains committed to cadre deployment and racial quotas unrelated to the