Rethink needed on inefficient officialdom

FINANCE Minister Trevor Manuel is correct in seeking to prevent a repetition of the situation in which provincial education departments failed to spend R660-million on capital projects in the last financial year, so prolonging the plight of thousands of school children learning under trees or in other unacceptable conditions.

In doing so, Manuel placed his finger very firmly on one of the critical challenges that government has all too often failed to meet – ensuring that there is co-ordination between national departments as well as the three spheres of government in order to expedite delivery on the ground.

It is not a new challenge. Rather, it is one that has surfaced far too often since 1994, specifically as far as housing is concerned, an area of delivery that has been plagued by a lack of co-ordination and other problems relating to the division of responsibilities between provincial and local governments.

In assessing the situation, Manuel also raised the issue of the allocation of functions to the three spheres of government, making the salient point that there was “nothing preordained” about this, and adding that what was of critical importance was that activities should be carried out by that area of government that had the capacity and could do so efficiently.

He is correct and the time is long overdue for a re-examination of the current quasi-federal system, accepted as a compromise at Kempton Park, to assess to what extent it is hindering rather than promoting delivery and whether other institutions, such as the provincial legislatures, should not be scaled down and become part-time bodies.

That has already happened with social development where a national agency has been established to assume responsibility for the social grant function carried out with such limited success up to now by the provinces.

That must just be the start. If the system as it currently exists, is inefficient and has resulted in a bloated and often idle bureaucracy, let’s change it now.

---

Sikali’s death a real tragedy

THE brutal murder at the weekend of top boxer Mzukisi Sikali of Uitenhage at the hands of a gang of thugs who robbed him of his cellphone, again highlighted the need for the criminal justice system to act swiftly and decisively against criminals, especially those who clearly have no regard for the sanctity of human life.

Sikali’s senseless death stressed the need for our communities to step up their own involvement in the fight against crime.

For how much longer must the law-abiding citizens of this country live in fear of their lives because there are cold-blooded people out there who think nothing of killing someone for an item of relatively little value?

In Sikali’s case his bright future as an international boxer was brutally cut short for nothing but a cellphone, one that would probably have been sold within the community for a couple of hundred rand.

It is therefore imperative that the fight against crime be intensified, with the communities at the centre of that struggle.

Those who buy stolen goods are criminals themselves and add to the problem. They too must be made to realise crime does not pay.

So, as we mourn the murder of another one of our bright young stars, let us resolve that Sikali’s death was one too many and unite to regain control of our streets.

This would be a fitting tribute to Sikali whose own bravery in the ring brought him three world titles and fame to our region.