The ruling party has big plans for the provinces…

Recently, the ANC released a wad of discussion documents that will lead the various policy discussions at its upcoming National Electoral Conference this year. One of them outlines a startling plan to reshuffle and re-organise South Africa’s provinces to “ensure more functionality, economic viability and racial/ethnic integration”. So what exactly does that mean?

It’s become patently clear to many, no less the party in power, that there are weaknesses embedded in the provincial governance system as it is now, but at the same time, it would be costly and unfeasible to abolish the provinces altogether, as has been suggested in some quarters.

Only lately has the media been full of reports of the dire economic and political situations in at least four of our nine provinces, where budget overruns clash with underspends, and financial mismanagement and political mis-administration have left several departments in a handful of provinces desperate for bailouts from central government.

The ANC discussion paper in question identifies that the problems plaguing the provinces are not “structural” but “functional”, which points at the level of autonomy and authority that provinces and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament wield over the populations inside their borders, distinct from the authority of central government and the State.

The documents outlines their plan thus;

The ANC government must reform, rationalize and strengthen provinces. This must ensure the following;

• That we have fewer provinces which are functional, effective, economically sustainable, integrate communities on non-racial basisand do away with ethnic boundaries.
• That the powers and functions of the provincial sphere of government be strengthened to ensure more functionality, economic viability andracial/ethnic integration.
• The role of provincial legislatures be refocused, and mechanism to strengthen legislatures be developed.
• Consideration of municipal representation in legislatures to strengthen participatory democracy and representation.
• The roles and responsibilities of provinces to be legislated so as to remove any uncertainty and disputes. This is especially necessary since the district level of government is to be reviewed.

The National Council of Provinces sits alongside the National Assembly in our Parliament in Cape Town

On the one hand, it is interesting to see the party even suggest such a drastic action as reshuffling the authorities and governance structures of the provinces in pursuit of such healthy goals. To do so would require an amendment of the Constitution as regards the powers and structures of our nine provinces, which not only needs ratification of the proposed changes by the National Assembly and the NCOP, but also by all the respective provincial legislatures.

But the proposed ratification faces a major challenge in the form of the DA-led Western Cape legislature, which is unlikely to simply bend to amendments which would dilute the current powers it maintains distinct from Pretoria. Pierre De Vos, in his legal blog, Constitutionally Speaking, makes it clear that to execute its provincial reshuffle, the ANC has three options:

1. Find a common solution with other parties present. In fact this is clearly suggested in the document, where the ANC makes it clear that the process to reshuffle the provinces would involve all relevant stakeholders, including opponent parties;
2. Wait out the DA’s governance of the province, and/or take back the leadership of the province by election. This seems unlikely given the strong case the DA has made for its incumbency through service delivery and development of provincial infrastructure;
3. Amend the provision in the Constitution that requires provincial legislatures from all nine provinces to ratify the amendments, with the National Assembly and the NCOP. A drastic move, but one within the ANC’s power if they can wangle back their tw0-thirds majority in Parliament by coalitions with smaller parties or winning the seats back at the next election.

In the end, none of these changes are very likely before the next national election, and all of them are heavily dependent on the outcomes of the discussions and elections at the ANC NEC this year. Nonetheless, it’s a startline piece of planning from the ruling party, and one the opposition parties, and certainly the provincial legislatures which face amendments of their powers, or loss of them completely should their province be dissolved, will be taking very seriously.

[Source: Constitutionally Speaking, ANC Website]