Switching+our+focus+to+the+third+centre+of+power,+Mike+Muller,+B+Day



=Switching our focus to the third centre of power=


 * Mike Muller, Business Day, 22 January 2008**

The debate about two centres of power, political and executive, often misses the third, the technocracy that keeps the economic and social life of the country ticking over.

The power cuts remind us daily of its importance but there is little evidence that the challenge of engaging effectively with it is being addressed — nor that the executive is willing to be held accountable for its failure to do so. If it was, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would resign.

SA’s economy depends on its core infrastructure, both hard (roads, rail, telecoms, electricity and water) and soft (social and institutional infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, the banks, courts and the media).

The technocrats must ensure that this infrastructure keeps working and keeps pace with society. So it is urgent to ask the generic questions that the electricity failures are highlighting. Is the problem going to be replicated in other sectors? When will Gauteng’s water dry up? Durban’s roads clog up? What can the new centre of power learn from the mistakes of the old?

To start, remember that it was the government, the executive, not Eskom, that made the mistakes, as President Thabo Mbeki has belatedly acknowledged. It was the Presidency and the cabinet that ignored Eskom’s warnings, starting at least seven years ago, that power generation capacity was running out.

Fixated by fashionable models of independent regulation and private sector competition for the public sector (remember the REDs?) they snubbed Eskom’s management and stopped them building new generators. The consequence, five years later, is that the lights are going out.

There are some obvious lessons:


 * Government is about strategic decisions and it requires a long-term view. But it is also a practical business, and involves watching trends and respond ing to them.


 * Neither political correctness nor state-of-the-art policy will keep the lights on. This will be true whether the prevailing dominant ideology is rampant privatisation or expanded public ownership.


 * The technocracy may not be an active centre of power, able to lead and control, but it has passive power to set out opportunities and constraints and avoid predictable errors, to achieve success and avoid failure. It also has negative power and can do great damage by simply walking away or keeping quiet.


 * The technocracy needs to be engaged by executive and political centres of power. In successful developmental states, this occurs automatically because senior administrators and technocrats come from the same background, with many economists and engineers in their executives. In SA, there is an acute social divide between the technocrats and the executive.

This is not the black and white issue that is sometimes portrayed. Eskom’s warnings came from Thulani Gcabashe and Reuel Khoza. But many competent technocrats come from backgrounds far removed from the current crop of politicians and senior administrators, whether that is from Model C schools and the University of Cape Town, Zimbabwe or beyond.

Ironically, another technocratic failure has perpetuated this divide for another generation because of the failure to redress apartheid’s educational legacy in the schools and to sustain the role of the state in training young professionals. Too much of the government’s work is being outsourced, often because internal staff are not competent. This may get jobs done in the short term but it denies young professionals the opportunity to learn by doing it themselves, under skilled supervision. Few private sector consultants have the resources — or the motivation — to train the number of professionals required.

Outsourcing leads not to black empowerment but (too often) simply to the further enrichment of the professional classes. Only the intermediary “compradors”, literally the “bought ones”, benefit. This is why a critical function of government employment has long been to create learning pathways for young graduates. But what can now be done?


 * Once the role of the technocracy has been recognised, the government needs to ensure that the third centre of power plays its part effectively.


 * Its importance must be reflected in government practice. Senior appointments should be made by objective bodies, not through the cabinet or at the whim of individual ministers.


 * For the Public Service Commission and the public service and administration department to have the courage to do the job objectively, they may need greater autonomy.


 * Where competent technocrats are in position, their advice needs to be taken seriously. Given the divide between technocracy and the executive, this requires structured ways to engage with the political leadership. Formalising expectations, requiring programmes to achieve clear strategic objectives, — regu-larly — may help.


 * Where there is a failure of communication, the executive should be held accountable. This is why Mlambo-Ngcuka should consider resigning. Not only did she preside over the crisis at the minerals and energy department, but it has fatally undermined her present role in Asgi-SA, whose targets will not be met without electricity.

The new political centre of power has the opportunity to recognise the problems and change the way the state constructs itself. They should explain to the wider community that promoting competence is what we need to do to keep the lights on and the water running.

But they should also emphasise that it is being done to ensure that their children get the opportunity to join the ranks of the professionals. They may even become the technocrats. And, over a generation, as our society normalises, we should be able to establish a more effective relationship among the three centres of power.


 * Muller is visiting adjunct professor at the Wits University Graduate School of Public and Development Management


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A689143**

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