Towards Socialist Perspectives on Local Government Transformation – A Short Introduction

1: The SACP 10th Congress Programme is a clear organisational and political mandate to
engage with, and respond to, local government transformation.

2: In order to gain a clear understanding of how we should approach the strategic
vision for local government transformation and delivery of basic services, we need to
remind ourselves of the SACP’s own strategic mandate in this area.

3: According to the SACP 10th Congress Programme of the SACP, we are to struggle for a
"national democratic developmental state that fosters and embodies people’s
power" (page.47). Furthermore, such a state "requires ongoing transformation
(that can) self-consciously empower popular forces capable of propelling this
transformation" (page.49). The SACP Programme further calls for the public sector to
be "defended and extended" so that the "state is able to set an active
social and economic agenda" in which "all ideologically-driven attempts to
privatise public sector enterprises and resources" must be opposed. For the SACP, the
"critical question is the strategic use of public resources for ongoing
transformation of power relations" (page.50).

4: More specifically, the SACP Programme states that "we must guard against narrow
managerialist and technicist approaches to governance". According to the Programme
(pg.51), this kind of approach engenders the following:

• "the disaggregation of public sector structures into quasi-autonomous agencies, in
  particular the separation of commercial from non-commercial functions, and policy from
  delivery and regulatory functions"
• "a focus on monetary incentives in the public sector, rather than on other
  incentives"
• "a stress on cost-cutting, credit control, efficiency and ‘value for taxpayers
  money’"

5: The SACP Programme goes on to state (pg.51) that this "new public management
approach often reproduces inequalities" such as:

• "compelling front-line managers and workers to meet performance targets that have
  been set by senior management, rather than allowing them the space to respond to and
  negotiate the actual needs of each local context"
• "the reduction of public managers to narrowly focused agents of ‘delivery
  outcomes’", that make "this approach incapable of building up a public
  service that can respond to the great challenges of our country"
• "undermining the ability to sustain a unifying political vision and agenda"
  which allows the public sector "to be driven not by political transformational
  values, but by fiscal targets – political vision is displaced by macro-economics, and
  cadres by accountants"

6: The SACP Programme calls for a socialist approach that is informed by
"socialist values, socialist analysis and socialist organisation", that are
"critical, not just for the future, but for the success of the struggles of the
present" (pg.69)

7: The SACP Programme (pgs. 70-72) concretely outlines the content of a socialist
approach to governance at all levels by highlighting the following:

• the need to struggle for "socialisation of the pre-dominant part of the
  economy", that "shifts the emphasis away from a simplistic concentration only on
  the legal forms of ownership, towards emphasising the real empowerment of working
  people". This includes "a predominant and varied public sector, with enterprises
  owned and managed by ... provincial and municipal authorities, increasing workers` power
  over decisions around the allocation of social surplus" (e.g. budgetary priorities)
  and engendering a "significant and growing co-operative sector"
• the "decommodification of basic needs" (health care, transport, housing,
  water, electricity, culture etc.) that is in direct opposition to the "overbearing
  supremacy of the market which seeks to turn everything into a commodity, and all of us
  into simple buyers and sellers"
• the "socialising of the ownership function" through building "a strong
  public sector ... an extensive co-operative sector ... and more effective strategic
  control over social capital (like pension and provident funds)"
• the "socialising of the management function" through "ensuring that we
  develop a public sector managerial ethos that is attuned to our political and
  developmental agenda"

8: The political and organisational message of the SACP Programme is quite clear -
"the working class must dare to become the hegemonic class force in our society...
must dare to assume power, to engage with, and transform and hegemonise the state"
(pg.18).

QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE

• How do we translate the above vision at a local level?
• Have recent developments in local government transformation with our vision of a
  national democratic transformation?
• What have been the experiences of public-private partnerships? What are the dangers?
  Have developmental objectives remained the driving force of these PPPs? Are there other
  alternatives we can argue for? Refer to the draft resolution on Municipal Service
  Partnerships?
• Do we not need an audit of local government transformation and restructuring across the
  country?
• What are lessons to be learnt from the iGoli 2002 project and fallout?
• How do we ensure effective management of cities and towns with popular participation?
• How do we ensure financial effectiveness without losing the developmental agenda? What
  is the relation between this and the level of local government financing? Where should
  local government draw its financial resources? What are the appropriate tools for
  developmental financing of local government?
• Demarcations – how do we use these to deepen developmental and transformation?
• Problems of councilors – how do we ensure that councilors remain accountable to the
  movement and the people? What is the role of skills training and sufficient resources in
  this?