We are racing down the road to a failed state

Of all the ominous pronouncements we’ve heard in the past few months, the one yesterday by Auditor-General (AG) Kimi Makwetu is the most disturbing.

Speaking about the results of an AG’s office audit of the finances of municipalities in the 2018/2019 financial year, he remarked: “The financial statements show increasing indicators of a collapse in local government finances.”

According to the results, the financial health of 79% of the SA’s municipalities was, at best, “concerning” and, at worst, required “urgent intervention”. Just under a third were in a “particularly vulnerable financial position”.

You do not need to be a rocket scientist to discern the causes of this unfolding catastrophe.

It is the result of a generation’s worth of “cadre deployment” by the ruling party. This has seen unqualified, inexperienced and just plain incompetent people placed into key positions of responsibility in municipalities large and small. In some cases, the deployees have replaced experienced civil servants who moved on or out in the name of “transformation”. In other cases, those given jobs by the ANC have simply been added in a systematic bloating of staff complements.

All of this has been done as a reward, largely, for the political loyalty shown by the cadres, which is the primary qualification for deployment.

In addition, some of the deployees have seen the jobs as more than a place to sit and do little while banking a fat salary each month. They have used the opportunity to join in the large-scale looting, which has become commonplace across every sphere of government.

The result is that people do not get clinics, do not get electricity, they do not get water or houses. And then they take their anger out in protests on the streets. Yet every year, nothing gets done.

And, the road to a failed state is littered with burning tyres.

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