Ideas

This is why control over provincial government is so vital to the ANC

It must give support to things that need government intervention, and stay out of the things that do not

08 December 2020

Reading Time: 9 Minutes

Article Number: 10 / 20

Philip van Ryneveld

While we should not underestimate what has been achieved, it is probably fair to say that local government is not living up to the dreams we had 25 years ago. Yet local government is critical; it is the sphere of government that most affects our everyday lives and is the key to essential services.

The direct origins of SA’s current constitutional structure of decentralisation can be traced back to a discussion document called ANC Regional Policy — compiled by the ANC 28 years ago in preparation for constitutional negotiations. It was distributed across all branches and in November 1992 the ANC held a special national consultative conference where the policy was adopted — one of only two policies officially adopted by the ANC between 1990 and 1996.

It was called “regional policy” because the ANC proposed the second level of government should be called regions. The National Party wanted them to be called states. The term provinces was the compromise agreement...