Karima Brown and Amy Musgrave
11 September 2008
Johannesburg — THE South African Communist Party (SACP) is proposing a radical revamp of the role of the treasury, which could dilute its authority to keep state spending on a tight rein.
The proposal is expected to be discussed at an economics summit next month, which would bring together the SACP and its allies, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Revamping the roles of the treasury and the Reserve Bank -- both of which the ANC's leftist allies have criticised - is among wide-ranging reforms of key state institutions proposed in a discussion document.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said yesterday that "the treasury has become a central planning department, not confined to finance management". "The proposals seek to change this. The cabinet must determine the developmental agenda of the state, not the treasury," Nzimande said.
In the absence of effective, strategic planning and co-ordination, the treasury was in reality SA's only "super ministry". But as the treasury's mandate was financial management, planning in the state was reduced to compliance with medium-term budget cycles, reducing performance evaluation to measuring the ability of a department to spend a budget.
Nzimande took a swipe at the treasury backing "mega projects" such as the Gautrain, Coega, the arms deal and the pebble-bed modular reactor, which got the lion's share of recent budgetary allocations.
"We are told that we just want to waste money, but these projects are the real waste."
On the mandate of the Reserve Bank, Nzimande said serious consideration should be given to job creation, instead of only managing inflation. Cosatu and the SACP have long criticised the Bank's alleged rigid adherence to its inflation-targeting mandate.
SACP proposals include a two-tier cabinet with a council of state, doing away with provincial governments, splitting ministries such as energy and mineral affairs, and reorganising local government to give more power to district municipalities.
On the council of state, the document says: "Many countries have this kind of two-tier executive structure, including the UK, India, China, New Zealand and Cuba. We should urgently consider the possibility of a similar arrangement. Consideration should be given to a council of state led by the Presidency and comprising additional ministers of state."
"Super ministers" could include finance, economic development, infrastructure, human development, governance, international relations, and crime prevention and justice.
Nzimande said that the council of state should be the key planning, co-ordination and evaluation structure.
"Each minister of state will convene a cluster of line ministries. For example, the human development minister of state would convene the ministers of labour, education, health," the document says.
The future of provinces is also raised. The documents asks if the country needs provincial administrations under various national departments, instead of provincial governments and legislatures.
Nzimande said the SACP wanted discussion on a reconfigured state to be concluded before the elections. Transitional measures the SACP is proposing include an immediate moratorium on all sales of municipal and provincial land and a moratorium on all key appointments in the government and parastatals without the involvement of the ANC and its allies. The party also wants the alliance to deal with hotspots such as Khutsong before the elections.
The party has warned these measures are necessary because there is a danger of "state looting or 11th hour entrenchments of problematic policies or personalities" by those who sense that they will not make it back into the government.
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