By Patrick Kulati

There is a huge outcry in South Africa for the government to listen and take the voice of civil society and the public seriously.

I remember in the mid to late 1990s when the government embarked on a Consultative National Environmental Policy Process.

It gave birth to the National Environmental Management Act through a process that was truly consultative and participative. Now, it seems that it is the thing of the past, despite the fact that the constitutional pillars are still firmly entrenched in our constitution. Government seemingly disregards the views of its people.

Recently, Jody Kollapen, the Chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, was reported by the media as lamenting the fact that government does not engage with its citizens. Kollapen highlighted the Khutsong community uprising as an example, where he said government acted as if nothing was happening and ignored the people.

On 5 March 2008, the Cape Times carried an article written by Jan Hofmeyr and Alleyne Smith titled, “Citizens’ voices must be listened to”. They pointed out that government’s attitude towards the public and even parliament is forceful and unaccountable. They highlighted the example of Charles Nqakula who presented the issue of the dissolution of the Scorpions as a fait accompli. They stated that, “At present, public opinion on government’s commitment to transparency and accountability measures is not favourable”. They also pointed out that a survey conducted by Markinor for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation ‘has shown that positive perception of government transparency and accountability has plunged from 67% to 39% between April 2006 and April 2007’. The situation is getting worse, and the government seems to be ignoring the advice from constitutional watchdogs, the media and the public.

It seems that parliament is also waking up from its stupor and Members of Parliament (MPs) are now taking the government head-on and recognising the role of civil society. An article featured in the Business Day of 5 March 2008 reported that, “There is a renewed vigour among MPs in exercising their oversight role over the executive.” The article purported that MPs feel that government, “Would talk and talk and talk and do nothing,” with specific reference to farm evictions. It highlighted a very important point raised by MP Patekile Holomisa when he thanked Nkunzi Development Association, a NGO dealing with land issues, saying that, “You are giving us information that our own department should be giving us”. This is a welcome recognition of the role played by civil society organisations.

In May 2007, the Public Services Commission (PSC) published its 2007 Report on the State of the Public Service in South Africa. In his foreword to the report, the Chairman of the PSC, Prof Sangweni wrote, “As a key implementation tool for the state, the Public Service is central to improving the standard and quality of life of South Africans”. According to the PSC press release at the time, the report, ‘looks at each of the nine Constitutional principles and values of public administration and then assesses how the Public Service has adhered to it in a manner that contributes to growth and development’.

One of the constitutional principles says that people’s needs must be responded to and the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making. After checking out the departments, the PSC found that, “There are pockets of good practice in the Public Service that promote citizen engagement” However, they added that, “More still needs to be done to heighten the level and quality of participatory governance”.

It further stated that the, “Findings indicate that the Public Service needs to do more to improve the scope and quality of participation by citizens in its work. The execution of participatory models requires a particular set of skills from public servants, such as the ability to negotiate, understand community dynamics and work with, rather than work for, communities. This would require the reorientation and re-skilling of public servants to address the challenges posed by working in such a context”.

The report further stated that government cannot single-handedly achieve and sustain growth and development. This has to be a collective effort involving different sections of the population, who, guided by the Proudly South African spirit, work towards a common goal. This means that for people to actively participate, they need to sense and believe that they are taken seriously.

I am highlighting these issues because they are profoundly and immensely critical for our democracy to work for the poor people.

One of the aspects most neglected by government is household energy safety. The safety needs of the poor energy users continue to be ignored and marginalised by the government. For our energy system to work in our country, government, and in this case, the Department of Minerals and Energy, must take the voices and contributions of South Africans seriously. They do not respond to most correspondence sent to them.  In September 2007, a National Household Energy Safety Summit was held, where the victims and survivors of energy-related injuries, as well as other consumers of energy met, deliberated on their experiences and handed a declaration of demands to a DME representative. Even though the DME publicly committed itself to respond to the declaration, until now we have not receive a single response. They simply ignore all correspondence on this issue.

As stated above, one of the constitutional principles says that people’s needs must be responded to and the public must be encouraged to participate in policy making. The action or lack thereof by DME is a complete denigration of this principle. They have been promising a variety of things, including that they will produce a paraffin safety policy, a Household Energy Safety Strategy, a joint Awareness Raising Programme on Household Energy Safety and that they will communicate with us. Until now, none of the above has happened.

The democratic and developmental state context imposes on our government functionaries’ a willingness to honour their promises, to respond to people’s correspondences even if they disagree with them, to treat civil society with respect and to take their, the people’s, mandates seriously. The people of South Africa have given DME a mandate to look after our energy needs and resources and stay in contact with civil society in the meantime.

Unfortunately, men, women and children in resource-poor settlements of our country continue to suffer due to household energy-related incidents because no comprehensive policy framework on household energy safety exists.

Patrick Kulati is the Managing Director of the Paraffin Safety Association Southern Africa.

Picture courtesy of Paraffin Safety Association of Southern Africa