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There’s an air of anticipation – tinged with nervousness – in South Africa ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s opening of parliament tomorrow. This session will see a new set of power dynamics at play as the government of national unity tries to find a foothold now that the African National Congress no longer holds a majority of parliamentary seats.
For Hugh Corder the new arrangement offers an opportunity for MPs to hold members of the executive to account. This has not been a strong point of any of the parliaments this century. This resulted in periods in which the executive ran amok, to the detriment of the country. But he’s cautious: the representatives of the new parties might not behave as well as might be expected.
For his part, Francois Venter argues that parliamentarians need first and foremost to acquaint themselves with the country’s 1996 constitution because it’s the country’s greatest asset under the current socioeconomic and political conditions.
Then come questions about policy. What policies should emerge from a cabinet that’s made up of ministers from different parties? On education, Thandi Lewin urges the new minister to focus primarily on three things, including rebuilding the higher education system. When it comes to the environment, Patrick Bond suggests that the new minister needs to put people ahead of profit in the country’s efforts to achieve a just transition from a carbon-intensive economy.
Citizens willingly pay taxes in return for public services such as education and health. That there have been protests against the rising number of taxes in Kenya for two successive years suggests that the unwritten fiscal social contract between the government and the people has broken down. Eric Magale and Mario Schmidt explore ways in which the country can begin to reset these relations.
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