In my past instalments, I deliberately avoided dealing with current pressing water and electricity crisis with the hope that those in charge of our republic will come out and provide light on what is slowly but surely a disaster waiting to happen. I have been wrong. There are couple of explanations as to why I have finally decided to dwell on this matter instead of waiting for authorities to make pronouncement, if ever they will do so. First, I have come to terms with my own shortcomings. I am a reactive individual, who gives others an opportunity to prove themselves but at after they mess. Second and related to the above, Batswana are generally a patient lot. They hate anything resembling war. This might explain why they opted for the heat and dry Kalahari when others chose coastal areas: they don’t want anything to do with conflict. Thus, the drive to focus on water and power crisis are both personal and at societal levels. We are transforming to become more active citizens who are becoming much proactive and probing in terms of how public affairs should be conducted. This is democracy in action and we should not be apologetic in seeking those in charge to account.
This instalment, therefore, seeks to understand how we found ourselves in the current predicament where the public sector is almost paralysed in terms of service delivery. The focus though will be more on what needs to be done to resolve this crisis. I need to point from the onset that I am neither an expert nor a practitioner on water or power issues. But my little understanding of public management should come handy towards addressing the issue under discussion.
In 2005 the World Bank would finally come to terms with the fact that its flagship reform agenda that consumed much of the globe over the past two or three decades failed to achieve their goals in a document entitled, “World Bank’s Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform.” Economist, Dani Rodrik sums up the motive of reform as, “…take the state out of business, give markets free rein. “Stabilize, privatize, and liberalize” became the mantra of a generation of technocrats who cut their teeth in the developing world and of the political leaders they counselled.” This was a policy choice debate that would see many developing countries following on footsteps of much advanced economies that emphasised the centrality of the market rather than the public sector in economic development.
We were not sparred of the new mantra. Those who were around in the 1990s would recall well how suddenly the public sector became a target of all sorts of complaints about its effectiveness and efficiency in provision of social services. And by early 2000s government have actually bought into that idea leading to a release of white paper on privatisation. The private sector was now to be the leading engine of growth. And service provision was modelled around the market principles.
There was nothing wrong with adoption of new reforms. Our public sector was too big and occupied the most crucial space in our economy. It was dominant. But I am also aware of the fact that the private sector was almost non-existent over that period. It needed space to grow. And that was granted. Overnight the thinking in government enclave shifted and anything deemed excess was offloaded to the private sector. If the private sector was not yet able to undertake new responsibilities, quasi-private arrangement was preferred with citizens, now called customers, charged for services provided. As a country, therefore, we bought into the new thinking that privatisation would solve challenges as far as service delivery was concerned. We were dead wrong!
In practise, the new dispensation has created more problems than solutions. And the current water and power challenges are illustration of the failure of that thinking where government would shift responsibility to other actors. Our predicament fit perfectly with what has happened elsewhere. The market has done little in terms of improving service delivery. Instead, accountability has suffered greatly. Corruption has become the new way of life, especially by those in charge of our government.
How did we arrive here? Yes we bought into the new global ideology that uncritically endorsed markets with no consideration of differences in contexts. We arrived at this point precisely because we bashed bureaucracy ÔÇô a professional one which has succeeded in enhancing development efforts of this country. Overnight civil servants were deemed useless. In their place politicians have come to dominate in terms of policy orientation including implementation of mega projects in our economy. Unfortunately, greed ÔÇô that skill evident in many African politicians has come to dominate the way our principals conduct public affairs. They want to “eat.” And, indeed, they are eating. Sadly, citizens are paying the price for reckless decision making seeking bold leap towards the market by their political principals, with the sole intention of enriching themselves.
What then needs to be done? We have to go back to basics and accept that the public sector plays a key role in the development trajectory of our country. Merit, in particular, has to be brought back in the way we appoint senior managers in government. We also need to acknowledge that the private sector, as is the case elsewhere, is not always the best provider of public services. And a private sector that looks up to government for tenders is somehow a questionable one! Therefore we should acknowledge that the public sector in partnership with private sector can lift us from the current crisis. Citizens should also make it a case to seek accountability from their leaders, for instance, through peaceful demonstrations. Obviously, we heard out leaders responding following UDC match last week against water and power shortages. Otherwise if we are to remain patient nothing concrete will ever materialise in terms of improvement in lived lives of many of our people.
*Dr Molefhe teaches Public Administration at the University of Botswana
