By DESTINE NDE
AS EARLY AS the 1990s, analysts began to observe that voter turnout almost everywhere was falling, party membership was declining, and ‘politicians were rated below parking wardens as worthy of respect’. The main reason for this tragic state of affairs was poor — or non-existent — service delivery.
After rigorous investigations, political analysts and social scientists concluded that service delivery was at the very heart of politics: wherever services are delivered regularly, politics become serious and thrive; and the better the services rendered, the more interested the people become in politics, treat it as something serious and important, and regard politicians as worthy of everyone’s respect. Let us take a minute to understand how vital the issue of service delivery is to the world of politics as a whole.
Politics are mainly about who has power or influence over others, and why particular people exercise such power or influence over others. After all the outer garments, the superficial layers, and the pretensions and clever rhetoric of expediency have been removed, what remains at the bottom of politics is a simple transaction, which comes down to this:
‘We (the people) give you (the leaders) power, and you (the leaders) deliver basic services to us (the people) in return. To put it bluntly: the people willingly surrender their power to the leaders, and the leaders render vital services to the people. Power in exchange for services: it’s as simple as that! These power dynamics are the foundation of all stable human societies, from ancient family units all the way up to modern states. This is why we are political beings by nature.’
As such, there can be no such thing as politics without service delivery, any more than there can be parents without the roles of providing, protecting and nurturing. The one without the other is only as possible as an effect without a cause. Anything otherwise is cheating, daylight robbery, blatant and large-scale deception.
Or how would you describe a situation where, say, you give R10 to the shopkeeper and ask him to give you a loaf of good bread, but he takes your money and gives you bad bread, or no bread at all? This is why any deviation from this simple give-and-take transaction is bound to lead away from politics and toward bloody revolutions, pernicious dictatorships, menacing despotisms, undesired patriarchies, unbearable authoritarian regimes, and suchlike.
Because in such unhappy cases, power is not freely handed over to the leaders by the people, but is seized, taken from them by force, and retained by means of fear, and often by incapacitating the people with regular doses of shocking violence.
Indeed, all the above can be compressed into three simple statements: when service delivery is bad, politics as whole are bad. When service delivery is good, politics as a whole are good. And when there is no service delivery at all, there are no politics either, in the exact meaning of the word.
Mr Willem Safers, mayor of the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality,
Cognisant of all the above, Willem Safers, mayor of the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality, one of seven local municipalities in the Sarah Baartman District in the Eastern Cape, is not only committed to serving the people in his municipality, but to go one step further by taking the services to the people, rather than ‘waiting for the people to come to us’. He calls this initiative, which has been endorsed by the district mayor and the provincial premier, Services On Wheels.
On Friday 27 September, a range of basic government services were literally loaded up on wheels and delivered to the people of Willowmore, a Klein Karoo town in the aforementioned local municipality. The same had already happened in Aberdeen on Thursday 26 September, and was due to happen in Nieu-Bethesda on Thursday 10 October.
Ditto Jansenville, Klipplaat, Steytlerville, Graaf-Reinet, Rietbron, and the Baviaans Kloof, all towns falling in the Beyers Naude’ municipality. According to Mr Safers, this initiative began in 2023, and more towns will be visited every quarter.
Under the mayor’s direct supervision, officials from Home Affairs were busy handing out ID cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, and much else besides. The Department of Social Development was there, pushing its youth development agenda and its campaign against the abuse of drugs, without forgetting to sensitise the people about its wonderful Victim Empowerment Programme.
SASSA was there as well, listening to the economic predicaments of people and helping them to fill in the appropriate forms and apply for the corresponding social grants. The Department of Health, too, was present. They were busy testing people for common and fatal illnesses like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs, cancer of various types, and diabetes. They were also running pregnancy tests and doing prenatal inspections on women. Even some of the sick were attended to, and some basic treatments and medications were given to them.
The Department of Agriculture was receiving applications for seeds, medication, general farm supplies and basic farming tools from small and medium-scale farmers. They were also advising these farmers and instructing them on modern, affordable, smart, and more effective techniques of farming.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) was not absent either. The officials of this department were helping people to resolve their tax-related problems, and to apply for tax numbers.
Even the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) was present, trying to enlighten the people on the importance of voting — to make them understand that it is the safest and most effective way to make their voices heard, and to persuade them to register and actually vote in all subsequent elections. The people of Willowmore, in short, enjoyed a wide variety of vital and excellent services on this day.
/////////////////////////////////////////
Besides all of this, Willowmore’s water supply system is being upgraded. This is known as the One Hope Pipeline. ‘It is worth billions of rands in terms of cost,’ said the mayor in an interview. ‘It has been in progress for two to three years now, and hopefully it will be completed early next year.’
Besides the pipeline, three boreholes are being drilled, and new toilets are being installed that will use far less water.
As regards electricity, the municipality has embarked on an ambitious Green Energy Project, involving the installation of solar panels, batteries and smart meters. ‘This is a huge project!’ exclaimed Mr Safers excitedly. ‘We are going to take it to all the towns, to all the clinics and to all the schools.’ The programme was launched in Graaf-Rreinet on Monday 23 September.
In the meantime, Mr Safers acknowledges, the municipality has entered Eskom’s Debt Relief Programme, because it owes Eskom a ‘lot of money’. The aim of this programme is to service the debt while continuing to provide electricity to the people.
‘In fact, as we speak, our officials are in a virtual meeting with Eskom negotiating a lot of things, including the immense Green Energy Project which I have already told you about. The debt will be paid within 18—24 months,’ he assured us.
///////////////////////
I asked him: ‘What, Mr Mayor, now that you are presently in Willowmore, are your remarks with respect to service delivery? Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the quality of services rendered to the inhabitants of this town?’
‘Let me put it this way,’ he said, ‘and I am generalising now, because I cannot comment on Willowmore alone. Residents all over Beyers Naudé are, I would say, not irritated, not frustrated, but agitated, because of a lack of services. And we can do better. We have to do better. We must improve on service delivery. We must improve on engaging our communities.
‘It’s not only up to ward councils, but up to all state departments. We have to reach out to our residents. People must know what is happening around them, what is happening in particular wards, and is going to happen two, three months ahead.
Service delivery and regular community participation are non-negotiable — they are of paramount importance.’
‘On Wednesday,’I said, ‘community members in third Avenue were indeed agitated because, as they alleged, the municipality had not come to collect the dirt which was piling all around their homes. So they decided to clean the area themselves, by gathering the dirt in huge piles and burning them. Did you hear about this particular incident, Sir? And if yes, have you done anything to redress the situation?’
‘Yes’, he answered, ‘I have heard about it, and I have visited the area to assure the people that such a thing mustn’t happen again. Let me be very honest. We are experiencing a bit of difficulty in that direction, in respect of community services. But we are trying our utmost best to rectify everything. With some of the machines we have bought, I think we can do better.
‘Really we must improve on service delivery. It’s really a matter of must. We are not yet up to standard, not only in Willowmore, but in all our towns. Some of them are very dirty. There can be no excuses not to rectify the situation. We must improve on service delivery!’
‘Is there anything else you would like to add before we end this interview’, I asked.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘Maybe just one thing. Although I said earlier that residents all over Beyers Naudé municipality are agitated about service delivery, I must applaud them for their patience. They are still prepared to wait for services, and to give us an opportunity to attend to all these problems.
‘I want pothole-free towns. I want pothole-free townships. I want filth-free townships. Everything! We must, and it’s a matter of must, attend to everything. Our people deserve the best!’
I have highlighted parts of his response simply to help the reader see the total agreement between theory and practice in this article — of what we took a minute to explain in the beginning, and how this is being manifested in practical life. In other words, a startling corroboration of our explanations by the facts.
Indeed, when the mayor was speaking about the momentous Green Energy Project, his countenance was cheerful, his eyes were glittering with optimistic, quite agreeable emotions, and his tone was confident. But when he started answering the questions about the quality of service delivery, his countenance became serious, and his tone humble and guttural.
Service delivery is indeed a tremendously important issue, in all political systems. It can single-handedly determine whether a country will be peaceful or turbulent. Therefore, the resolution to take the services to the people is not a bad idea at all, but a most commendable and amiable initiative. For this, I am sure, the residents of Willowmore, and those of the other towns in the Beyers Naudé Municipality, will be grateful and respectful to their mayor, Mr Willem Safers, and his entire team.
///////////////////////////