As we approach the 2024 general elections, probably at the end of May, the ANC government is starting to realise that it won’t hold the majority and its members will probably lost all their positions of power.
It is now when the individuals will be taking a lot more of their ill-gotten gains from the fiscus. The wholesale looting will go unpunished, for now, but the public must vote to ensure that action can be taken against them once a new government takes its seat in the National Assembly.
Civil servants will, at last, understand that they are employees and that their employers are the citizens of South Africa, not the other way around as we have seen for the past three decades.
When a new coalition government is placed into the government, it will not be easy to stop South Africa from sliding down that slippery slope. A new government cannot just step in and dismiss or retrench members of the civil service without following due process and without proven merit. The new administration has a long and arduous journey ahead. At least consequence management can be implemented almost immediately.
Every government department and entity has a human resource management team. The teams need to be properly capacitated and trained. Once the human resource practitioners are empowered, we will find that service delivery will improve 10-fold. It is an unfortunate trait of human nature that there must always be a “carrot and a stick”.
In other words, staff need to be properly trained, capacitated and encouraged. Staff need to have decent pay and be treated decently. On the other hand, they must understand that if they don’t perform, they will face consequences that can lead to dismissal.
Our government does not treat people properly and certainly doesn’t ensure that people face consequences for wrongdoing or bad performance. Year in and year, out the trade unions have controlled the situation and have been able to bully the ANC government to such an extent that wages increase every year and no one is admonished in any way for any wrongdoing or ill-discipline. This has been the situation for more than 20 years.
Despite the wholesale destruction of our civil service, it is almost laughable to see that the ANC expects support in the elections in 2024. It is even more laughable to think that the people of South Africa have not noticed how our government has treated its citizens badly. South Africans deserve better.
To cast your vote for a political party in the 2024 elections for the provincial legislatures and Parliament, it is necessary to register in the area where you live. Unlike previous elections, you have to vote at a pre-determined voting station. It is a simple exercise to register yourself.
This can be done online or you can approach the closest voting station to you on the weekend of February 3 and 4. In other words, this following weekend from 8am to 5pm, you can approach in person the voting station where you had previously voted to check if you’re still registered there or the voting station closest to where you live so that they can ensure that they will register you. You will be required to bring your ID document with you.
Unlike the past 30 years, when we have seen an absolute majority for the ANC, this time, the majority will not be gained and the country has a real chance to turn around the employment situation in South Africa.
The Labour Legal Regulations set by the minister of employment and labour have become an obstacle to job creation. Above acting as a hand brake to job creation, the negative type of regulations have also steered the small business community away from wanting to invest in their businesses to enable them to create more jobs.
* Michael Bagraim.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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