CHAPTER TWO
2.3 POST -APARTHEID POLICY INITIATIVES
2.3.1 POLICY CONTRADICTIONS
There are presently many contradictions and ambiguities in policy in South Africa which confuses implementation and therefore is important to this study. One such contradiction is that the RDP remains the official govemment and ANC policy. Many have argued that the RDP is no longer functional because the
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Minister, the relevant department and the parliamentary monitoring committee have disappeared. The African National Congress has quietly abandoned the last RDP structure: the RDP Portfolio Committee in the National Assembly (Streek 1999).
GEAR appears to have replaced RDP policy. Critics are sceptical about GEAR and argue that the macroeconomic policy is not attuned to the White Paper of Developmental Social Welfare. It is argued that modem societies can compete effectively in the global market only if they drastically reduce social expenditure (Midgely 1998: 90). In effect, conservative advocates of the global economy have simply revived the old adage that ''what is good for business is good for the public" (Karger 1994:7).
GEAR signals to foreign investors that South Africa is keeping in line with global policy frameworks. The overall effects of the global economy on welfare programmes are complex. Globally it has led to the scaling back or dismantling of welfare institutions (Karger 1994:19). Short-term steps will necessarily be to unburden the State of the stock of public assets, with the aim of reducing the budget deficit, wihile a longer-term goal will be to embark on the more complex task of utilising private resources to perform public services. This entails enhancement of voluntary and nonprofit groups (organised around the family, religion, community and tradition) which deliver services based on need and reciprocity (Lusk 1992:15).
HThe upshot ;s that the govemment isolates poverty from the process of capital accumulation and economic development and reduces the solution to designing specific social policies ... in such a
context, the RDP functions not as a developmental framework but as an aggregation of social policies designed to alleviate poverty without impacting on the economic policies and practices that reproduce poverty and inequality" (Development Update, June, 1997: 1 0).
The challenge will be to appease demand wihile pursuing macroeconomic policies that sustain growth.
In NGO Matters (April 1998:12), it is pOinted out that the World Bank played a major role in the writing of GEAR and has called for further financial cuts to meet Gear targets. The World Bank claims that GEAR is 'complementary' to the RDP, and that the RDP was much closer to the lines of policy advocated by UN agencies. Some critics maintain that GEAR totally reverses promises made in the RDP. GEAR has been described as "a homespun structural adjustment programme" (Marais 1997:6).
In addition, the system based on citizenship and universal access to welfare conflicts with PQlicies such as GEAR. This is also illustrated by the inadequate allocations made to welfare in the Budget. The govemment argues GEAR enables greater social expenditure to take place.
The South African Govemment is caught in the double-bind situation of attempting to meet the expectations of the people, providing basic social and economic services to the poor, and enhancing economic growth by competing in the global economy. The Minister of Finance, in his Budget Speech in 1999, observed that "integrating the South African economy into the world has been a major challenge in the past four and a half years. We inherited an uncompetitive, in-ward looking, protectionist economy. We have since 1994 sought to open up the economy in a measured and sustainable way".
However, the action of utting down on s.ocial spending at l he expense of economic growth can have negative consequences. In a country such as Sri Lanka, recent attempts to retrench social programmes and attract foreign investments have resulted in heightened inequality and deteriorating social conditions (Jayasuriya, cited in Midgley 1998:123). There is a good deal of evidence to support the contention that people in industrial countries enjoy high standards of living not only because of economic growth but because of government social policies and expanded social provision (Midgley 1998: 123).
The advanced countries' increasing social expenditure on unemployment
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benefits and measures to overcome some of the effects of recession and austerity are financially not possible in South Africa.
There is also evidence to show that social programmes and social expenditures promote economic growth and contribute to the economy in particular by reinforcing demand from the poorest of society. If social integration promotes economic development, it 'follows that social welfare programmes foster social harmony and have positive consequences for the economy. Robinson and White (1997:35) cite Mosers study, which documents the extent to which the
'economic' crisis has eroded trust and co-operation in a number of important
respects, notably by increasing crime and insecurity and reducing the time available for women to collaborate in community activities. It has already been shown that investors are reluctant to invest in a country, like South Africa with a high crime rate. In the short term, the economic conditions could create more costs to the welfare sector as this sector will have to deal with poverty and its consequences.
Another contradiction is in the policy process. There is a move from a consultative process to one of non-negotiation as in the development of GEAR and the Financing Policy (1999).
"The history of Africa and elsewhere has shown the inability of the current social- welfare system to live up to expectations and promises, and the perSistent inability of the political and socio-economic process to respond to concrete community preferences, redistribute resources efficiently and fairly, and redress inequalities." (Kawewe 1995:307). The question to ask is whether South Africa is to be another country in Africa unable to deliver and implement change in the
lives of its people and whether policy will remain a philosophical document.