SA losing faith in govt

(Fin24) - If the power deadlock within the ANC is perpetuated, a feeding frenzy of opportunistic corruption, near corruption or inertia could follow, according to a researcher from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), Susan Brown, who calls this "the worst case".

Brown was speaking during a breakfast briefing to launch the IJR's transformation audit, which she edited, and which showed there has been an alarming slump in public confidence in SA leaders and its representative institutions, including parliament.

The report was conducted between April 2006 and April 2007 among 3 500 respondents.

The Presidency has already received a copy of the report, and according to the IJR it was "receptive", questioned whether a trend was being seen and engaged more openly in dialogue than they would have perhaps a year ago.

IJR researcher Jan Hofmeyr explains that all 23 government performance areas showed significant declines, with seven showing declines of 20% or more.

"This is quite significant," he noted, adding that there was a decline in the trust being placed in national leaders. Added to this were concerns around softer issues, like the integrity of leadership.

Incoming executive director of the IJR (replacing Charles Villa-Vicencio, who remains on the board) Fanie du Toit said: "There are some serious findings here. It speaks of a more systematic failure to take the public into confidence."

He added that there was a "startling gap" between economic growth and the public perception as displayed in the audit.
SA has been enjoying the highest growth in its business cycle since the Second World War, but yet the public was clearly not happy. Some blame must lie somewhere, and as the audit showed, there appeared to be something of a leadership crisis within government institutions and lack of delivery to a wider base.

Brown highlighted inefficiencies in the education system, which she explained fed into unemployment. She said the linkages with tertiary institutions had hardly expanded since 1994.

Du Toit pointed out that SA compared badly with its peers on the education front, and said that the pool of people from which tertiary students were derived was still the same size as it was in 1995.

"It affects the nature of the macroeconomic system we have, and it affects public confidence and the ability to develop a unified society," said Brown.
 

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