Cape Town – Former president Thabo Mbeki has raised concerns about the private sector stepping in to provide services that the government has failed to deliver.
According to SABC News, Mbeki was speaking at the South African Association of Public Administration and Management’s annual conference in Ekurhuleni on the East Rand.
He pointed to a growing disconnect between citizens and those in authority.
Mbeki highlighted the private sector’s success in solving problems in the absence of government action and warned that this trend poses a direct threat to South Africa’s democratic state and the well-being of its people.
“Here we have this receding power of the state, its loss of authority and credibility, its inability to translate plans into action, and the growing disconnect between the ruling elite and those they govern, and this is where South Africa’s greatest opportunity for the future is to be found, in its innovative and resilient private sector and civil society, which are solving problems in the growing absence of the state and doing so successfully.
“In years to come, South Africa will become a case study of how private initiative succeeds where states fail. In political science, this is characterised as a counter revolution, and a counter revolution is not innocent, but in our case, a direct threat to our democratic state and the welfare and wellbeing of millions of our people,” Mbeki said while delivering a virtual address at the gathering.
The conference, themed “Repositioning African Governments in the Changing Global Order and Disorder”, aimed to address the challenges and opportunities faced by African governments in today’s rapidly changing global landscape.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
