Dismantling State Capture requires Servant Leadership.

The greatest tragedy of history confronting us as a young generation in the 21^st century is to see the richest tycoons of the country financing all relevant political parties in collusion with well-established elites to create an oligarchic social structure that undermines institution building and the rule of law. The problem of poverty, unemployment and inequality was long diagnosed correctly by the mass democratic movement as led by the ANC and the agenda for eradication of this triple crisis was well set, but to the contrary, corrupt parasitic patronage networks took over and as a result, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. When the crisis is deepening like this, Anne Lugon-Moulin (2017) writing in Switzerland beginning of this year, proposed that “transparent governance reforms are highly needed to better share the power in the society, both horizontally and vertically, and to put in place very clear conflict of interests rules”. She further argues as a solution that “state institutions should have safeguards to prevent them from being owned by specific individuals enjoying a high discretionary power in society”. Such an advice can be a necessary remedy depending on the extent of our problem which will be detailed herein this article. When former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas made the startling claim that President Jacob Zuma’s associates, the Guptas, had offered him the position of finance minister and R600-million, the term ‘state capture’ surfaced and suddenly found its way into South African conversation in schools, workplaces, social gatherings and at homes it became a reference for every small talk. The public protector report (2006) formed the basis for more informed discussions on the question of state capture and political leadership of the day was put to test both as role players and as problem solvers.

The people who are elected and appointed into position of responsibility are tasked through the will of the people to not only prevent state capture but also stop it wherever it occurs, however, successive leaders lead during different times, with different skills and under different conditions as such leadership comparisons of different Presidents is not encouraged at this juncture. However, we have in this article examined three basic styles of leadership, namely authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire.

Authoritarian leaders rule their groups using decree and force, Democratic leaders try to include everyone in the decision-making process, and laissez-faire leaders let the group function without much interference. When a nation is under state capture it appears that leaders are following an authoritarian route in executing their tasks. This is because state capture occurs when the ruling elite and/or powerful businessmen manipulate policy formation and influence the emerging rules of the game (including laws and economic regulations) to their own advantage. The captured economy is trapped in a vicious circle in which the policy and institutional reforms necessary to improve governance are undermined by collusion between powerful firms and state officials who extract substantial private gains from the absence of clear rule of law.Vesna Pesic(2007) in her remarkable book “State Capture and Widespread Corruption in Serbia” defined state capture as a “phenomenon when any group or social strata, external to the state, seizes decisive influence over the state institutions and policies for its own interest and against the public good”. If the above definition by Pesic is anything to go by, then such is applicable to the South African context whereby few companies or rather few families in the form of the Ruperts, the Guptas and the Oppenheimers amongst other few wealthy families exert unprecedented power and influence over the government.

State capture, if not prevented or stopped earlier, will cause the collapse of governance structures, institutions will be destroyed and it will cause people to be poorer because resources will be diverted to favour the few at the expense of the majority of the populace. The emergence of right wing demagogues whose agenda is to get rich quickly using shortest routes is a cause for concern. The dream of a broad-based black-economic empowerment will remain a pipe dream that will never see full implementation because the white and Indian monopoly capitalists are having a serious appetite to gather all state tenders for themselves and for their families alone. These political mafias are moving at a more accelerated pace to capture more, to an extent that the media which some of us who are students of Marx and Lenin, we previously viewed it as the fourth arm of the state, with a formidable role to not only educate and inform the public, but also to review undistorted truth to the people and expose corrupt activities through investigative journalism, is now also being captured, and when the media is totally captured who will speak for the poor? Perhaps people will have to understand that it is now high time to not rely on some of these institutions such as media as their mouth piece but to speak for themselves and propel the revolution forward.

The economic activities are at a downward sloping side as reflected by the recent reports from rating agencies about junk status, and governance systems are at a moribund stage because of state capture and other factors, and when such occurrence is unfolding the biggest question of the day is that, what is the role of leadership in preventing this state capture? Such a question does not have easy answers because today’s challenges cannot be easily solved by the same people who created them or helped to create them and problems cannot be solved by the same people who benefit from their creation. But more fundamentally, the significant problems of our time cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. So, in order to impact any significant change to the sociopolitical situation characterized by state capture, the first solution is for leaders to change their mindset and accept or acknowledge the existence of this problem as the first step towards its solution.

Leaders can play a meaningful role in preventing state capture through exhibiting moral and ethical courage and setting an example, when examining the hierarchy of power it is essential that those at the top level of the hierarchy set the tone for good governance free of corruption so that those who follow from the middle to lower level will then be encouraged to behave in a particular way. What happens at national government creates precedence for the provincial government and local government.

In further outlining the role of leadership in dismantling state capture, I propose five critical steps to be put in place:

1. The first one is the whole question of accountability.Political leadership must be accountable to the public for all activities happening in government and such accountability must happen consistently to avoid personal interests to cloud our dear leaders.Secondly, leaders must ensure the establishment of an effective judicial independence to guarantee the elimination of the parties using public offices for their private interests, this translates to apprehension or incarceration of perpetrators in order not only to scare but to warn the would-be participants and remind patronage mafias about vacancies of space in prisons for such candidates.
2. Secondly, leaders must ensure the establishment of an effective judicial independence to guarantee the elimination of the parties using public offices for their private interests, this translates to apprehension or incarceration of perpetrators in order not only to scare but to warn the would-be participants and remind patronage mafias about vacancies of space in prisons for such candidates. The third step is a critical issue of value system and behavioural change. Leadership must execute their tasks based on trustworthiness and always strive to build credibility and taking responsibility for every action or non-action thereof. State capture creates deep mistrust amongst the people on the political system hence the recent decline in electoral performance by the ANC, hence integrity and honesty must be the daily bread for leaders to restore people’s trust and public confidence.
3. The third step is a critical issue of value system and behavioural change. Leadership must execute their tasks based on trustworthiness and always strive to build credibility and taking responsibility for every action or non-action thereof. State capture creates deep mistrust amongst the people on the political system hence the recent decline in electoral performance by the ANC, hence integrity and honesty must be the daily bread for leaders to restore people’s trust and public confidence. The fourth step is for leadership to channel everyone towards the national vision guided by the national development plan (NDP). Leaders ought to use their influence and ability not to perpetuate state capture but to influence people and inspire others towards one goal of achieving a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous country. The fifth and last step is the restoration of democratic practices. When organizational processes are exclusive and not inclusive it will lead to a monumental disaster. In order to avoid such a disaster of magnanimous proportion in the form of looting of state resources, then democratic processes of fair awarding of contracts must unfold. Democracy entails that the voices of all the people.
4. The fourth step is for leadership to channel everyone towards the national vision guided by the national development plan (NDP). Leaders ought to use their influence and ability not to perpetuate state capture but to influence people and inspire others towards one goal of achieving a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous country. The fifth and last step is the restoration of democratic practices. When organizational processes are exclusive and not inclusive it will lead to a monumental disaster. In order to avoid such a disaster of magnanimous proportion in the form of looting of state resources, then democratic processes of fair awarding of contracts must unfold. Democracy entails that the voices of all the people.
5. The fifth and last step is the restoration of democratic practices. When organizational processes are exclusive and not inclusive it will lead to a monumental disaster. In order to avoid such a disaster of magnanimous proportion in the form of looting of state resources, then democratic processes of fair awarding of contracts must unfold. Democracy entails that the voices of all the people matter rather than the voice of only a few families in a country of more than fifty million people. Leaders when establishing institutions must avoid cadre deployment and avoid.

The fifth and last step is the restoration of democratic practices. When organizational processes are exclusive and not inclusive it will lead to a monumental disaster. In order to avoid such a disaster of magnanimous proportion in the form of looting of state resources, then democratic processes of fair awarding of contracts must unfold. Democracy entails that the voices of all the people matter rather than the voice of only a few families in a country of more than fifty million people. Leaders when establishing institutions must avoid cadre deployment and avoid appointment of reliable associates because such close cronies can easy be manipulated into patronage politics.

In, conclusion, it is critical that the problem of state capture was identified before it reached pinnacle stage, but it is also important to also understand that state capture is part of the entire problem of the capitalist system which we seek to dismantle completely. Leaders in the working class movement and all those in the whole mass democratic movement must play a role to advance all left forces ahead to crush bourgeoisie exploitation in any form that it appears either Indian, white or even black capitalists. The fight against state capture is not a responsibility of government and political leaders only, but all other leaders in the church, community, student movement, traditional leaders and professionals ought to join hands to defeat this phenomenon. Leaders in the civil society can help foster basic civil liberties in the country thereby creating an active citizenry that will participate in the development of the country. Surely when all what is proposed above happen successfully then the predicament of state capture can be a thing of the past.

Misheck T Mugabe is a Masters student at the University of Fort Hare and also the Treasurer General of SAUS, he writes in his own personal capacity. He can be contacted at mtmugabe@gmail.com /0760942850.