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Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma seems to be following in the footsteps of former finance minister Trevor Manuel who always called for “tips for Trevor” before his budget announcements in parliament, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. Last week the president called for public input to his State of the Nation address to be delivered in parliament next week.
It gives the impression, says Bell, that the public are directly involved in what is said and decided in government. This, he says, is in line with a freedom song of the early 1960s that claimed: The state of the nation, the freedom of the land, shall be judged by the vote of man.” But he adds that it was naive to think that votes for all would usher in a form of direct democracy; that the public would have a real say.
Even within the governing, ANC-led alliance, the numerically largest component, the trade union federation, Cosatu, has its policies broadly ignored.
Bell also points out that the budget and the decisions about what will be announced in State of the Nation addresses are made well in advance of any call for public input; that the requests to the public and the mention of a few names and suggestions in parliament merely gives the impression of real public involvement.
As a result of this request, Bell says he forewent writing about the now utterly chronic state of the Post Office, a situation the postal unions have been warning about for years. Instead, he calls on viewers and readers to submit their ideas about the nation and the state it is in and says he will focus on this in his Inside Labour column.
He adds that while State of the Nation addresses are usually quite boringly predictable and hardly attract great audiences, this year, is different. Why this should be so and whether apparent mass interest is justified is also something he intends looking into.
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