European Parliamentarians with Africa

From The Freedom Charter to Polokwane: The Evolution of ANC Economic Policy (2009)
Professor Ben Turok

Prof. Turok has raised the biggest questions about the biggest economy in Africa. How can one explain, after 15 years of ANC policies, the persistence of poverty and inequality in South Africa? Was the shift from a revolutionary RDP policy to the more austere GEAR programme an acquiescence to the Washington Consensus? What lessons can be learned from the rest of Africa? As an economic policy insider in the ANC, Turok knows as few others how to recount the choices debated and decisions made.

The analysis benefits from a strong orientation toward regional and international contexts, dwelling on South Africa's role in the SACU and SADC regions and globally with its relations with the IMF and World Bank. It speaks for Turok's democratic credentials that he refers to the ‘behind closed doors' agreements with IMF/WB, which were not discussed at ANC National Conference or ‘reported to parliament as required by the national Constitution'. The lack of public disclosure and transparency toward parliament by the Minister of Finance is a theme that is laudably returned to in the broader African context.

Prof. Turok was hosted several times by AWEPA on European delegations to review North-South development partnerships. He remarks with some incredulity that ‘the role of African parliaments in establishing good governance is nowhere mentioned' in official reports, despite the fact that better budgeting and financial scrutiny ‘ultimately depends on a sound parliamentary system'. Turok deplores that African parliaments are often marginalized by their executive branches and kept not fully operational. Since 2003, with support from AWEPA, he has worked with the NEPAD Contact Group of African Parliamentarians to achieve the objective of more vigilant parliaments - with respect to aid programmes, debt and the legitimacy of NEPAD itself.

Although the reader is disappointed to find the book's analysis does not extend to the controversial topic of Economic Partnership Agreements, there is plenty of food for thought for policy-makers in the South and the North. Those looking for ways forward out of the present financial crisis could do well to read this book. Its lessons from the past and prescriptions for the future are timely indeed.