{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Sacking civil servants for not doing their job? Somebody pinch me, I - Comment
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Sacking civil servants for not doing their job? Somebody pinch me, I
This past week, President John Pombe Magufuli got rid of Edward Hosea, the anti-corruption tsar, for allegedly not doing his job. Every week something new comes along with this administration, mostly exciting. This, however, is on a different scale.
Anti-corruption tsars never get fired for not doing their job — that's just not the African way. To be honest, once a country has an anti-corruption boss it basically means it has given in to the idea of corruption as an everyday part of life. They are there not to clean up our wicked ways so much as to give them an air of formality.
So yes, it was surprising to see Magufuli replace Hosea. I mean, there's reform and then there is revolution. It looks as though Magufuli actually wants public servants to do their jobs, as defined in their contracts, for real. It is almost as if he believed a democratic-ish government should do what it says on the label.
We don't get to talk much about the shape of government, not in my generation. We've been handed something from the golden era of Independence movements and taught not to question it too much, in the fine tradition of African conservatism.
Barring obvious troubles such as overwhelming racism in South Africa, slavery in Mauritania, genocide in... well, pick a location... things are supposed to be just fine as they are.
So we don't talk so much about government as we do about leadership, which is, I think, a large part of the problem. African development is always given in terms of economics, counting GDP and estimating gas reserves and suchlike. And then issues of governance are framed in terms of strongmen or so-called progressives versus vaguely unnamed but undeniably racist allusions to an African mindset.
It doesn't make sense. Everybody knows there's nothing racial about mass democracies: While it is a great system compared with the alternatives, it remains an absolutely horrendous way to conduct society.
In the case of Tanzania, there has been a long and complete breakdown of state institutions since the 1980s. Whatever the reasons, this has had some very tangible effects on the quality of life.
Worst of all is the way in which the government just gave up on the idea of service altogether and instead became a place where money could be made with or without work to back it up.
In this particular case, there isn't a single dynasty to blame for this sad state of affairs, not really. We entrenched the culture of incompetence throughout our whole society and rather democratically shared in both the spoils and the consequences.
Which is what makes this new government something strange and wondrous to watch — so far. When Magufuli early-retired Hosea, he wasn't just getting rid of deadweight. He was making a direct link between the title of a man and what he's supposed to do, as well as perhaps avenging the long-suffering public for years upon years of no convictions.
A small gesture, a massive revolution: Competence is coming back into fashion.
And as much as it is traditional to credit one man with all this good work, I don't think it comes down to one Magufuli alone. He may be coming from the minority of long-repressed civil servants who have always been frustrated by the limits placed on them, and it looks as though he is bringing his fellow believers along.
The real political change we have always needed in Tanzania hasn't been at the representative level: It has always been about the deep, dark and obscenely powerful civil service. And if we can manage to get that back on track, our development will finally become substance and not just rhetoric.
Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: elsieeyakuze@gmail.com
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