South African citizens are not as helpless in the face of government bureaucracy as they might assume. That was the message delivered by Dr Julian Brown on Wednesday at a seminar hosted by the Rhodes Department of Sociology.
South African citizens are not as helpless in the face of government bureaucracy as they might assume. That was the message delivered by Dr Julian Brown on Wednesday at a seminar hosted by the Rhodes Department of Sociology.
Brown came to discuss his new paper, co-authored with Stuart Wilson, entitled “A Presumed Equality: A case study of the relationship between state and citizens in post-apartheid South Africa ”. The paper details the battle of BopaSetjhaba, a primary school in Parys, in the Free State, to have a new facility constructed. At first the provincial government had resisted, claiming that there were enough schools in the area. However, after years of legal action construction has begun for the new school.
Ultimately, the authors conclude, the school officials were successful in their quest for better infrastructure thanks to their refusal to be treated as lesser authorities than the government. This “presumption of equality”, said the authors, will be critical in the resolution of conflicts between local organisations and the government in the future.
When asked what he hoped people would take away from the seminar, Brown did not hesitate in responding: “We have to take local knowledge very seriously,” he said. In the case of BopaSetjhaba primary, it was the local officials who recognised the need for a new location for the school, while the provincial government was only concerned with the number of schools in the area.
By insisting that their localised experience was just as important, the school’s governing body was able to bring a badly-needed education facility to an under-served area. Brown feels that this can serve as an example for any small group struggling to be heard by the government's bureaucracy. “To dismiss certain forms of action as insignificant is pointless,” he said. “Sites of protest and dissent are not necessarily where we expect to find them.”
