The Democratic Alliance, the official opposition in South Africa’s parliament, feels that districts are an unnecessary fourth tier of government (and, as a result, taxation) and should be should be scrapped.

In South Africa, there are four tiers of government – the national (based in Pretoria), the provincial, the district, and the municipality.

To be blunt, the provinces were inherited from the pre-1994 regime, recarved (from 4 into 9), and renamed so as to somehow separate South Africa from its former system of government.

But why?

To me, the provinces seem to be the most removed, and the least necessary, tier of government, nothing more than continuations of the old regime.

So what if South Africa followed Nigeria’s example, abolished the provinces, and established a federal republic with 52 districts (states)?

Then the ethnic czars which held power both before and after 1994 (yes, be they in the now-defunct Afrikaner-dominated National Party, the Xhosa-dominated ANC, or Zulu-dominated Inkatha) will be stripped of their powers or monopolies over local politics.

UPDATE: Hell, even the DRC is recarving their country into 26 provinces within the next two or three years.

Then the local districts, based more upon their regional/cultural/religious experiences, could form their own policies regarding such touchy issues as land reform, crime, education, environmental deprivation, and AIDS/HIV.

Then the world will be able to see a South Africa that is more, and offers more, than just ethnoracial pity parties and deplorable infrastructural conditions.

‘Cause ever since Thabo Mbeki became president, that’s all I’ve been seeing.
That’s all that the world has been seeing. A South Africa with two faces, two solitudes, two worlds; one looking westward, the other one walking blind.

What happened to the “Rainbow Nation” that Tutu spoke so glowingly about?

If there is one structure of government which could effectively show South Africa and its people as such, it would be a federal system with 52 districts, not a gratified unitary monolith with ethnoracial tendencies and biases.

I’d like to see an Indian face, a Muslim face, a Jewish face, a Khoisan face, a geek face, a cowboy face, a gay face, all types of faces represented in South Africa.

The world would like to see all those faces. This system isn’t letting any light to shine on them.

That’s why its got to go.