Difference between revisions of "Tenderpreneur (South Africa)"

Political commentators have described tenderpreneurship as linked to a ‘dominant party syndrome’ of the ruling political party, the African National Congress (ANC) (Giliomee & Simkins 1998). The ANC has won every national election for the last 25 years with over 60% of the vote. This lack of electoral accountability at the national level (and in most municipalities, apart from the large metropolitan municipalities) means that ANC politicians get returned to office even when government does not perform as committed on development plans, or simply performs poorly. Consequently, many in the ANC take political office for granted and abuse it by enabling non-competitive procurement, tenderpreneurship and nepotism in employment. This dominant party syndrome has advanced to a state of kleptocracy, whereby the political elites manipulate the three arms of government (legislature, executive and judiciary) with the intention of capturing resources for self-enrichment, the ‘elite capture’ (Booysen 2015<ref> Booysen, Susan. 2015. ''Dominance and decline: The ANC in the time of Zuma''. Wits University Press.</ref>). The growing perception of Zuma’s rule as kleptocracy is beginning to hurt the ANC in the realm of public debates.  For the first time, in the local government elections of 2016 four of the largest metropolitan municipalities switched from the ANC to the opposition Democratic Allowance party (Chipkin 2016<ref> Chipkin, I. 2016. ‘The decline of African nationalism and the state of South Africa’. ''Journal of Southern African Studies'', 42(2), 215-227.</ref>).

Political commentators have described tenderpreneurship as linked to a ‘dominant party syndrome’ of the ruling political party, the African National Congress (ANC) (Giliomee & Simkins 1998). The ANC has won every national election for the last 25 years with over 60% of the vote. This lack of electoral accountability at the national level (and in most municipalities, apart from the large metropolitan municipalities) means that ANC politicians get returned to office even when government does not perform as committed on development plans, or simply performs poorly. Consequently, many in the ANC take political office for granted and abuse it by enabling non-competitive procurement, tenderpreneurship and nepotism in employment. This dominant party syndrome has advanced to a state of kleptocracy, whereby the political elites manipulate the three arms of government (legislature, executive and judiciary) with the intention of capturing resources for self-enrichment, the ‘elite capture’ (Booysen 2015<ref> Booysen, Susan. 2015. ''Dominance and decline: The ANC in the time of Zuma''. Wits University Press.</ref>). The growing perception of Zuma’s rule as kleptocracy is beginning to hurt the ANC in the realm of public debates.  For the first time, in the local government elections of 2016 four of the largest metropolitan municipalities switched from the ANC to the opposition Democratic Allowance party (Chipkin 2016<ref> Chipkin, I. 2016. ‘The decline of African nationalism and the state of South Africa’. ''Journal of Southern African Studies'', 42(2), 215-227.</ref>).