corporatization

Jeremy Cronin

Ref Batch
ZA
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
4
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Richard Bennet
Name
Jeremy Cronin
Interviewee's Position
Deputy Minister for Transport
Interviewee's Organization
South Africa
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
South Africa
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Jeremy Cronin discusses the challenges facing transportation infrastructure in South Africa, particularly the divided spatial issues he sees as products of apartheid.  Cronin touches on the role of the Washington Consensus and similar approaches to governance in structuring post-apartheid South African government, particularly in relation to the Department of Transport. He then discusses the creation and roles of various parastatals such as the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and the Airports Company of South Africa in building the country’s transportation infrastructure. He examines both the successes and challenges of such corporatization of public agencies.
 
Profile

At the time of this interview, Jeremy Cronin was the deputy minister for transport of South Africa and an African National Congress member of Parliament, as well as deputy general-secretary of the South African Communist Party. He was appointed as deputy minister of transport in 2009 and had been an MP since 1999. He previously worked on the South African Reconstruction and Development Programme, and he served as deputy general-secretary of the South African Communist Party since 1995. He was a political prisoner under apartheid for seven years, from 1976-1983. A respected poet, Cronin also worked as a lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Cape Town in the early 1970s.

Full Audio File Size
41 MB
Full Audio Title
Jeremy Cronin Intervirew

Increasing Transparency and Improving Project Management: South Africa's National Roads Agency, 1998-2011

Author
Richard Bennet
Country of Reform
Abstract
Following the transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa experimented with ways to improve ministry effectiveness by separating policy-making functions from operations. The Department of Transport introduced principles of New Public Management and public-private partnerships to improve service delivery. The South African National Roads Agency Ltd. (SANRAL), led by Nazir Alli, reconfigured the procurement process and financing models for planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the country’s national road network. Increasing transparency in the tendering of contracts led to greater accountability on the part of project managers and contractors. This case study chronicles the steps that Alli and his staff took to build the agency and to deliver results on a large scale, culminating with the upgrade of the freeway connecting the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria during the final months before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 
 
Richard Bennet drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa, in March 2011. Case published July 2011.
 
Associated Interview(s):  Jeremy Cronin