Institutions of Governance Make Democracy Work - 702 Radio

Director of the Brenthurst Foundation Dr Greg Mills says research shows that democracies in Africa develop fast. With the protests in Alexandra, the Zondo Commission Into State Capture and other challenges facing South Africa, questions are being asked as to whether democracy works on the continent

Dr Mills is a co-author of a new book a book titled Democracy Work, Rewiring Politics For Africa's Advantage.

In examining the countries of Africa, our research shows that democracies in Africa grow faster, they are less vulnerable to periods of economic and social stability and the compounding effects of development and growth are much greater.

This is no surprise as there are institutions that perform much better in terms of their relative freedoms. What we do is divide the countries up between free, partly free and not free.

The freer the country, the better the governance and the better the rule of law.

He adds that even though some people might believe that there were better services during apartheid, they were delivered only to a small group of people.

Let us not forget, and history tends to forget, that it was a very small group of people for whom delivery was the first-world and then the vast majority of South Africans were excluded from governance and repressed.

So it is easy to forget the past a generation on and I think what we have learnt in South Africa and from the state capture aspect, is that institutions of governance in terms of Parliament, civil society go a long way in providing the checks and balances that people require to make these systems work.

Listen to the full interview below:

Originally published by Matshepo Sehloho on 702.co.za.