The Eastern Cape is one worst-run provinces in South Africa, where some of the gravest effects of decades of corruption have left the province's health care system broken and unable to deal with the huge surge of Covid-19 infections. On the day controversial ANC councillor Andile Lungisa was released on bail from prison for an assault conviction in 2016, we look at the widespread looting and disfunction of the Eastern Cape's biggest city, Nelson Mandela Bay. Formally called Port Elizabeth, it's a hotbed of contestation which reveals how the municipal government was abused by powerful figures. You can see the same pattern in other provinces. Joining us are two well-known political commentators who have both recently written books on the region. Dr Crispian Olver was the Director-General for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and helped draft some of the legislation we're talking about today. The medical doctor was a well-known political activist in the Eastern Cape, and was sent by the ANC leaders to try fix the mess in the city. His book, How to Steal a City, published in 2017, is a gripping, insider’s account of the corruption in Nelson Mandela Bay, formerly known as Port Elizabeth. It lays bare how the administration was entirely captured and bled dry by a criminal syndicate, and how factional politics within the ruling party abetted that corruption. Prof Mcebisi Ndletyana is a respected political analyst whose book – Anatomy of the ANC in Power: Insights from Port Elizabeth, 1990-2019 – shows just how rotten things can get without proper governance. He's a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. The podcast is hosted by Doctor Ivor Chipkin, the founder of the Public Affairs Research Institute at Wits University, who today runs South Africa’s first global think-tank on government, called GAPP.

Filling the Gapp

Filling the Gapp 2 – The Eastern Cape is a microcosm of SA's governance dysfunctionality..

Hosted by Dr Ivor Chipkin, Filling the Gapp is a deep dive into the reasons that South Africa's government has evolved into what it is today – and potentially how to rebuild it. Chipkin is the founder of the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) at Wits University, and today runs South Africa’s first global think-tank on government, GAPP. He was the key author of Betrayal of the Promise Report on State Capture, a seminal 2017 expose of corruption and the anti-constitutional rule of the Jacob Zuma administration. He has a PhD from Ecole Normale Superieure, France, and was an Oppenheimer Fellow at Oxford. He is the author of two books. He is one of the leading scholars on government; thinking about government; and thinking about government policy. GAPP is South Africa’s first global think‑tank.

Filling the Gapp 1: How South Africa's govt got here.

Filling the Gapp is a podcast about the important topics in South Africa that goes beyond the usual discussions of government simply in terms of corruption and incompetence. Of course, they are. But we aim to go deeper than that. What are the deeper underlying reasons informing South Africa's ruling ANC? How does the historical background of the ANC elders inform their strange decisions to ban the sources of sin tax, cigarettes and alcohol? How did the good intentions of anti-Apartheid activists turn into dysfunctional local governments across the country? Dr Ivor Chipkin hosts this deep dive into the reasons that South Africa's government has evolved into what it is today – and potentially how to rebuild it. Chipkin is the founder of the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) at Wits University, and today runs South Africa’s first global think tank on government, GAPP. He was the key author of Betrayal of the Promise Report on State Capture, a seminal 2017 expose of corruption and the anti-constitutional rule of the Jacob Zuma administration. He has a Phd from Ecole Normale Superieure, France, was an Oppenheimer Fellow at Oxford, and is author of two books. He is one of the leading scholars on government; thinking about government; and thinking about government policy.

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Filling the Gapp

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