South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) intends to use two new policies to centralise the national executive's control over all public and private assets: by placing all public procurement under the control of the Treasury department, and and enforcing prescribed asset investment.

Prescribed assets aren't strictly new, and will involve reinstating a rule from the apartheid era that would compel pension funds to invest in government-approved projects after the upcoming elections.

Zuko Godlimpi, deputy chair of the ANC's economic transformation committee, stated that they won't just force investment into Eskom and Transnet, but also into private sector targets consistent with the ANC's vision for the economy, roping private assets into a central planning initiative.

The ANC included this proposal in its manifesto, promising they would "transform" the financial sector to support the nation's industrialization and economic growth, reverse unemployment, and fix crumbling and corrupt state-owned enterprises like Transnet and Eskom.

The prescribed assets rule, created in 1956 during the White-minority rule, was designed to boost investment in government bonds but was soon later abolished. The ANC's revival plans have raised concerns among pension industry professionals, who fear that investments in underperforming state-owned enterprises could threaten pension funds.

With ANC support has been dwindling, it faces the risk of losing its national majority for the first time since 1994. However, Godlimpi dismissed polls suggesting this outcome and stated that there were no discussions about forming a coalition.

The ANC believes that diversifying pension fund investments beyond the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies would be beneficial. Godlimpi argued that the current concentration of investments in sectors like telecoms and retail is not conducive to the economy's productivity.

The other threat to liberty and accountability in South Africa in the coming reform is the Public Procurement Bill, passed by the National Assembly in December 2023 and currently under review by the National Council of Provinces, promises to clear up several overlapping pieces of legislature which govern the procurement process, to address the country's fragmented procurement regulations, which have been criticized for being vulnerable to abuse and corruption. It introduces provisions to enhance preferential procurement practices, improve governance, and establish dispute-resolution mechanisms.

But concerns have been raised over the sweeping powers granted to the new Public Procurement Office (PPO), which will fall under the National Treasury. These include the ability to issue prohibitions on procurement practices deemed improper, unilaterally debar entities, and determine methods of access to procurement information. The bill also allows the minister to create secondary legislation governing procurement methods and procedures outside of parliamentary process.

Critics warn that such extensive powers could lead to the capture of the PPO by vested interests, undermining the integrity of the public procurement system. They also raise concerns about the lack of clarity on how the PPO will be held accountable to oversight bodies such as parliament.

Moreover, the bill's reliance on secondary legislation to clarify its provisions raises questions about democratic oversight and transparency. Critics argue that this approach could result in policies being passed without sufficient public engagement and scrutiny.

The Bill gives the Treasury the power to override any procurement process chosen by any sphere of government, effectively destroying the capacity of opposition parties, who cannot hope to win national government, to procure what the ANC instructs them to.

The sum of these Bills, in addition to the nationalisation of the healthcare sector, the centralisation of development policy through the District Development Model, the Expropriation Act, and the BELA Act, and the new anti-terrorism laws, create a monolithic and unaccountable state that cannot be challenged or escaped.

With no hope for opposition parties to seize the state in the coming elections, and the DA attacking any and all Plan Bs, the future is looking dark for anywhere outside of the Cape, and even here, the future is not certain.