Every year, the University of Fort Hare Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Annual Lecture shines a spotlight on bold ideas. These ideas challenge the way we think about leadership and local economic development. At this year’s installment, some of the spotlight fell on Thabiso Ndadane. The final-year Bachelor of Administration in Public Administration student emerged as the winner of the prestigious essay competition linked to the lecture. His essay offered a thought-provoking vision for the Eastern Cape’s future.
Introduced last year, the competition is open to all UFH students who are required to write an essay based on the theme of the lecture. This year’s lecture invited students to reflect on how the Eastern Cape can navigate the impact of international aid withdrawal. This is particularly following the Trump administration’s foreign policy stance that reduced funding to South Africa.
Bold and Practical
Ndandane offered bold and practical solutions for the province in the wake of shifting international aid dynamics. His essay was selected out of 20 entries by the adjudicators.
He explored the consequences of foreign aid withdrawal during the Trump administration. He argued that while donor dependency has long propped up many development projects, its sudden disruption should push South Africa, and the Eastern Cape in particular, towards greater independence and resilience.
“The Eastern Cape is especially susceptible to the effects of this aid cutback because of its high rates of poverty, systemic unemployment, and backlogs in service delivery,” Ndadane wrote. He pointed out that projects supporting maternal health, education, HIV/AIDS prevention, and community development have either slowed down or collapsed as a result of the policy shift.
Challenges equal Opportunities
Yet, in what became the essay’s defining argument, Ndadane insisted that this challenge could be turned into an opportunity. “Although there have been difficulties as a result of the reduction in aid, provincial leadership has a chance to reconsider and change the way development is done.”
He laid out a series of interventions that Eastern Cape leaders could adopt to ensure development momentum is not lost. Among them, strengthening intergovernmental relations to better pool resources. Furthermore, reprioritising budgets and mobilising local revenue. “The Eastern Cape needs to look at creative ways to boost local revenue in order to lessen its reliance on foreign help,” he stressed. He suggested mechanisms such as hospital fee recovery, green bonds, and blended finance models.
Ndadane also emphasised the importance of public-private partnerships (PPPs), citing South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme as a success story. “If partnerships are properly managed and community interests are protected, the province can deliver infrastructure through PPPs without taking on unmanageable debt,” he explained.
Participation and Partnership
For him, sustainable development also lies in deepening community involvement. “Without the participation of the communities it is meant to serve, development cannot be sustained,” he wrote, urging leaders to strengthen ward committees, IDP forums, and grassroots structures. These structures give citizens ownership of local projects.
Ndadane further encouraged Eastern Cape leaders to look beyond Western donors and invest in South-South partnerships. “South Africa should use the BRICS and South-South cooperation frameworks to fortify its connections with alternative international partners in light of the withdrawal of Western funding,” he argued. He pointed to opportunities in skills development, health, and agriculture under the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
His conclusion was both sobering and hopeful: “The Trump administration’s withdrawal of foreign help has been a wake-up call. It highlights the dangers of depending on outside funding to maintain vital development initiatives. But this upheaval also offers the province a calculated chance to rethink its growth strategy and go in a more independent, sustainable direction.”
