IN 1992, two years before the transition to democracy in 1994, the ANC issued a document titled: "Ready to Govern: policy guidelines for a democratic South Africa."

Although some of the issues it proposed did not take the form envisaged in the paper, it was clear what the ANC wanted to do.

It seemed then to have a vision about how the state - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary - would work under its stewardship.

Many South Africans, too, were confident then that, indeed, the ANC was ready to govern.

However, 20 years after the ANC declared it was ready to govern, a question rings loud in the minds and ears of many South Africans: is the ANC still fit to govern?

Nothing has hitherto illustrated the ANC's incompetence to govern than the Limpopo textbooks scandal. While it is true that this scandal is an education calamity, it is however a manifestation of a collapsing governance system.

In his 1762 treatise on the Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote about the complementary roles of the legislature and executive. He said 250 years ago that "The legislative power is the heart of the state, the executive is the brain, which sets all the parts in motion. The brain may become paralysed and the individual still lives. A man can be an imbecile and survive, but as soon as his heart stops functioning, the creature is dead."

The ANC-led government appears like a person who has suffered a severe stroke. The brain (executive) seems paralysed and the heart (legislature) is beating too slowly to give any hope about the future. The creature may not be dead yet, but it is in comatose.

Which government, in its right state of mind, identifies education as its key priority and fails to deliver textbooks?

However, the crisis of governance is huge and goes beyond Limpopo. State-owned enterprises are not an exception either. The SABC, SAA, Eskom, Denel and others, have become basket cases and a burden to the national fiscus as a result of poor governance.

According to the auditor-general's audit outcomes report of 2010/11, only three out of 35 national departments received clean audits. These are the departments of science and technology, environmental affairs and public enterprises.

Those that should lead by example are themselves floundering. The Presidency is conspicuous by its absence in the list of the clean departments.

According to the A-G's report: "There are significant concerns over the prevention and detection of unauthorised expenditure at the Presidency."

Parliament is also not a paragon of virtue. It is regressing as non-compliance takes its toll in its procurement processes.

Although national Treasury received an unqualified audit, there are "findings on predetermined objectives and compliance ." and it has "regressed in the area of predetermined objectives".

The question is: If the Presidency, Parliament and national Treasury are themselves fraught with these challenges, how will they crack the whip to bring other departments into line?

In the provinces, governance has literally collapsed and is worse in the ANC-controlled provinces and municipalities.

According to the 2010/11 A-G's report, the best governed province is Western Cape, under the Democratic Alliance. The best metropolitan council is the City of Cape Town, also under the DA. Some of the worst run municipalities such as Msunduzi in KwaZulu-Natal and Madibeng in North West, are also under the control of the ANC.

Of the eight provinces under the ANC, it is a struggle to find good governance and a corruption-free leadership that is beyond reproach.

In fact, three of the ANC-controlled provinces are under administration in terms of Section 100 of the Constitution. These are Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Free State. The Gauteng health department's inability to manage its finances properly has also necessitated extraordinary assistance from the national Department of Health.

The other four provinces of Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal that are not under administration are not the best either. That they are not free of corruption scandals, let alone service delivery protests, is not a mark of good governance.

The underlying reason for the interventions is the collapse of governance. Sadly, some of the national departments that are intervening do, themselves, deserve to be under administration.

They are fraught with similar challenges of incapacity, non-compliance, corruption and poor leadership. Thus the interventions are bound to fail as is already the case in Limpopo. It is a case of the blind rescuing the blind.

How, for instance, could the Department of Basic Education rescue the children from the ineptitude of Limpopo or Eastern Cape governments when, according to the A-G, it is highly incapacitated and has a number of unfunded vacancies?

That it had to rely on a retired old man for its intervention in Limpopo is a story of general incapacity in government. That there are now three task teams in Limpopo following the textbook scandal paints a picture of a confused government.

While it may be easy and popular to demand that Minister Angie Motshekga should be fired, a question must be asked about the role of the Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane. He ought to have known before schools reopened in January that the Department of Basic Education was going to let the children of Limpopo down.

It should not be surprising therefore that more South Africans are increasingly relying on the judiciary to force the government to deliver on its mandate. This, too, is an indictment on the ANC's failure to govern.

Once again, two years before the 2014 elections - the year of "the second phase of transition" - the ANC finds itself having to answer the same question: is it fit to govern?

• Malada is a senior researcher at the Forum for Public Dialogue. He is also a member of the Midrand Group