President Cyril Ramaphosa will reinstate a policy and research advisory unit in the presidency, which will give him a clear line of sight over the government, particularly the design and implementation of economic and investment policies.
The unit will also give the presidency oversight of strategic projects, such as the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
It is also expected that a new growth plan and a new industrial policy will emanate from work done within the presidency and that a senior minister with strong government and ANC standing will be appointed to work in the presidency, purely as adviser to Ramaphosa.
A similar unit was key to the functioning of the presidency during the terms of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency but was dismantled by Jacob Zuma, who instead set up the department of planning, monitoring & evaluation in the presidency. Mbeki’s unit, which was headed by party heavyweight Joel Netshitenzhe, played a critical role in co-ordinating government and identifying economic policy priorities and strategies to drive these.
Khusela Diko, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, said a decision had been taken to establish the new unit, which will be called Policy and Research Services and will be headed by Busani Ngcaweni, who has been head of policy in the presidency since Ramaphosa came into office.
The first areas of priority will be the economy, infrastructure planning and development, agricultural development and government service delivery.
It will co-ordinate the NHI scheme war room, which is also headed by Ngcaweni and in which former health director-general Olive Shisana plays a key role.
It is expected that with guidance from Ramaphosa’s envisaged economic advisory council and investment adviser panel, the unit will be responsible for a new economic growth plan and a revised industrial policy for the country. The councils, however, have not yet been established.
"Initially the mandate will be policy analysis and co-ordination across government and working with the forum of directors-general and the cabinet. It will also be responsible for the co-ordination of presidential advisory councils and working groups, the provision of research support to the president’s advisers and co-ordination of strategic programmes like the NHI. This role will evolve over time as capacity is developed," Ngcaweni said on Sunday.
The policy unit expects to begin recruiting specialist staff and experts in June. Both SA’s economic growth plan and industrial policy have been tacitly acknowledged within government as needing revision. An ongoing critique of the credit ratings agencies has been the lack of a credible growth story.
By the time of Ramaphosa’s February state of the nation address the unit intends to be able to put forward a newly imagined economic growth plan and industrial policy, in collaboration with relevant government departments.
Other important aspects of restructuring the government include cutting down the cabinet to about 25 portfolios. Several government departments, including the department of public service & administration and the presidency, have been working on a new plan for government, but this work is yet to be accepted by Ramaphosa.
Over the past 25 years the state has become increasingly large, expensive to run and fragmented with a proliferation of departments and agencies. This was, in part, a result of Zuma’s tendency to use the executive and administration to hand out patronage and leverage government resources for private benefit. It was also because the solution to delivery failures in government was to create a new agency or department.
The deprofessionalisation of the public service happened in tandem with this trend as cabinet ministers began selecting their directors-general and senior staff on the basis of personal and political loyalty rather than competence. A proposal in the National Development Plan is to change the appointment process of top government managers to one overseen by the Public Service Commission, a constitutional body with the responsibility to ensure an efficient public service.
The details of Ramaphosa’s plan will only be known after his inauguration on May 25.
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