It was a long time coming, but when it did come the cabinet reshuffle was a good one. Many people will not agree given the low level of competence in the cabinet and the preoccupation of many there with their own political careers, as opposed to a commitment to change the lives of South Africans for the better.
This is understandable, so at the outset it is important to agree that the bar was very low. We have a cabinet padded out with people appointed to keep the leadership corps of the ANC well greased with patronage, to satisfy constituencies, maintain unity (as far as this is possible) and keep both friends and enemies close.
However, what is important is that President Cyril Ramaphosa will govern more effectively now. In making his cabinet choices he did what was most needed: establish a stronger political and strategic centre in his office and the top of the cabinet.
At the nucleus is the combination of new finance minister Enoch Godongwana and minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele. Together we can expect them to drive an economic reform agenda and to think strategically about the government’s programme of action in a way that has been absent from the Ramaphosa presidency until now. Added to this capacity in the inner circle will be Zizi Kodwa, who will take charge of intelligence, and special adviser on national security Sydney Mufamadi.
Ramaphosa also recently strengthened his office. He now has his own director-general (chosen and appointed by him), Phindile Baleni, and a project management office in the presidency, which acts like a delivery unit, working with Operation Vulindlela in the Treasury to unblock economic reform.
While these might seem obvious things for a president to do, the fact is Ramaphosa did not seek to do it when his term began. Partly this was because he mistakenly believed ANC unity could be forged. But unfortunately, with a dud for a deputy president, an absent and reluctant finance minister and a divided top six in the ANC, the natural places from which strategic direction should have come were missing.
Godongwana is a fiscal pragmatist. His politics and economics are mainstream, conventional ANC: a belief in a developmental state balanced by a commitment to investor-friendly policies as the best way to generate economic growth and employment. Having done dozens of roadshows and investor talks he is a well-known quantity with whom the market is familiar. In particular, he has stood up against prescribed assets, engaging in discussions over several years with industry to find alternative ways of channelling private investment into social goods.
As head of the economic transformation committee in the ANC for the past decade, Godongwana has developed a broader perspective on the economy than his predecessors. Tito Mboweni liked “staying in his lane”, he used to say. Godongwana will be different. Already he has situated the debate about the basic income grant in the context of developmental questions around young unemployed people, education, skills and the labour market. The grant is not just a question of affordability, it is also one of the desirability of condemning young people who should be in education to a life of dependency.
As well as being thoughtful, Godongwana has been brave, frequently taking public positions on matters that have earned him heat from party bosses. In the Jacob Zuma era he was one of the few to speak out publicly about the damage Zuma was doing to the economy, even when most business leaders themselves were quiet. He recently took a bollocking after saying on television after Ramaphosa’s appearance at the state capture commission in April, that he believed the ANC’s cadre deployment policy had run its course and was no longer needed.
Gungubele, a former mayor of Ekurhuleni and deputy finance minister for a stint when Ramaphosa first came into office in 2018, will take on the roles of communicating the government’s programme and co-ordinating government work. More than this, he will be Ramaphosa’s trusted ally, who has his back and can provide support, which since the departure of Jackson Mthembu has been in short supply.
While Gungubele has a reputation of outstanding personal and political integrity, the same is not the case for Godongwana, who in 2011 resigned as deputy economic development minister when a firm he had been involved in, alongside his wife, lost millions in workers’ pension money they had been charged with investing. Godongwana resigned from his post in the government and paid back the money to the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union, but the mud has been difficult to wipe off.
Ramaphosa is now in a stronger position to govern. While the things he has done now should have been done two years ago, the political centre is at last taking shape.
• Paton is editor at large.
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