It might be unreasonable to complain about the uninspiring choices that emerged in the wake of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to reorganise his cabinet late last week.
After all, many a commentator, some on the pages of Business Day, had bemoaned not just the weakness of the existing cabinet but also that of would-be replacements. To get a sense of that one just has to look at parliament and the members the ruling ANC has chosen to head up important committees.
To chair the one that oversees co-operative affairs & traditional affairs, the party delivered Faith Muthambi, the former minister who was fingered in the Gupta e-mails for sharing confidential government information with the notorious family accused of masterminding the looting that defined former president Jacob Zuma’s time in office.
On the home affairs committee there is corruption-accused Bongani Bongo, while Mosebenzi Zwane, who allegedly helped facilitate the takeover of a coal supplier to Eskom by the Gupta family, is supposed to lead oversight of the transport portfolio. To the list one can add Tina Joemat-Pettersson, best known for allegedly approving the sale of strategic oil reserves held by the Strategic Fuel Fund Association for below the market price.
The ruling party was never in a position to deliver the new faces the country was crying out for.
It was a no brainer that members of the security cluster who badly let the country down during the riots that killed more than 300 people and hurt the country’s image in ways that are hard to quantify, had to go.
The reason Bheki Cele, the police minister, wasn’t shown the door like the now former defence minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, and Ayanda Dlodlo, who was “demoted” from the state security portfolio to the crucial role of public service & administration, will perhaps come out in time.
The change in the finance ministry, removing Tito Mboweni — who had taken the unions to court and won when repudiating prior wage agreements negotiated by the public service department and refusing to implement the last leg of the three-year round that was due to run from 2018 to 2021 — understandably dominated the headlines.
From the start, Mboweni told anyone who would listen that it was never his choice to take the job in the first place when Nhlanhla Nene quit in October 2018. By all accounts he was an absentee minister. This meant Ramaphosa’s attempt to spin the change as being in keeping with Mboweni’s long-stated wishes didn’t seem implausible. However, the questions remain: why now and what were the terms of the departure?
The plus side for the markets is that his replacement, Enoch Godongwana, has made the correct type of noises, indicating that there will be continuity. His comments on the debate over the introduction of a basic income grant, emphasising the need to build an economy that provides work rather than one that promotes dependence funded by unsustainable borrowing, may allay fears of those who fear a shift to populist policies that can only send the country’s credit ratings further into junk.
There will also be debates on Ramaphosa’s steps to move oversight of the country’s dysfunctional intelligence services. Zuma showed potential for abuse. But the destruction of other institutions — from the National Prosecuting Authority to the SA Revenue Service — and resistance from others, such as the Reserve Bank, during his time in office demonstrate that direct control isn’t necessary to achieve less than honourable aims. The people running the organisations and their ethics matter more.
The biggest criticism of Ramaphosa’s reshuffle is that it wasn’t about governance but about managing ANC internal battles. He could have made a clear statement by trimming the bloated cabinet. Small businesses are supposed to be the heart of job creation and growth, and they deserve more than a show ministry. It says much that the new incumbent, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, was widely seen to have suffered a demotion when moved to small business development.
Within the limited space he had, there was still room for Ramaphosa to put country before party. Unfortunately, he didn’t grab the opportunity.
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