President Cyril Ramaphosa, facing a challenge in December as ANC leader, has reached a midpoint of his five-year term as president of SA. Last week he presided over a cabinet lekgotla to assess progress of his administration’s plans, and how to achieve his vision.
As the party’s December elective conference approaches, the temptation is high among his allies to trumpet his successes and explain away his failures.
It would be churlish to suggest that he has been an outright failure or no different from his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, who left the bar so low that anyone with half a brain could have succeeded. But Ramaphosa’s legacy, at this midpoint, is emerging as one of missed opportunities.
Yes, much has been achieved under Ramaphosa. His biggest achievement, of course, was to disrupt the state capture project: consequently, many important institutions — such as the SA Revenue Service, the National Prosecuting Authority and its investigations directorate, the police, the intelligence services and the judiciary — now have decent leadership at the helm.
Slowly, but surely, cases are being built against those suspected to have been orchestrators of state capture which peaked during the Zuma years. Late in August, top former Transnet executives appeared in court to face criminal allegations related to the industrial scale corruption.
After many years of stop-start, important structural reforms are finally under way, albeit at a slow pace. Soon, hopefully, third parties will be able to participate in Transnet’s freight rail, logistics and ports infrastructure; licensing hurdles have been removed enabling independent power producers to generate power to add to the rapidly collapsing national grid; and, after decades, the high-demand spectrum has been auctioned.
Contrary to his party’s wishes, the Reserve Bank has not been nationalised, and the ill-advised ANC resolution to expropriate land without compensation has stalled and is unlikely to see light of day any time soon.
When the Covid-19 pandemic, humanity’s biggest headache in recent memory, hit SA’s shores in 2020, Ramaphosa displayed rare leadership, rallying ordinary South Africans, the rich and business to collectively face this challenge.
That said, it is significant to mention that some of these seemingly positive developments have occurred not because of deliberate action by the state or the ANC, but despite them, and, often, because of ANC incompetence and infighting. A case in point is the implementation of land expropriation without compensation.
Ramaphosa’s administration has also been a biggest disappointment. After ousting Zuma in 2018, he promised many things. Two stand out: first, a clean government; and second, a small, ethical and effective government.
Corruption has not stopped
Corruption might have reduced and become subtle, but has not stopped. During the Covid-19 pandemic, some civil servants helped themselves to the poverty relief grants and tenders for personal protective equipment, and many others are implicated in post-state capture malfeasance. Tellingly, whistle-blowers are feeling stranded, and others, such as Babita Deokaran, have lost their lives.
Crime, including new forms of criminality such as attacks on women and attacks on economic infrastructure is on the rise. State-owned enterprises such as power utility Eskom, Transnet, Denel and the Post Office are failing the economy, and, despite threats to cut off bailouts, the government has continued to dish out the goodies.
The size of the government has not been trimmed. Ramaphosa has succumbed to pressures from his party and kept superfluous ministries to dispense patronage.
Like his predecessors, he has shown incredible tolerance for incompetence. Instead of sacking non-performers, Ramaphosa has opted to surround himself with many special advisers and created a plethora of advisory councils — staffed by private- sector individuals with impressive credentials — for many functions that ought to be performed by the state. Worse, this effective outsourcing of governance has yet to show how it has improved governance effectiveness.
The worst, but valid, criticism of Ramaphosa’s emerging legacy is twofold: first, the inertia that hobbles decision-making; and, when decisions are made at last, implementation is parked. For example, even though it has been evident for years now that the urban e-tolling system is not working, no decision has been made to discontinue the system.
Ramaphosa behaves as though he is a man blessed with time. Like all men, he does not have the luxury of time.
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