The rand staged a relief rally as it digested the good news that SA now at last has a new cabinet, and one which the key parties to the government of national unity (GNU), the ANC and DA, could at last agree on, despite some bad-tempered tussles over the past couple of weeks.
It is an important moment for SA. And there is much about the new cabinet that is welcome. It brings in some new faces, including some young and relatively unknown ones. It shifts out some bad ministers and elevates some good ones. The inclusion of new coalition or national unity partners will surely make for a more contested and competitive spirit within the cabinet that could help to keep the government on its toes.
However, back in his first state of the nation address in 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised us a smaller cabinet. On Sunday night he announced the appointment of the largest cabinet SA has yet seen. The president had the grace to concede that he’d failed to deliver on his earlier promises to reduce the number of portfolios. He blamed this on the need to ensure that the cabinet was inclusive of all the parties to the GNU. But that’s clearly not the reason.
the... issue is that all the evidence is that a smaller executive would be much more effective, not to mention easier to manage
In reality, it reflects the fact that the ANC hasn’t yet conceded it is a minority government. SA’s electorate may have given the ANC only 40% of the vote, but the party still felt entitled to claim 62.5% of the ministerial posts in the cabinet — 20 of the 32. The only other party with meaningful representation is the DA, the party most essential to the ANC’s ability to form and sustain a stable government, which with six posts (or 18%) is underrepresented relative to its share of the vote.
It’s worth noting that deputy ministers don’t really matter: they are often the most frustrated people in the government because they are not members of the cabinet, legally have no power to deputise for their ministers, and have no clear role. But even at deputy level, though Ramaphosa has spread posts around the parties, the ANC has still taken the lion’s share.
The expense of providing housing, support services, security and travel for as many as 74 ministers and deputies is one issue; the more fundamental issue is that all the evidence is that a smaller executive would be much more effective, not to mention easier to manage.
Getting the new cabinet to work and to cohere has to be the priority for now. But Ramaphosa cannot let the size and configuration of the government go off the radar screen in years to come. And the fact that he has included so many people in the executive should add to the pressure on the president and his new ministers to show that they can deliver better outcomes for SA than the previous government managed to do.
There are some promising appointments. In the economic cluster, finance was thankfully always going to go to Enoch Godongwana again. But bringing the highly regarded Barbara Creecy over to transport could accelerate much-needed reforms at Transnet, and splitting mining and energy will at least bring clarity, even if the economy would have been better off without Gwede Mantashe.
Giving home affairs to the DA’s Leon Schreiber might at last break the foreign skills deadlock, and we have to hope the DA’s Siviwe Gwarube at basic education can make a difference to foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy, even if the national department has only limited power compared with the provinces — a constraint that the DA’s John Steenhuisen could also face at agriculture.
The ANC’s Parks Tau will hopefully run a more market-friendly trade & industry ministry than his predecessor. Moving the excellent Senzo Mchunu to the police ministry is a big loss to water but a gain for the country, given how much better policing could help to tackle corruption, improve the quality of life and make it easier to do business.
For markets and for the health sector the return of Aaron Motsoaledi will be a concern, especially given his long-standing support for National Health Insurance (NHI). Angie Motshekga at defence will raise eyebrows — as will Gayton McKenzie at sport & culture.
The IFP has two portfolios central to the functioning of the government, with Velenkosini Hlabisa at local government and Mzamo Buthelezi at public service & administration.
But the point about many of our new cabinet ministers is we simply don’t know them, or how they might perform in the government. That’s a risk. But it’s also a big opportunity for change, an opportunity to do things better. The new cabinet must grab that opportunity to make SA a better place.
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