As the ANC makes every effort to secure President Cyril Ramaphosa’s election for a second term as head of state, his reform agenda may be derailed by who he can appoint as ministers.
The drop in electoral support for the ANC in the election has resulted in it losing 71 parliamentary seats, and some of Ramaphosa’s best-performing ministers are not returning as MPs.
Some of Ramaphosa’s first choices to be ministers in cabinet are thus ineligible, and his hand is limited as he can only pick two people from outside the pool of MPs.
A cursory look at the list the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) handed over to chief justice Raymond Zondo on Thursday shows it does not include international relations minister Naledi Pandor, police minister Bheki Cele, minister of defence Thandi Modise, her social development counterpart Lindiwe Zulu, labour minister Thulas Nxesi and Noxolo Kiviet, the public service & administration minister.
Other strong Ramaphosa allies, such as public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, indicated before the elections they would not be available. Ramaphosa also lost a strong ally in Zizi Kodwa, who resigned as sports minister and had to step aside this week after being arrested and charged for corruption.
Former SABC News boss Snuki Zikalala, former Gauteng and Western Cape premiers David Makhura and Ebrahim Rasool and former Joburg mayor Parks Tau — who are seen to be among the strongest advocates for a more aggressive approach in pushing Ramaphosa’s reform agenda — also did not make the cut to take up a seat as an ANC MP.
Ramaphosa has acknowledged that due to the slow pace of implementing his reform agenda not enough was done in his first term to reverse losses after a period of state capture.
If SA’s governance and economic prospects are not significantly improved in the next five years, Ramaphosa’s re-election will do little to improve the sharp decline in support for the governing party at the polls, which is threating to relegate the ANC to irrelevance.
He must now heed the voters and appoint a cabinet that is fit for purpose and capable of addressing the myriad challenges that we face.
— Lawson Naidoo
“Now that the voters have given the ANC a strong message, the next president, if it is [Ramaphosa], should no longer be preoccupied with satisfying the different interest groups in his party,” the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution’s Lawson Naidoo said.
“He must now heed the voters and appoint a cabinet that is fit for purpose and capable of addressing the myriad challenges that we face.”
IEC chair Mosotho Moepya said in handing over the list of elected MPs to Zondo: “These representatives reflect the choices, hopes and aspirations of millions of citizens who exercised their democratic rights.”
Zondo said he would announce the date for the first sitting of parliament in due course. “In terms of the constitution, the chief justice must make rules that will apply when the first sitting of parliament takes place [when] the speaker and deputy speaker of parliament are elected, as well as the president,” said Zondo. “Those rules will also apply to provincial legislators. The judiciary will play its role to make sure things run as smoothly as possible.”
Of the total number of MPs set to be sworn in, 174 are women (43.5%) and 226 men (56.5%). They are aged between 20 and 79.
Meanwhile, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said he had decided against going to parliament and would concentrate on growing his party.
The party secured six seats in parliament after garnering more than 630,000 votes in its first national election.
Mashaba announced on Wednesday that four members of his party were chosen to be MPs, but his name and that of ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont were not on the list.
Speaking to TimesLIVE, Mashaba said he needed to work more to grow his party as he believed many South Africans voted in last week’s elections “along racial lines”, something he opposes.
“ActionSA has a huge role to play. If you look at how South Africans voted, they voted purely along racial lines, something we fought against during apartheid for years. We need a moderate political party that can stand for one SA, and I believe [Beaumont] and I need to focus on that,” he said.
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