Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu
As the country awaits Cabinet reshuffle which was necessitated by the recently concluded ANC’s 55th National Conference in which new leaders were elected, all eyes are now on the re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Several questions quickly come to mind. Will the President be decisive this time around? Will his focus be on appeasing those who saved him from resigning as President of the country in November 2022? Will he use this opportunity to bring the different factions of the ANC closer? Will he recycle Ministers to avoid further divisions within the ANC and the Tripartite Alliance? Will he put the country first and appoint Cabinet Ministers with requisite skills and knowledge to take this country forward?
These are just some of the questions that are reverberating in the minds of many South Africans. With the ANC conference behind us, Ramaphosa will invoke Section 84 of the Constitution and reshuffle Cabinet. This will be in order. Section 84(e) of the Constitution states that the President is responsible for “making any appointments that the Constitution or legislation requires the President to make, other than as head of the national executives.”
While some South Africans are optimistic about how the President will use this Constitutional privilege, others are either pessimistic at best or despondent at worst. The view of the latter group is predicated on the fact that thus far Ramaphosa has been perceived as a President who is neither firm nor bold enough to make tough decisions. Should that be the case, then the nation will once again be disappointed and brace itself for another turbulent period before the 2024 general election.
If the President is serious about changing the country’s fortunes, he has to be firm, pragmatic, realistic, rational and considerate. He should put the country first and listen to the concerns of many South Africans. The biggest mistake that the President could make would be to allow himself to be overwhelmed by his recent re-election as the leader of the ANC. Another mistake would be for him to use the victory of the majority who support him both in the Top 7 and the NEC to make reckless decisions knowing that he would be applauded by them.
One of the opportunities that the President has at his disposal at this point is to consider trimming his Cabinet in order to save the country’s shrinking financial resources. He could do this by merging certain Ministries, thereby reducing the number of Ministers and thus the size of the Cabinet.
Secondly, the President could consider reducing the number of Deputy Ministers. In this regard, the question becomes: do all the Ministries really need Deputy Ministers? Would Directors-General and Deputy Directors-General not assist their Ministers in executing their mandate? These are very pertinent questions in two respects. Firstly, not all Deputy Ministers are visible in terms of their responsibilities. Secondly, when the Minister is not available for whatever reason, the Deputy Minister is never appointed as either Acting Minister or Minister. Until there is a Constitutional amendment, the current status quo will remain.
If the President wants to leave a good legacy, before deciding who to retain, who to fire and who else to bring into his Cabinet, his primary task should be to identify the issues that are of serious concern to the South African people. At the top of that list is the load shedding menace. Other issues of national importance (some of which are directly linked to load shedding) are: the state of the country’s economy, the increasing unemployment rate, the constantly increasing petrol prices, the high levels of crime and such related matters.
Once the President has applied his mind on these and other matters, he should then ask himself very critical questions. Among them are the following: are the Ministries properly structured? Are the Ministers who are leading certain Ministries the right fit? Are there potential candidates from Parliament who might turn things around? Answers to these questions would assist the President as he deploys people into different Ministries.
Of critical importance for the President would be to look beyond his party. If there are capable MPs from other political parties, these could be given a chance. Such a decision would not be unprecedented. Previous Presidents since 1994 have appointed people from opposition political parties to serve in Cabinet. Some did a sterling job. No political egos will take this country out of the present predicaments and quagmire!
Therefore, Ramaphosa has the opportunity to either build or destroy his legacy. He also has a chance to walk the talk. He has made many promises, he now has the opportunity to deliver on them and take the country to the stratosphere. He owes this to the nation and to the ANC.
*Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu is Director for the Centre for the Advancement for Non-Racialism and Democracy at Nelson Mandela University.