We finally have a cabinet - wow let's get down to business.
We finally have a cabinet!
Yes, it took a while and it was touch and go at times, but this was some gigantic effort. Not many countries can get 11 very diverse parties to agree to form a coalition in less than a month.
It was interesting to see the intricate dance Ramaphosa had to perform to get this to work. One way was to enlarge cabinet with two more positions, whilst also splitting a few ministries. The sensitive Land portfolio had to be split from the DA controlled Agriculture for obvious reasons. (While I’m on Agriculture: Many have been wondering why the DA was so keen to get agriculture when the closest John Steenhuisen most probably ever got to farming is buying eggs and rotisserie chickens at Woolies. The answer lies not so much in farming, but in the farmers and in particularly the ones who voted for the FF+ in the past! It is one of the few potential growth points for the DA.)
But I digress.
Splitting Mineral and Mining from Energy – something I suggested in a column over a year ago - was well overdue and the right decision. Ramaphosa had to retain the Secretary General of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, in his cabinet and Mantashe’s past experiences serves him well in mining, but thankfully he no longer has anything to do with energy – green or otherwise.
Interestingly, Pravin Gordhan’s final act before his retirement, was to propose the scrapping of the Public Enterprise portfolio - which Ramaphosa did.
If you don’t recognize many of the faces, you are not alone. More than half of the cabinet of 32 ministers are new – in part because of the 12 seats occupied by the non-ANC (we can no longer call them opposition) parties who, apart from Patricia de Lille, have never served in cabinet.
The ANC also has six new faces. Most importantly Ramaphosa got rid of almost all of those mentioned in the Zondo Commission report on State Capture. Although the ANC still has 20 cabinet positions, 16 ANC ministers who previous held cabinet positions are no longer there.
Wisely, President Ramaphosa retained some of the more seasoned ministers amongst the 20 ANC ministers. The experienced Enoch Godongwana was needed as Minister of Finance to stabilise the markets and calm down jittery investors. The highly respected Barbara Creecy was moved to Transport and although a loss to Environment, it is important to have someone of her caliber to deal with the troublesome Transnet, Spoornet and SAA. Equally, keeping Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to deal with Eskom and Energy is a good move.
Aaron Motsoaledi returns to Health after a stint at Home Affairs (by the way, good luck to Leon Schreiber with that prickly pear!). Of course, Motsoaledi came up with the early formulations of the National Health Insurance (NHI) so one can only assume that he will double down on the implementation of the recently passed legislation despite the inevitable court cases.
Human Settlements stayed with Mmamoloko Kubayi, Tourism with Auntie Pat (de Lille) and Blade Nzimande retained Science and Technology – albeit without Higher Education.
Velinkosi Hlabisa, leader of the IFP, makes sense in Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. The jury is out on Pieter Groenewald in Correctional Services and Gayton McKenzie in sport – although I have to say, I enjoyed his tweet (with a photo of him in sports gear) immediately after the announcement saying that he can’t respond to all the good wishes since he was already working.
So now they have to make it work.
In the next few days, they will have a lekgotla to decide on priorities for the country. They must also agree on a conflict resolution mechanism.
After all the weeks of panic and uncertainty I believe this is a good cabinet and a win-win situation for all involved. Now, can we please get down to business and fix the country? Oh, and spare a thought for the president who will have his hands full with all the mega egos that will fill the cabinet room.