Not exactly a new dawn
THE appointment of a new cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa refers. R2K is not sad to say goodbye to certain characters whose work was actively destructive to the public’s right to know: David Mahlobo, Bongani Bongo and Faith Muthambi especially. However, much of the new cabinet does not look like the “new dawn” that was promised, but more of the same.
In Nomvula Mokonyane, SA has its eighth communications minister in as many years, and fourth one in 12 months. This portfolio, which is crucial in ensuring the free flow of information and media plurality, has often been used as a dumping site for non-performing ministers, or to try to turn the public broadcaster and community media organisations into state mouthpieces.
Mokonyane’s performance in other portfolios, especially her recent stint as water affairs and sanitation minister, has not inspired confidence.
In Bheki Cele we have a minister of police who, as former head of police, advocated “shoot to kill” policies and oversaw a corrupt leasing deal that led to his firing. His attempts to cover up this deal led to the arrest and detention of journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika, and the illegal spying on the phone communication of wa Afrika and his colleague Stephan Hofstatter. Only the most junior official involved in that spying was charged and prosecuted, yet surely this was authorised at the highest levels. We are left wondering what Cele will do differently now that he is minister?
However, it is the announcement of David Mabuza as deputy president of SA that is most outrageous. As premier of Mpumalanga Mabuza led and managed a province rife with corruption, political killings, and threats to journalists, whistleblowers and political dissidents.
His open boast of having journalists spied on in his province is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Inspector General of Intelligence. Mabuza is now one heartbeat away from being president of the country.
We are also dismayed by the retention of Bathabile Dlamini. She was convicted and fined in 2006 after pleading guilty to fraud in the TravelGate scandal. Since then she has done nothing to show she has abandoned her corrupt ways. She is now the subject of an inquiry into her conduct in a social grants scandal which has plagued SA since 2013.
We reserve judgment on the new Minister of State Security, Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, until she shows willingness to undo the securocratic legacy of her predecessors, who have allowed the SSA to be increasingly politicised and involved in abusive and even criminal activity. Her first task is to fire the director-general, Arthur Fraser, as spy boss.
New dawns are made through actions, not words. So far the actions have amounted to budget cuts to social services and infrastructure, an increase in value-added tax (VAT) to 15%, and a recycling of characters in upper leadership. If nothing else, these actions are a reminder that SA cannot afford complacency. If we want a true new dawn, one based on openness, transparency, accountability and services, we’ll have to work for it, mobilising in the streets, building democracy from the ground up. – Mluleki Marongo, Murray Hunter and Dale McKinley, R2K