Out of the spotlight
Aaron Motsoaledi, minister of home affairs
Aaron Motsoaledi worked with the department of international relations & co-operation to ensure South Africans overseas would be allowed to return home despite the closed borders.f
He published regulations in May permitting essential travel for South Africans who wanted to return to countries where they are based. He said they would be allowed to leave SA if it was for the purposes of work, study, family reunions, permanent residency or medical attention.
Senzo Mchunu, minister of public service & administration
Public servants such as nurses, doctors and teachers have been at the heart of SA’S response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But while the lockdown has played itself out, Senzo Mchunu has been battling public sector unions on wage increases. These were supposed to be paid on April 1 under a three-year wage agreement, but the increases were canned due to budget cuts.
Maite Nkoana-mashabane, minister in the presidency for women
Maite Nkoana-mashabane has, strangely, been less vocal than other ministers and President Cyril Ramaphosa on the scourge of genderbased violence — one of the biggest nonCovid issues of the lockdown.
Ayanda Dlodlo, minister of state security
Given the cloak-and-dagger nature of intelligence in SA, it’s not clear what has been going on in Ayanda Dlodlo’s department during the lockdown. But the minister must have had her fair share of work, given the presence of Islamic State in Mozambique, and the violence and breakdown of democracy in Zimbabwe.
Pravin Gordhan, minister of public enterprises
Pravin Gordhan’s time during the pandemic has been spent trying to rescue the embattled
SAA. He has been criticised for pushing for a new airline to emerge from the business rescue process, at a time when the airline industry has been brought to its knees.
Barbara Creecy, minister of the environment, forestry & fisheries
In July, as part of the move to level 3 of the lockdown, Barbara Creecy permitted hunters to sleep over at their hunting destinations, within the provinces they lived in.
The minister has noted that the ban on interprovincial travel helped to drastically reduce rhino poaching in the first six months of 2020: 166 rhinos were killed for their horns, against 316 in the first six months of 2019.