Some mountains to climb on Cyril’s 2019 To Do list

By the time you read this column, I will be sitting by the pool with a gin & tonic in hand, trying to ignore the fact that whatever I didn’t manage to get done this year will still be waiting for me in the new year. There is always a mad rush to get things done before the start of the summer holidays but inevitably there are some things that — no matter how important — don’t get done before South Africans wrap up for the summer .

Despite my best efforts I am almost certain that, come December 31, I will probably have failed to renew my passport (again), been unable to get a quote from the plumber (soon), not finished that client proposal (sorry client!), or transferred my debit orders to my new bank account.

As annoying as it is to know that these things will still be on my To Do list in January, it is also reassuring to know that I am not alone in trying — and failing — to get everything done before the end of the year.

Take, for example, President Cyril Ramaphosa. The past two weeks have been a frenzy of activity.

He has appointed a new head of the National Prosecuting Authority, got the cabinet to reject the contentious National Health Insurance Bill, ensured that the National Assembly adopted the controversial land expropriation report, and pressured the ANC in Limpopo to give seven mayors in the province their marching orders over the VBS Mutual Bank scandal.

This is an impressive set of achievements for a fortnight.

However, for someone as ambitious as Ramaphosa I’m sure there was a lot more that he would have liked to get done before year-end.

Some of the jobs that will be waiting for him in the new year include appointing a new commissioner to the South African Revenue Service, sorting out the chaos at the SABC, and finding a politically palatable way to privatise SAA. Last but not least he will also have to focus on winning the 2019 general election.

But by far his biggest job next year will be to stabilise Eskom.

Unlike the ice in my G&T, Eskom’s almost half-atrillion-rands’ worth of debt will not have melted away by the time Ramaphosa gets back from holiday.

The recent suggestion that the government should absorb R100bn worth of Eskom debt onto its own balance sheet might provide it with some temporary relief but it will put huge pressure on the fiscus and threaten to crowd out private sector growth even further.

The uncomfortable truth is that without massive tariff increases (which are also growth-negative) and a completely new business model, it is hard to see how Eskom can struggle on.

Unfortunately for Ramaphosa, he will only be able to adequately address these problems and their consequences in the new year.

Until then, we will have to watch and wait and be reassured that everyone — no matter how important they are — goes on holiday with a few items lingering in their in-box.

Without a completely new business model, it is hard to see how Eskom can struggle on