Governance flawed – Mbeki

Former president Thabo Mbeki says there is a “lack of cohesion” in President Jacob Zuma’s government, describing it as a “confederation of ministries”.

On Power FM on Thursday night, Mbeki, pictured, said the country was “facing too many challenges for government not to act as a cohesive force”.

He said the president, as head not only of state but also of government, should understand the role of chairing Cabinet meetings, where he deals with memoranda submitted by various ministers in order to take decisions that do not contradict each other.

“So, you must be able as chair to deal with all Cabinet memoranda, otherwise you don’t have government, because then you don’t have a centre that can hold. So what you come up with is a government Cabinet decision,” explained Mbeki.

“If you don’t do that, it then becomes individual ministerial decisions. So, instead of having a Cabinet, you will have what I once called a federation of ministries, and Trevor [Manuel] here corrected me and said a ‘confederation of ministries’.

“We need to work on that so that we have necessary cohesion in government.”

As an example of how the current Cabinet was fragmented, Mbeki cited a recent contradiction between the ministries of home affairs and tourism over the visa application issues. The contradiction was resolved by reversing the decision.

Mbeki said he was surprised Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced a “14-point inclusive growth economic action plan” to the economic malaise.

“I was surprised that it was the minister of finance who’s going to make a plan about how to regenerate this economy.

“It has nothing to do with the minister of finance. I would have expected the minister of economic affairs or trade and industry to do so,” Mbeki said.

Mbeki also put the National Development Plan (NDP) under the spotlight.

“The NDP is not a plan, it’s a vision. We need to take the NDP and elaborate a plan to achieve these objectives outlined in it.

“I don’t sense that there is any work being done to implement it. Let’s elaborate an implementation plan out of the NDP and that might get us somewhere,” Mbeki said.

The former president also dismissed suggestions that white monopoly capital was South Africa’s enemy. – ANA