Sisulu urged to tread carefully in dealing with unions

LINDIWE Sisulu — the new public service and administration minister — will have to tread carefully in her new portfolio, following warnings yesterday from public service unions that she might have to change her attitude towards unions if all parties are to have a “cordial relationship going forward”.

In her previous post as defence minister, Ms Sisulu had a stormy relationship with unions, which accused her of attempts to deunionise the defence force.

She was shifted to public service and administration on Tuesday when President Jacob Zuma reshuffled his Cabinet for the third time.

Public service workers render essential services, which, if interrupted, would endanger or inconvenience the life or the health of citizens.

Tensions between the unions and the government have often badly affected service delivery.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) — which represents about 1,3-million workers — says that the new minister would need a new orientation on her part if she is to resolve a range of issues that affect workers in the public service. “We are nonetheless troubled by (Ms Sisulu’s) history of intolerance in dealing with the workers as evidenced by her relationship with the union that represented the soldiers during her tenure as a minister of defence,” Nehawu spokesman Sizwe Pamla says.

Ms Sisulu joins her new department at a time when wage negotiations are continuing between the unions and the government.

The government is offering 6,5%, while the unions, along with Nehawu, want 8%. The Treasury says it is not prepared to offer aboveinflation wage increases, expected to be about 6%.

South African Democratic Teachers Union secretary Mugwena Maluleke said yesterday Ms Sisulu had to understand that workers in the public service rendered essential services, and any disruption — due to hostile relations between the government and the unions — “goes to the core of service delivery”.

Critics have cautioned that Mr Zuma’s series of Cabinet reshuffles since 2009 did not necessarily deliver a better government. Tuesday’s appointment of 28-year-old Mduduzi Manana as deputy higher education minister has been seen as a political reward for his loyalty to Mr Zuma in his fight with the African National Congress Youth League.

Moreover, his predecessor, Hlengiwe Mkhize, has been appointed a deputy minister for the third time, this time in economic development.

Even then, another Cabinet change could be on the cards if Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma scoops the position of African Union commissioner next month.

However, Ms Sisulu is not the only one whose powers of negotiation will be severely tested.

Her newly appointed colleague in the Department of Transport, Ben Martins, is also expected to navigate a tough confrontation between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the government about the proposed “user pay” model for the Gauteng e-toll project.

Mr Martins — who was among the four new appointees sworn into the Cabinet yesterday — is a senior member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), whose leaders clashed with Cosatu over etolling earlier this year.

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said yesterday the trade union federation expected Mr Martins to “bury the idea of e-tolling once and for all”.

Mr Craven said that both Cosatu and the SACP had agreed to reject etolling, which would place Mr Martins in a difficult position if the government insisted on continuing with the project.

Mr Craven said Cosatu would work with the government and the African National Congress to find ways to cover the costs involved.

However, last month the government approached the Constitutional Court in a bid to overturn a North Gauteng High Court interdict which halted the launch of e-tolling.

SHUFFLING while Rome burns. That’s the cynical response to President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle, the third since he came to power in 2009, although “Rome” might more accurately be replaced with “Athens” or even “Mangaung”.

There is some justification for such cynicism. With the global economy again seemingly teetering on the edge of the abyss and some of SA’s state institutions looking less than rock solid as the leadership battle in the African National Congress (ANC) heats up, there is a sense that rotating government ministers is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Yet the allocation of Cabinet portfolios is seldom motivated solely by the pursuit of efficiency in any democracy. They almost always combine practical need with party political imperatives and the consolidation of presidential power.

If it was just about competence and outcomes, Mr Zuma would have been able to justify sacking any number of his Cabinet colleagues, ranging from Angie Motshekga (basic education) to Tina JoematPettersson (agriculture and fisheries) and Ebrahim Patel (economic development). Key constituencies have to be kept loyal, though, especially when a key elective conference is looming. So alliance politics is as much a factor in who keeps their job as it is in who gets promoted. The appointment of ANC Youth League executive committee member and Julius Malema opponent Mduduzi Manana as deputy higher education minister surely falls into this category.

But Tuesday’s reshuffle was by no means just a game of political musical chairs. Necessity certainly played a role and — yes — even a genuine desire to make governance more effective in key areas. Public Service and Administration Minister Roy Padayachie’s death in Ethiopia, and Deputy Economic Development Minister Enoch Godongwana’s resignation made a reshuffle inevitable. In addition, it was clear that Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele’s credibility had taken a knock over his inept handling of the Gauteng tolls saga, and the likelihood that the government will eventually have to change tack on the issue meant a change of personnel was called for.

The timing of the appointments is interesting. Mr Zuma could not wait too long to replace Mr Padayachie, given the importance of the portfolio in the context of SA’s fiscal framework, which must be carefully managed if the budget forecasts are to be met. Public service wage negotiations are already under way, so it was imperative that a strong individual with solid credentials take over the portfolio without delay.

At the same time, the government has been lobbying strongly for Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over from Gabon’s Jean Ping as chairman of the African Union commission. It would have made sense for Mr Zuma to wait until after this matter was settled before reshuffling his Cabinet, if only to avoid having to make changes for a fourth time. The fact that he did not may be an indication that the government is not confident that its diplomatic efforts are going to be any more successful than they were in January, when neither candidate secured a majority vote.

Lindiwe Sisulu’s removal from defence and appointment as Mr Padayachie’s replacement has been widely interpreted as a snub, given her reputation as something of a loose cannon. If anecdotal reports are to be believed, she was less than happy with the news. But her combative style and struggle pedigree may be more useful to Mr Zuma in the public service position. He needs union support to triumph at Mangaung, but throwing in the towel at the public service wage talks would have economic ramifications that might turn a second term as president into a poisoned chalice.