President bowed to internal pressure
UASA’s enthusiasm for the “new dawn” announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa is somewhat dampened after the sequence of events leading up to, and the actual announcement of, the cabinet reshuffle.
We would have preferred that the president remain strong and confident as per his State of the Nation address, but it would appear the pressure of internal ANC faction battles has taken its toll and shaken his confidence.
We can only hope that, moving forward, Ramaphosa will be able to put together a successful strategy to deal with these matters in order to deliver on his promise of “South Africa first”, without compromise to internal ANC struggles.
It is trite that the likes of Nomvula Mokonyane, Malusi Gigaba and David Mabuza somehow managed to survive the reshuffle, not to mention the unspeakable Bathabile Dlamini.
Getting back to the more serious matters, we welcome the appointment of Nhlanhla Nene as minister of finance. With Nene at the helm of the Treasury, sleepless nights may soon be something of the past.
The appointment of Pravin Gordhan as minister of public enterprises is of critical importance as he won’t hesitate to get stuck into, and to fix, our ailing parastatals.
His no-nonsense approach will soon see major shake-ups in the respective boards of the parastatals, as well as the corporate architecture aimed at restoring and eventually maximising shareholder value.
In this regard, at Uasa Denel will be top of mind as the state-owned company that, through singularly bad management and planning, could not afford to pay the annual bonuses of our members in December last year.
We are also pleased with the appointment of Gwede Mantashe as the new minister of mineral resources.
The mining sector has not looked particularly promising lately and it is therefore critical that the industry is transformed in the correct manner, keeping in mind that all things possible should be done to optimise shareholder value and keep operators in the industry economically sustainable and financially viable on the one hand, while at the same time socially corrective measures must be implemented on an inclusive basis.
It is of critical importance that Mantashe involve all stakeholders to jointly carve out a future for the mining industry through the new Mining Charter.