Surviving SA’s worst president since apartheid
FORMER finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s demise was predicted months ago when he said he would not approve the procurement on the much-talked-about nuclear deal with Russia if it was unaffordable.
It should have been obvious to many that affordability has never been an issue where the president and his huge appetites are concerned. Nene has also been vocal about his concerns on the size of the public service and its wage bill. Again, this would have presented a serious problem for the president as he would have lost the latitude to make his legendary appointments.
Before we even get to the embattled SAA, let’s reflect on that fake intelligence dossier claiming National Treasury officials were apartheid agents and alleging that Nene was part of the conspiracy of the old establishment to control the Treasury.
It was preposterous and laughable, but also instructive.
A smear campaign is akin to the gathering of clouds before the eruption of a storm. The storm has turned into a hurricane and Nene has been swept up in it. Anyone who cannot see Nene’s “removal” in the context of the SAA saga must be from another planet.
Just last week Nene turned down a proposal from the SAA board, led by chairwoman Dudu Myeni, to restructure a re-fleeting transaction with Airbus. He warned that proceeding with this deal without his permission would constitute financial misconduct; something that obviously does not concern President Jacob Zuma, whose education trust is also chaired by Myeni. He removed Nene instead.
Since his appointment last year, Nene has emphasised the need to cap government spending, curb bailouts to parastatals such as SAA and limit the wage increases to government employees.
He was emphatic in his mid-term budget when he said “government borrowing has risen in the post-crisis years to counter the effects of the crisis. However, there appears to be limits to stabilise the economy when government debt is too high.”
South Africa’s economy is barely growing and, last week, a credit rating downgrade by Fitch put us at very close to junk status, in line with a previous assessment by Standard & Poor’s.
The ratings agencies cited the same concerns that Nene has been raising since his appointment 19 months ago.
Mentioned among the reasons for the downgrade are the lethargy in the implementation of the National Development Plan, the administrative difficulties in doing business in South Africa and the bailouts of parastatals.
We are yet to hear the president demonstrate any anxiety and decisive leadership on these very grave matters.
Even more disturbing, soon after the announcement of Nene’s dismissal, the already precarious currency went into free fall, hitting its lowest point to the dollar, hovering around R15. This is grim. It is a step into the abyss, and all that the governing party could manage at a time like this was a banal statement that it “notes and respects the decision of President Jacob Zuma . . . The president has exercised his constitutional prerogative to appoint a new minister who we believe has what it takes to lead the ministry.”
Surely the situation
Ratings agencies cited the same concerns that Nene has been raising
demands something more astute and attuned to the needs of the day? This, after all, is the same party that claims that the party is bigger than the individual. In Zuma’s case, we are yet to see this.
History is instructive in reading the current situation.
The sacrifices of the ANC and its vanguard position in the fight against apartheid cannot be denied, but it is not true that the party and its military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, marched triumphantly to Pretoria. The truth is that the economy had collapsed and major lenders such as Chase Manhattan Bank were calling in their loans and no longer willing to bail out South Africa.
Perhaps the economy will be the catalyst for change again. For the moment, we will have to put up with the worst president since the fall of apartheid.