Ramaphosa needs to end the dithering, strengthen his team and attend to our house on fire

Much of what we needed to know about Eskom has been revealed. The details were not in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address or in his reply to the debate on his speech. That’s because the speech “was about articulating a vision and a direction for government’s programme”, Ramaphosa said in parliament on Wednesday. “Ministers will provide details on the programme in the budget votes of the various departments.”

It is still difficult to decipher what that vision and direction are but that is beside the point. Onward goes the mad scramble to find out what is going to happen with state entities on which our lives depend and our teetering economy rests.

At a meeting with investors in London on Tuesday, National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane set out the next steps to stabilise Eskom’s finances and the timeline for restructuring. It was a closed meeting but because there was finally critical information everyone desperately wanted, the details leaked to Bloomberg. Mogajane could not give investors the woolly answers Ramaphosa gives us, or he would have been shown the door.

When asked about Eskom’s future, Mogajane said an appropriation bill for the government bailout would be approved by the end of July to keep the utility going for two years.

A chief restructuring officer (CRO) has been identified and would be named by mid-July. This CRO would produce a plan on how to deal with Eskom’s debt within 18 months.

The Bloomberg report said Eskom would be unbundled in two years, and this would close some of the cash-flow gap. The government would thereafter decide if a further bailout was needed.

Why Ramaphosa could not say all that, I have no idea. It does not disclose any sensitive information and provides a sense of what’s ahead.

Ramaphosa took a hammering this week for being lost in dreamland.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the president’s address was devoid of meaningful reform because that would have required Ramaphosa to face down the unions and the alliance partners, and upset the patronage networks. These are major hurdles that make the Eskom process so explosive.

EFF leader Julius Malema accused Ramaphosa of reneging on the ANC’s election promises and party resolutions.

In the weeks before Ramaphosa’s address to parliament, indications were that the ANC manifesto was to be turned into an “action plan” that Ramaphosa would present in his speech. A three-day cabinet lekgotla was held to flesh out the address.

How, then, did Ramaphosa end up with a weightless speech? There clearly is a problem in the team around Ramaphosa.

He has been restructuring his office since he became president last year. He has drawn in people with whom he has had longstanding working relationships, and some new faces.

It is difficult to establish who was responsible for what should have been a landmark speech — other than that it was a team effort.

Considering that economic growth should have been the centrepiece, it would have made sense for the president’s economic adviser to have played a major part. But as with Ramaphosa’s flagship investment drive, Trudi Makhaya’s role is unclear.

Donné Nicol, the president’s special adviser and former CEO of the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation, apparently co-ordinated the compiling of the speech. She has worked with Ramaphosa since the early ’90s and is obviously trusted.

The president is apparently hands-on with his big speeches, and his adviser Steyn Speed is usually the final drafter.

Perhaps there were just too many major speeches this year, including the February Sona, the election rallies and the inauguration, and they did not see the need to make some announcements on the big issues.

Spelling out what Mogajane did in London could have saved the day, so perhaps he needs to broaden his circle of thinking.

Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s investigation of whether Ramaphosa misled parliament and was allegedly involved in money laundering for his ANC presidential campaign should be a lesson that the presidency cannot afford any further missteps.

Mkhwebane’s agenda aside, there have been some slip-ups by Ramaphosa and his team, including not getting their messaging straight.

The president has already said that he did not deliberately mislead parliament regarding the R500,000 Bosasa contribution to his campaign.

But there is still miscommunication on the matter. This week, the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation had to issue a statement correcting one of its trustees, James Motlatsi, who said on Radio 702 that the foundation might have funded part of Ramaphosa’s campaign for the ANC presidency, CR17.

The country is fed up with the dithering, especially because the economic situation is so terrifying. Our house is on fire and the rescue team cannot be tripping over its shoelaces.

The public protector sideshow will hopefully be resolved in the courts and in parliament.

The president needs to focus on the big game and ensure he has the right people around him to play to win.