Out with the confederation of ministers, Mr President

Somebody said the other day that the surest way of ensuring that a president does not make changes to his executive is to call for a cabinet reshuffle. No head of state, especially one from a former liberation movement that remains suspicious of “the establishment” and the fourth estate, wants to be perceived as dancing to the tune of the commercial media and opposition parties.

According to this argument, we all ought to keep our mouths shut if we hope to see President Cyril Ramaphosa wield the axe in the cabinet soon.

But surely Ramaphosa isn’t so petty that he would refuse to do the right thing just so he can assure his comrades at what erstwhile comrade Julius Malema used to call the Revolutionary House that he is not under the spell of the chattering classes?

Surely he recognises the trouble the country is in and that even though removing a group of politicians and replacing them with others isn’t going to solve our problems, it would be a good start.

This week’s edition of the Sunday Times — as has been the case with all quality media platforms since the recent riots in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng — is dominated by reflections on the state of our nation and the steps that need to be taken if we are to pull through.

While much of the commentary in the immediate aftermath of the looting and acts of economic sabotage focused on the incompetency that characterised the response by the police and other agencies within the state’s security cluster, the dialogue has now largely shifted to the underlying socio-economic factors that made it possible for the violence to spread so quickly in these two major economic centres.

There is renewed debate about the desirability of a universal income grant as a social safety net to cushion against poverty and growing unemployment and how, given the country’s overstretched resources, this could be funded.

Others are agitating for fundamental policy changes to allow for measures they believe would grow the economy at a pace that would help to create new jobs and attract new investment into the country.

These are all necessary debates. But the reality is that no matter how brilliant such policies were, they would come to nothing if those who are supposed to implement them are either incapable or disinterested.

Since his election, the president has been beating the drum about the urgent need to “build a capable state”. While it is true that this requires a highly skilled, talented and dedicated public service, those civil servants will be hobbled if they are under the political control of incompetent and corrupt politicians.

Hence a key step towards a capable state has to be a capable executive. While there are islands of excellence in the current cabinet, even the president’s loyalists would agree that there are ministers and deputy ministers who simply don’t cut it.

It is not just about the security cluster — although the violence and anarchy last month make it clear that this a priority area — as the problems cut across the executive. Citizens ought to believe that when a president announces a policy decision, he will not be second-guessed by one of his ministers.

The recent, unintelligible squabble between security cluster ministers was not an isolated incident. It was the latest episode in a long-running saga that began during Jacob Zuma’s tenure as president and once caused former president Thabo Mbeki and his former minister Trevor Manuel to describe the cabinet as a “confederation of ministers”.

The phenomenon simply continued under Ramaphosa largely because his cabinet was put together with the main consideration being that of maintaining fragile peace among the ANC’s various factions.

Despite the recent upheavals and increased volume of war talk among his detractors within the party, the reality is that Ramaphosa is now in a much stronger position within the ANC than he was when he first assumed office at the Union Buildings.

The most outspoken of his enemies in the party are now isolated, while his other opponents would rather throw in their lot with him than see the return of the Zuma crowd to power.

He can, therefore, now shape his executive in the way he believes it would best help him deliver on his promises, without fearing political tremors at Luthuli House.