What is President Ramaphosa doing to restore order and discipline in his cabinet and in the government? Clearly, South Africa’s government is in disarray. And only the president, or his replacement if it comes to that, can do so.
Fikile Mbalula, a spectacularly unsuccessful minister of Sport, of Police (unless compared with Minister Cele) and of Transport, is now treated with great respect and addressed as “SG.” He is the Secretary General of the ANC. He recently berated the Chairperson of the ANC, (his superior in the hierarchy) by publicly chastising Minister Gwede Mantashe for not toeing the Ramaphosa line. He went so far as to say that the ANC would back Ramaphosa and not Mantashe if the president acted against Mantashe.
For a change, Mbalula was in the right. But it must be asked why the boss, who appointed Mantashe, and who is entitled either to loyalty or a resignation, has again failed to act against a defiant, deficient or ineffectual minister?
On the grounds that he does not sign documents that he has not read, Mantashe refused to attend a ceremony with our president and the Dutch and Danish prime ministers. For some odd reason, he did not say why he had not read it. Presumably it was not inordinately long and he could have perused it in 10 minutes. The minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Naledi Pandor, signed the document which related to moving towards green energy.
Mantashe may well have a point; one cannot move abruptly away from fossil fuels without disrupting the employment of several hundred thousand employees, requiring a phased transition and the retention of a reliable base load for some time to come. But surely the cabinet should have discussed this and decided on a course of action?
Ramaphosa has deliberately created an untenable situation with several ministers, including the new minister of Electricity, the minister of Public Enterprises, the ministry of Energy, and the minister of Finance all having a bite of the cherry with their own ideas about Eskom and energy policy. Does he expect unity when he built disunity into the equation?
But it is not only energy policy that is a mess. The laughable crisis about Russia/Ukraine is self-inflicted. The truth is that many of the “comrades” in the ANC hate the West and especially The United States. Now that the potential cost to our trade relations is becoming clear, our country is proclaiming neutrality and non-alignment when it is obvious to the whole world and especially our important trading partners that SA is on the side of the Russians.
Ramaphosa is suddenly alarmed about USA moves to terminate the enormous benefits to SA of AGOA. It gives us tariff-free access to the huge American market. He is sending trade-saving missions to the G7 countries and a high-level delegation to the USA to head off this action. Included is Minister Patel, a senior member of the SA Communist Party who will no doubt impress Americans who have a rather jaundiced view of communists.
With every other crisis of governance plus a deputy president, Mashatile, who alleges a plot to get rid of him in a month, Ramaphosa is faced with disasters wherever he looks. Much of it is his own fault. He is a weakling and a grave disappointment to South Africa. Perhaps he should retire and go cattle farming at Phala Phala, allowing the opposition to form a new government.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand. His website is douglasgibsonsouthafrica.com
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
