Press conference: DA unveils 2010 report card
Note to editors: The following statement accompanies a press conference held in Parliament this morning, which was presented by DA Parliamentary Leader Athol Trollip MP, DA National Spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, and the Chairperson of the DA's Parliamentary Caucus James Masango MP. The Cabinet Report Card document that was presented at that press conference is available for download.
Every year, the Democratic Alliance (DA) produces a Cabinet Report Card reflecting our assessment of the performance of the members of the Cabinet, in keeping with our constitutionally mandated oversight role as the official opposition. Democratic governments must account to the people who voted them into power, and part and parcel of this is being subjected to regular evaluation. In South Africa, it is particularly important that such evaluations occur, because of the weaknesses of the proportional representation system in instilling accountability, and because the ANC government conducts almost no critical evaluations of the members of its executive, and finally, because of the urgency of the socio-economic challenges we face as a country.
Our report card gives the 27 cabinet ministers who survived President Zuma's October purge, an overall score of 4.7 out of 10. This is down slightly from the 5.4 that we awarded the same group last year. The nine ministers who were relieved of their duties score a total of 3.8 - almost no different to the 3.9 they scored in 2009.
We believe the top performer in the Zuma administration is Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan, who received a score of 9, the highest score the DA has ever given to a minister in our annual scorecard. His record has been first-rate in every respect, and the fact that he has not been able to obtain the full cooperation of the rest of the Cabinet with all his plans is the only concern that prevents him from obtaining a perfect 10.
President Zuma is one of the weakest performers in his own Cabinet, scoring only 2. This low score was earned for a year of broken promises and failure to practice as he preaches, and for his complete failure to drive critical projects.