ANC report: Ramaphosa and Cabinet failed

19 December 2018

During the party's evaluation of how the ministers fared in 2018, the FF Plus decided to award all the members of Cabinet an even poorer fail mark, namely an FF symbol (0-29%). One reason for this is that many changes were made to the Cabinet during the year and some ministers only served in their respective portfolios for a very short time.

Most importantly, as members of the Cabinet, ministers must collectively take responsibility for how our country is governed, they cannot just shrug their shoulders at what went wrong in South Africa. And it is not only the Cabinet that failed as executive authority, but President Cyril Ramaphosa also failed to do his constitutional duty with regard to nation building in South Africa.

At present, the biggest crisis in South Africa is unemployment due to our country's poor economy. South African citizens' greatest need is to have a job and a stable income, and the government is failing the people in this regard. The government is awarded a very poor FF symbol (23%) for the following reasons:

During the 2017/18 financial year, both national and provincial departments' audit outcomes deteriorated. Only 23% of all the departments received clean audit reports. Irregular expenditure increased to R51 billion and fruitless expenditure with 200%.

Financial mismanagement, corruption and failing policies are the reasons why South Africa is teetering on the fiscal edge.

More than 40% of the state's budget is spent on salaries. Free higher education and unsustainable social grants, on which the majority of South Africans are dependent, contribute immensely to the state's budget deficit and the consequent increase in state debt.

During 2018, the government failed to establish investment certainty, particularly due to the adoption of the principle of expropriation without compensation. The government also failed to create a favourable environment in which the private sector can contribute to job creation.

Unemployment is a crisis. At present, South Africa has the highest youth unemployment rate with 57,4% of the country's youth being unemployed.

The government's failures during 2018 are underlined by the growing crisis of municipalities' outstanding debt to Eskom. Another year has passed and the problem has still not been solved.

Over the last two years, the situation has dragged on with Eskom making numerous threats to cut off the power supply to certain municipal regions and unsustainable payment agreements. Earlier this year, Eskom cut off the power supply to the water pump stations of various towns due to their municipalities' non-payment and this violated residents' constitutional right to have access to clean drinking water.

Municipalities' total outstanding debt to Eskom amounts to more than R18 billion.

As a result, the rural economy is suffering with various small business enterprises that have already closed their doors and larger businesses retrenching employees due to the regular water and power outages that hamper production and trade.

A responsible national government would have executed its mandate of cooperative governance and would have found a feasible solution to the ongoing crisis. The country's economy is deteriorating due to the electricity crisis.

During 2018, Eskom's debt increased from R367 billion to R419,2 billion. The interest on this debt amounts to a staggering R45 billion per year. The entity's budgeted loss for the 2018/19 financial year amounts to R15 billion, while R17 billion is spent on salaries. Corruption and mismanagement are the main causes of this sombre situation.

For the first time in three years, 2018 saw the re-implementation of load shedding which had a detrimental effect on our already struggling economy.

During the second term of 2018, South Africa experienced a technical recession with a 0,4% contraction. The economy recovered somewhat during the third term and the country came out of recession, however, load shedding delivered another severe blow to the economy.

Eskom's load shedding is taking its toll on production and has a negative effect on investor confidence.

Furthermore, if the bad management and corruption in other state-owned entities such as SAA, Prasa, Denel etc. which have forced government to provide financial guarantees, is taken into consideration, the burden of state debt impedes the country's fiscal position. The state debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio increased to 55,8% over the last year and the interest on the debt amounts to R181 billion. The budget deficit is increasing while the need for social support is also becoming greater.

This year was also characterised by further revelations of state capture before the Zondo Commission and President Cyril Ramaphosa is apparently very surprised by the extent of it all. The reality is that President Ramaphosa was probably aware of the state capture as he served as the deputy president and head of Government Affairs in the National Assembly since 2014. Otherwise, it means that he did not do his job properly.

The Cabinet became aware of state capture last year already but failed to take the necessary steps or even to announce how the problem will be addressed. The Zondo Commission was not President Ramaphosa's initiative but was established after the recommendation made by the former Public Protector (PP), adv Thuli Madonsella.

President Ramaphosa failed to promote nation building and unity in South Africa. Section 83(c) of the Constitution makes it very clear that the president must promote unity in South Africa. But with his controversial statements in which he keeps referring to white people as the cause of all the problems in South Africa, he is actually bringing about polarisation. There are also other things that resulted in the President being awarded an FF symbol for his performance this past year.

These are as follows:

- His failure to strongly condemn the BLF leader for his hate speech against white people and then in a Radio 702 interview, shifting the attention to white people allegedly being racists who have to be isolated and white people being lazy in the economy (lackadaisical whites).

- His statement made on the eve of 31 July 2018 that the ANC is going to propose that the Constitution must be amended to make provision for expropriation without compensation.

With this, he put the interests of the ANC before the interests of all South African citizens. The announcement also showed disregard for Parliament's Constitutional Review Committee which was already busy with the process of conducting public hearings on the matter.

- His hesitation to get rid of the rotten apples in his Cabinet, like Bathabile Dlamini, as well as him singing her praises and describing her as an excellent minister despite the fact that she committed perjury in the Constitutional Court.

- His delay in signing the Political Party Funding Bill creates the impression that he wants to give preference to the ANC at the cost of the opposition parties and that he wants to protect the identity of foreign investors who have donated money to the ANC.

The President and the ministers need to realise that as members of the executive authority, they cannot simply shrug their shoulders and say: "it is not my department, so it is not my responsibility". The President and every single minister have a responsibility toward each other and toward the people of South Africa, but they failed miserably in shouldering that responsibility.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 19 December 2018