Cyril shuffled an old deck, and came up with the same jokers

Oh look, we have some new ministers!

And of course, there’s an understandable focus on our new money guy.

Godongwana seems to have his head screwed on straight. He understands our dwindling tax base. He recognises the importance of economic growth in the transformation of the economy.

So what if he’s kinda, somewhat, partially linked to a R100 million unpaid load from a pension fund?

In fact, the dude does seem to have a hard on for pension funds, apparently having proposed amendments to the law that will allow funds to invest in infrastructure projects. Goody gumdrops! This guy might just get us our Russian nuclear plant.

In all seriousness though, if he can follow through with significant government cuts, and by that, I mean wiping out chunks of the state wage bill, I’d be happy enough to let him try some new things.

One thing that does irk me is that he’s on that investing in SMME brainwave.

That’s obviously a good way of boosting local economies, but the execution has been shoddy of late. Those investments tend to get filtered through NYDA salaries, spent on starting businesses with no promise of return then boasting about investment with no regard for where that investment will be in a few months. In other words, historically, those investments yielded little benefit to the economy.

Granted, businesses fail, but if ol’ Godongwana can set up something that makes investments into the SMME sector efficient, I’m all for it. A good start would be banning any beneficiaries from owning and/or driving German cars.

Hehehe… (laughs in Jacob Zuma).

One thing I will admit to is that, unlike many of his counterparts, Godongwana is actually prepped and qualified for his post. It’s a groovy start, unlike that of professional utility minister, Lindiwe Sisulu.

I mean she was a specialist of intelligence (whatever that means) in Umkhonto we Sizwe, so maybe she has compromising photos on presidents from Mbeki to Ramaphosa, but this woman has rotated through ministries like a rich kid with unlimited tickets on the fare’s carousel.

Minister of Intelligence. Minister of Housing. Minister of Defence. Minister of Public Service and Administration. Minister of Human Settlements. She’s been all of them!

I’m not quite certain what she’s done in any of them, but the point is that she’s been doing the cabinet shuffle since 2001 and now she’s been shuffled into tourism.

It says something about our politics that we can just interchange ministers based on politics and not their experiences.

Sure, Roland Schoeman would probably have been a terrible sporting minister because his sporting focus isn’t exactly broad, and he has little, if any political experience. But surely, among our millions of people, there are a bunch who are well balanced between being politically savvy and invested in the fields of our government departments – people who can identify the issues and develop effective solutions for them.

Our current sporting dude is butthurt that there are too many whiteys in our Olympic team. I think that’s absolutely fair. What has he done to remedy that, aside from passing the responsibility on?

Sport is expensive and not something one can just invest in for a year and expect results. Most of these kids have been practicing their craft since ol’ Nathi was causing a stir in Marikana as Minister of Police. You get my point?

Our politicians are allowed space to regulate environments they have very little experience in, or knowledge of. Yeah it’s good to be outcomes-focused but you need to have some plan of reaching those outcomes, not simply dictating them.

It’s a South African thing though; build it and they will come. If any minister is worth their salt, you’d start to see a better philosophy implemented in their ministry; build them so they know where they can go.

Let’s see what this lineup can do.