Time for Cabinet dead wood to go

No-one could ever accuse President Cyril Ramaphosa of being one to strike when the iron is hot.

It has now been 10 weeks since his triumph at the ANC elective conference at Nasrec, yet he has still to reshuffle his Cabinet.

Normally, in politics, if someone tries to stab you in the back, you get rid of them… which is what Ramaphosa should, theoretically, have done to Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, both of whom campaigned against him.

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Yet Sisulu remained alive and kicking enough in the Cabinet to get involved in the messy attempt by SA Tourism to spend R1 billion sponsoring English football club Tottenham Hotspur.

Even worse – at least to those who remember the heavy-handed Covid disaster crackdowns – was the fact Dlamini-Zuma this week signed into law the load shedding disaster regulations.

Why would you be allowed to do this if your boss, Comrade Ramaphosa, didn’t believe you should continue to handle the portfolio, because of your previous experience?

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Dlamini-Zuma’s retention may also help Ramaphosa deal with nascent rebellion in her home province, KwaZulu-Natal.

This country needs change, though. And keeping on the Cabinet dead wood would confirm Ramaphosa places party politics above national interest.