Trim the ‘bloated’ Cabinet to save SA from going broke

In the midst of celebrations of the Springboks winning their fourth World Cup, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the country might be broke by March 2024.

Like some people have alleged, the excitement around rugby (and now cricket) proved to be a distraction from the crisis the country faces. Although the celebrations are a welcome distraction, reality does need to sink in at some point: South Africa is going broke.

And like any other entity or person who is going broke, borrowing money to cover the shortfall between what’s available to spend and what needs to be paid for – the country has been borrowing money.

Godongwana said the country is spending more than it is collecting in taxes. That is exactly how companies and people go broke: spending more than they earn.

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While it is easy to hide how broke the country is because monthly obligations can still be met through borrowing, it is precisely for that reason that alarm bells should be ringing for President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government.

It is okay to borrow money for infrastructural projects that will provide sustainable income and jobs, but borrowing money to pay government salaries is the equivalent of an individual taking out a long-term loan to buy groceries.

While Godongwana and his department are proposing fiscal discipline and better revenue collection, they are turning a blind eye to more permanent solutions to this problem.

This is because it is only a few months to go before the country goes to the polls and they do not want to upset the applecart before people vote.

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When Ramaphosa took over five years ago, one of his promises was a lean and efficient Tuesday government.

And him being a wealthy businessman led people to buy into his story that his reducing the number of ministers from 36 to 28 after the last election was a sign of greater things to come.

This would have been a great way to reduce the ever-increasing government wage bill but that was the last time the president showed any hint that he is concerned about the government wage bill.

The real reason the government departments have not been trimmed down is exactly the reasons that the Democratic Alliance alleges: the ruling ANC has always used departments to reward those who helped the president stay in power.

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It is cadre deployment that ensures that all the factions necessary to keep the president’s power base stable feel that they, too, stand a chance to be rewarded for their loyalty.

And those departments are kept without any care for how much they are costing the taxpayer, leading to the situation the country finds itself in right now.

A developing country like South Africa has no need for a bloated Cabinet or government and if Ramaphosa and Godongwana are serious about ensuring the country does not go broke, that should be their first port of call: trimming down government.

The immediate benefits of a trimmed down civil service would lead to a tighter control of government spending, as well as cutting down on the excessive use of consultants who add no value to the government but come at such a ridiculous cost to a government that will soon be struggling to pay the poorest of the poor their monthly grants.

Sadly, the president and the ruling party know this but do it because it is politically inconvenient for them.

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