A necessary gravy train

Thirty years from now, a lot of people will have forgotten that the Cabinet announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday night came after a very uncertain period during which the possibility of political violence was not far off the radar.

Four weeks ago, when the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced they would declare the final results of the 29 May general election, the leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK), Jacob Zuma, warned the IEC, “don’t provoke us”.

At that point, it seemed as though doom and chaos was about to descend on South Africa. But the centre held, rationality prevailed. For now, at least.

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A government of national unity (GNU) has been forged under fragile circumstances.

And like American singer and songwriter Bernice Reagon has intimated: “If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, then you know it’s not a broad enough coalition.”

The Cabinet announced by Ramaphosa is anything but comfortable. It ranges from bizarre (Angie Motshekga as defence minister) to rewarding pointlessness (Blade Nzimande as minister of higher education, science and innovation, having achieved what in that portfolio?).

But the most irrational and uncomfortable aspect of this GNU Cabinet is now it has got so bloated there will be deputy ministers who probably will not know what to do on a day-to-day basis.

Before Sunday’s Cabinet announcement, there were several political parties who could claim they had never been aboard the gravy train, most notably, the DA.

Reports will probably come out in weeks and months about how they fought tooth-and-nail to stop the nonsensical introduction of two deputy ministers, but failed.

But reports will also probably come out about how they insisted on having a minister, deputy minister and a director-general in an unreasonable number of departments, leading to the ANC having to keep and justify a bloated executive.

Although Ramaphosa and the parties involved have been at pains to explain why this is not a coalition but a GNU, at its most basic level it is a coalition.

And because it is in the nature of coalitions to breed disagreements from time to time, this one will be no different. In fact, this coalition, or GNU as they prefer, comes loaded with inherited disagreements.

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The worst of the inherited problems is that because of Ramaphosa’s inaction when he took over six years ago and not trimming down the executive, he is now forced to spread the gravy far and wide, at the cost of ordinary citizens.

This costly and overflowing gravy is a necessary evil though. This country needs stability as soon as possible.

There was a need to shut out any party that threatened instability through undemocratic means as soon as possible after the elections.

And to do that effectively at this time was to get all parties that agree to come on board the GNU some sort of a post, even if inherited problems mean that the Patriotic Alliance’s Gayton McKenzie (minister of sport, arts and culture) will be taking pot shots at the DA leader John Steenhuisen (minister of agriculture) at every available opportunity.

The most important thing for all GNU members to remember is there are many who wish to see this experiment fail. They are waiting in the wings to celebrate every disagreement and blow it out of proportion so they can say “we told you so”.

If all the GNU members know that all of South Africa depends on them, they will not fail.