‘Cut 10 ministers to streamline Cabinet,’ government told

The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) is calling for a significant reduction in Cabinet ministers and an overhaul of the Presidency to strengthen government.

The CDE said these are “important steps towards fixing South Africa’s weak state”.

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These proposals were contained in a new CDE report titled Action One: Reorganise the Presidency and the Cabinet, which formed part of CDE’s Agenda 2024: Priorities for a New Government series.

Systemic corruption a challenge

Ann Bernstein, CDE executive director, said the state’s capacity to develop policies and deliver public services and programmes has been undermined by systemic corruption.

She noted there were too many compromised party loyalists, inadequate skills at critical levels and lack of accountability for poor performance and wrongdoing.

“At the same time, government has taken on more responsibilities, creating new government departments and public entities.

“Adding extra layers of bureaucracy and parallel management structures has made it harder to take decisions and coordinate key actors to deliver on outcomes,” she said.

The CDE recognised the reality of a potential coalition government and the need for the president to accommodate various parties in his Cabinet.

“However, we believe even within this constraint, it is possible to reduce the number of Cabinet ministers and ensure that the best available people are chosen in key portfolios.”

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In CDE’s analysis, a betterorganised, smaller and more effective Cabinet of about 20 ministers could be constituted from the current 30.

Political analyst Sandile Swana alluded to the fact that the Cabinet was larger than those in countries such as India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK and Kenya, and noted that Germany had about 15 members.

Swana said the Cabinet should not exceed 20 in total and must be formed on the basis of the competence of ministers and the directors-general.

He noted the urgent need to increase state infrastructure investment to be above 20% and gross capital formation to be above 32% of GDP.

“Most public sector projects have been short of the correct political skills. The ANC, Inkatha Freedom Party and the Democratic Alliance do have competent people who are not at the negotiating table. That is a complication,” he said.

Finance position pivotal

The CDE’s report stated that the most important figure after the president was the minister of finance, who has personal and political authority and the full confidence of the president.

“This support must include backing the finance minister’s assessment of affordability or otherwise of policy proposals from other ministries and, critically, of what is and is not a sustainable fiscal position,” said the report.

Judging by the quality of government’s decision-making and from the accounts of senior public servants with experience of Cabinet processes, Bernstein said: “Cabinet’s ability to make evidence-based decisions is weak, largely because its processes deny it the information needed to make those decisions.

“We need to stop the tendency of presidents endlessly updating their list of priorities and announcing new initiatives every time something captures their imagination.”

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André Duvenhage, a political analyst, noted that in the past the ANC government, referring to the fifth and the sixth administrations, made their Cabinets bigger.

“There was strong pressure on Ramaphosa to work towards a smaller Cabinet.

“That was one of his promises when he became president after the 2019 elections. But the Cabinet stayed very big.

“The reason is it is difficult to accommodate all the different categories and groupings within the ANC, like gender equity, national identity, the SA Communist Party, the Congress of SA Trade Unions and other interest groups within the ANC,” he said.

He acknowledged the current situation was more complicated “because they need to create room for opposition parties within the coalition”.

“It is highly unlikely that we will see a smaller Cabinet. We may even see a bigger one. But from an economic point of view, in comparison to other similar states in the world, our Cabinet is by far the biggest. And probably also one of the most unproductive institutions, without a lot of talent,” he added.

CDE suggested Operation Vulindlela should be strengthened and reconstituted as a delivery unit focused solely on the delivery of priority reforms.