Picture File: President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering his Sona at Cape Town City Hall. Picture: Parliament of South Africa/Twitter
The fact that President Cyril Ramaphosa is yet to reshuffle his Cabinet after several months of speculation around the matter is rather unfortunate ahead of his much-anticipated State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday, amid the multiple challenges faced by the country, according to economist Dawie Roodt.
The issue of the reconfiguration of Cabinet has been making headlines for weeks now.
Speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday, Roodt said a reshuffled Cabinet would have given the country a better indication as to whether the president is really serious about the issues he will be touching on during his Sona.
“For example, is Gwede Mantashe still part of Cabinet, and whether or not he (Mantashe) will still be responsible for Eskom. It is clear to me that the president is not serious enough to fix the problems at Eskom as an example,” said Roodt.
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Something else that needs to be given attention during Sona, according to Roodt, is the apparent collapse of local government in nearly every party of the country.
Roodt is of the opinion that if Ramaphosa decides to keep Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) portfolio, this would also be another indication that he is not serious about fixing the dire local government issues.
“It would appear that politics are more important than service delivery. It really depends on who the Cabinet ministers are going to be,” Roodt said.
Dlamini-Zuma made headlines late last year when she voted against Ramaphosa over his Phala Phala farm scandal.
Roodt says he simply does not trust Ramaphosa and the dreams that he has for the country, stressing that his track record is absolutely dismal.
“However, if he says something that is going to make his support group angry, then I might take him serious. There are two things that can make his supporters angry – one is if he says the civil service is too top heavy and that he has to get rid of all these deputy generals and all that nonsense, including a lot of other ministries such as Sports, Arts and Culture.
“The second thing that will make his supporters angry is if he mentions the word privatisation, because that is already happening. And as I was listening to him at the Mining Indaba, what is clear is that there is a shift in emphasis on more private sector participation in just about everything,” said Roodt.
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Political analyst from the North-West University (NWU) Sysman Motloung says he expects Sona to simply be a repeat of the same commitments to end poverty, inequality, and injustice; stimulate economic growth, and fighting corruption.
“The president spoke about a social compact whose contents and timeframes I have not seen and I wish he does not talk about the formulation of social compacts, but delivering on those that already exist.
“He also spoke about the massive roll out of infrastructure, which is not clear to date, how it reformed society, except infrastructure linked to export markets through Transnet. I also expect him to express more concrete commitments on the energy transition – a commitment his government has been truly faithful to implement of those in the 2022 Sona.
“What happened to the rehabilitation of the passenger rail transport? I would like to hear about that,” said Motloung.
Another political analyst, Prof Andre Duvenhage, concurs with Roodt and Motloung, and says he would like to see Ramaphosa address issues of corruption, nepotism, and coalitions, but he is not holding his breath.
“However, what I’m 100% sure about is that people are not going to take him seriously. In fact, the Sona will once again be seen as hollow words against the backdrop of an ANC that find it more and more difficult to secure an absolute majority and a number of surveys have been indicating that the ANC’s support base has dropped below 40%.
“I don’t think Ramaphosa has the political will and drive to take country forward,” Duvenhage added.
The issue around poor service delivery consistently remains a talking point in South Africa, and according to Motloung, municipalities have a broken communication practice with residents.
He says the public also expects municipalities to do a lot of things without them (residents), which means taking responsibility.
“Take littering for example, throwing plastics anywhere in the street after a snack, walking past litter in the street, the vandalism of rubbish bins installed in the streets.
“The government has delivered sports complexes in communities and courts at schools – but these have been vandalised and undermine the future prospects of developing talents and proving recreation to residents,” said Motloung.
The country has since the start of the new year seen quite a number of community protests over poor service delivery, and experts have warned for more protest action as the year progresses.
Motloung believes the DA’s efforts to see an end to cadre deployment could ensure the right people are appointed in critical management positions.
“The public has also seen recently the DA appeal for the ANC to disclose its minutes when determining the deployment of its members or preferred candidates to critical positions.
“This is an important political development that will refine policy practices of deployment, especially when it could be proven that the ANC deliberately preferred a less qualified, less experienced, or people of a poor character over worthier candidates, and I think there will be more caution henceforth to appoint the right people,” Motloung added.
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