Weather and politics this weekend

A pleasant winter’s day is expected on Saturday across most of the country despite the Cabinet reshuffle on Thursday night and the massive fuel price hike the day before.

So even though your rand will keep on buying you less and less, at least you can spend your pennies on a picnic and some beer to watch the third test between South Africa and the British & Irish Lions bringing decent weather.

Recently departed finance minister Tito Mboweni will likely do the same thing and, for the first time in years, be able to turn off his cellphone.

Mboweni’s replacement is former deputy minister of public enterprises and the head of the ANC’s economic transformation committee for over a decade.

Enoch Godongwana is said to be a Ramaphosa loyalist. But, reports Bloomberg, the departure of the straight-shooting Mboweni is a bit of a problem. This is what a currency strategist from US bank Wells Fargo told the financial newswire right after the exit announcement. Brace yourself for a cold front that will hit the headquarters of South Africa, the Western Cape, by Sunday.

The People’s Weather Channel forecaster Candice McKechnie says that a band of high cloud moves over southern South Africa, and a bit of low cloud hugs the KwaZulu-Natal coast this weekend. Ahead of the cold front coming in from the west, there’ll be some winds picking up with Sunday looking colder and wet. But then again, Cape Town’s weather can be as predictable as South African politics. Not.

What is certain is that the alleged internal ANC chess play must have informed the president’s shuffle. In a PW Botha-like move, state security now falls within the presidency, likely in a move to sever Jacob Zuma’s tentacles.

But it’s a reminder of the days of crossing the Rubicon and the total onslaught, the 1980’s BOSS days (not Springsteen, but the Bureau of State Security).

Launched by prime minister John Vorster, the Groot Krokodil had the bulk of a then legitimised BOSS, charged with counterinsurgency, and he had a President’s Council. Ramaphosa announced a panel charged with matters of state security and to strengthen its capabilities on Thursday night after taking control of the nation’s spies.

Reigning in the 007’s under presidential control reminds of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where main-pig Napoleon raised nine dogs that never left his side. They were his secret police, his KGB, and helped him assert and maintain control over the farm. Absolute power was grunter Napoleon’s objective.

Ramaphosa concluded his Thursday night address saying that his administration is ‘unwavering to build a capable state, one which is led effectively and serves the needs of the people.’ A bold statement in the wake of the Digital Vibes scandal, state capture, the Denel, Mango, SA Express and SAA debacles and so on and so forth.

But perhaps the sustained emptying of state coffers is for our own good, as Orwell writes in Animal Farm. Thus, a speech by prime-pig Napoleon. “Comrades!” he cried.

“You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.”

But it will be cool to mild over southern South Africa with maximums mainly in the upper-teens and low twenties as the reshuffle didn’t see, as the DA’s John Steenhuisen had hoped, the axing of Police Minister Bheki Cele.

Penning his resignation before getting the boot, Zweli Mkhize is gone, and Dr Joe Phaahla will street South Africa through the balance of Covid. So at least it will be a bit warmer over the northern parts of the country with the mercury rising comfortably into the mid-20s. A few highs in Northwest, Limpopo and parts of the Northern Cape will head into the upper twenties.

Weather is provided by the People’s Weather Channel DSTV channel 180 and on Openview channel 115.