Lean, mean Thuma Mina team to face stern test

A lean, slim and hopefully mean government was finally presented to the country’s 58 million citizens by President Matamela Ramaphosa – a general statement made by pundits on the president’s recently announced cabinet.

The 28 cabinet ministers, a far cry from the previous 36 departments, are tasked with carrying on the president’s Thuma Mina campaign, which Ramaphosa said will resuscitate moral conscience in the public service towards service delivery, renew the servant mentality expected of the civil service and servants, and hold ministers collectively accountable to the nation on which they rely for resources generated from public and private taxation.

Ramaphosa received a cautious and rare nod on his choices, when, in a delayed announcement, he pronounced a 50 per cent gender parity. He said the composition was also notable for the increase in youth represented, and that the cabinet was regionally representative, with opposition party representation to engender unity and reduce destructive polarities in political views.

Most pleasing to the citizens and interest groups should be his exclusion of tainted figures who could have rendered his team stillborn. Rumours were that some of them had assumed an entitlement for inclusion, only for Ramaphosa’s eleventh hour pronouncement to dash their misplaced assumptions. Their relegation is hopefully a sign of the end of a nine year self-enrichment that has robbed the nation of its moral fibre, image and economic base.

His choices will be appraised when the ministers hit the ground running. The restless citizens of the country, fed up with a past of self-serving antics, need appeasement through real and tangible change.

The president claimed the men and women chosen will lead the nation on a journey to a new better government. “They are committed, hard-working, competent and capable deployees imbued with integrity,” he said when announcing the names.

Ramaphosa committed to hold them accountable. “They will be evaluated against work outcomes and action will be taken in instances of failure to deliver on government’s objectives.” These he identifies as building a modern and innovative state, revitalising the economy and functioning coherently, efficiently and in a coordinated manner when using allocated resources to better the lives of citizens and the nation.

He thanked citizens for the wise suggestions made, saying they helped to configure a new government he hopes will be a blueprint for the future.

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