While the South African Communist Party (SACP) has opted to tread carefully on making any pronouncements regarding the imminent cabinet reshuffle, the trade union federation Cosatu has wasted no time warning President Cyril Ramaphosa to pick his cabinet wisely, saying he must not recycle the old generation of leaders.
The speculations over the ascendency of ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile to national government as Ramaphosa’s second-in-command was put to bed on Friday when the office of Deputy President David Mabuza confirmed he has resigned.
Mabuza’s name failed to make it to the ballot box during the ANC elective conference held at Nasrec, Johannesburg, in December, and he was also not elected to the national executive committee, the highest decision-making body of the party between conferences.
It is ANC’s practice that whoever is elected as deputy president of the party subsequently moves to Union Buildings to align party and state roles.
Now Cosatu says the ball is in Ramaphosa’s court, pointing out that the president has only 15 months left to run an effective government and deliver the governing party to the electorate.
“The president has a huge job on his hands. He only has 15 months and he [will not] have another chance. We do not want new policies, but we need people who will deliver on the existing policies. We also do not want a situation where members of the cabinet will challenge the president in public and throw government into disarray,” Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla told Sunday World.
The workers federation also called for immediate changes in various ministries.
“In the department of labour for instance, there is massive corruption in the Unemployment Insurance Fund and nothing is being done about it. We have not seen any movement on the small medium enterprises. State-owned entities (SOEs) are sinking under the weight of mismanagement, and we are also battling with an energy crisis.
“Nothing seems to be working,” said Pamla.
The ANC will today convene its NEC lekgotla at Esselenpark Conference Centre in Gauteng, where various pertinent issues will be on the agenda. These include the crippling energy crisis, rising costs of living and unemployment.
The lekgotla will also deliberate on key resolutions taken during the party’s December conference, such as closing down dysfunctional SOEs and their functions dissolved into their relevant ministries.
The outcomes of the meeting will form part of the cabinet lekgotla next Wednesday, part of a government programme presided over by Ramaphosa. At the gathering, the head of state is expected to discuss reconfiguring his government before his state of the nation address scheduled for February 9.
Since Thursday, the governing party has been having back-to-back meetings, inducting the newly elected NEC members as well as electing various subcommittees.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said during the ANC’s January 8 statement and 111th anniversary festivities held in Mangaung, Free State, earlier this month that Ramaphosa will after the celebrations make changes in his cabinet, but it would seem the president is biding his time.
It is understood Ramaphosa needs more time to have his preferred candidates sworn in as MPs so that they are eligible to be appointed as ministers.
Among them are former Gauteng premier David Makhura and former City of Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau, who is said to have resigned as member of the Gauteng provincial legislature, raising speculations he might be on his way to the National Assembly.
While there are known vacancies in the department of transport following the election of Mbalula in the full-time position at Luthuli House and in the department of public service and administration following the departure of Ayanda Dlodlo to the World Bank, Lindiwe Sisulu and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are expected to be shown the door. The pair openly challenged Ramaphosa’s presidency in the lead-up to the December elective conference. Opposition parties have also called for the head of police minister Bheki Cele.
Meanwhile, the SACP, an alliance partner vehemently leading the call for the reconfiguration of the alliance, said it was more concerned about policy direction.
“Our focus on policy does not mean we are unaware of the vacancy of the minister of public service and administration and the fact that the minister of transport has been elected to serve as the secretary-general of the ANC. When it comes to the composition of and any change in the cabinet, our position is that there must always be alliance consultation,” spokesperson Dr Alex Mashilo said. “We will take things from there and make an open public statement at an appropriate time,” he said.
Mashilo said at the heart of the glaring structural policy failures was the worsening loadshedding, which started in 2007, and persistent high levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
The party also said it has not abandoned building a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor to achieve a change in policy direction.
In a discussion document titled The South African Struggle for Socialism, Strategic perspectives and Tasks, the party noted that: “The ANC remains seriously factionalised and moral and political decay has been far reaching. Its future electoral prospects are uncertain with a strong possibility of it achieving less than 50% of the vote in 2024.”
The party also said the key to the success of a left popular front was the recruitment of youthful militants who have found a political home in the EFF.
“Given the considerable volatility and uncertainty of our situation, a future left front movement might become an effective electoral formation (as in Kerala, India, for instance). However, the objective of consolidating left popular mobilisation with the possibility of consolidating a left popular front should not be understood as simply an electoral agenda,” the discussion document further explains.
In 2017, in the Metsimaholo local municipality in Free State, the SACP tested the waters by fielding its own candidates in by-elections and won a
mayoral seat.
To read more political news and views, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
