Thamsanqa Malinga
The recent decision by the president not to release the results of the assessment of his Cabinet should not surprise South Africans.
This despite him reintroducing a ministry that has a “responsibility for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation to focus greater attention on the performance of government”.
After all, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the party he leads are nowhere in line for an award for accountable and transparent governance. They are democratically elected despots of sorts, here to rule forever.
As a man of letters, I have watched Ramaphosa and his predecessor pulling laager with their political party and have been moved to bemoan using the words of the great scribe, Alan Paton, “cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that’s the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing.
Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much”.
After much fanfare in September, under the banner of the ANC Manifesto Review, and a national executive committee (NEC) briefing by the secretary-general of his party, it is numbing to hear the president say the results of the Cabinet assessments would be used for political point scoring.
What else should they be used for by their opponents? The ministers are politicians after all, they are in the game of politics. If they can’t stand the heat, they must consider leaving the comfort of those air-conditioned, speeding blue light convoys we sponsor through our taxes.
I digress. Back to Ramaphosa and his ANC Election Manifesto Review.
He criss-crossed the country, telling all and sundry his party has done well according to its 2019 election manifesto. In fact, his party, and by de facto his Cabinet, has met almost all the promises it made in its 2019 manifesto.
This was even confirmed by the party’s secretary-general in his statement, post the party’s NEC in November. You would swear I am making this up, had it not been for the blessing that is the internet and its ability to just make sure the records are out there.
If, according to President Ramaphosa’s public admission at the ANC Manifesto Review rallies, together with his Cabinet, they have delivered the party’s 2019 mandate and are walking on water, why then the overwhelming desire to seal the assessment of the Cabinet?
Simple: it is because the evidence of failure is tangible, with or without the assessment.
The collapse of SAA, Eskom and Transnet is painful for South Africans to watch. The catastrophe taking place at Richards Bay Port did not happen by stealth. Trucks have been queuing there for almost a year, yet Ramaphosa took a helicopter ride in November only.
The Minister of Public Enterprises has been shining in his absence, and the Minister of Transport had her head in and out of the sand. The Minister of Minerals and Energy has been playing to the gallery at every opportunity he gets. The collection of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet and their performance can be summed up using the title of the old SABC drama KwaZidenge (Hill of Fools) an adaptation of the isiXhosa novel by Langa Peteni.
Just walk into a watering hole and give an average sozzled Joe a scoring card and ask him to assess any of the ministers, including the president himself. None of them would get above five out of 10. Maybe a watering hole is not the place to find sober minds, a church would do. A Grade R class maybe; they say children are the most honest beings.
There is a jingle of an eight-year-old on an urban talk radio, when quizzed about the president and load shedding. The little one retorts in her innocence: “I’d give him a two because of that”. Cry, the beloved country for the unborn child, indeed.
If Ramaphosa’s Cabinet is so bad and their failure is perceptible, why then does he want to seal the assessments? It is worse than what we think, far worse. This is the president who came in on the ticket of anti-corruption, clean governance and transparency. However, during Ramaphosa’s tenure, South Africa dropped a notch in the Corruption Index. Spare us the State Capture hoodoo bedtime stories, I am talking about a 2022 report that was not measuring that period but the incumbent’s presidency.
Another notable report is the Mo Ibrahim Report on Africa’s Governance. Looking at a 10-year period, from 2012 to 2022, (six of which Ramaphosa has been at the helm), the report’s section on Security and The Rule of Law show that South Africa has recorded a -1.3 regress on the measure of Accountability and Transparency.
Under the knight in shining armour, Mr Clean, the one who asked to be sent – Thuma Mina, South Africa – has become a little more corrupt, less accountable and less transparent.
There is a penchant for sealing records, using the judiciary so the executive is not held accountable, and hiding corruption. These are just more of the draconian tendencies we have come to observe through democratic and legal institutions, and we know not of what others are surreptitiously being implemented.
Cry, the beloved country for the unborn child, let him not judge us harshly and question how come in a democratic state, we twiddle our thumbs while there was a return of the apartheid-era style sealing of records, and the government that adopted a Freedom Charter subverted the will of the people. Our country is under siege by the government.
*Malinga is a director at Mkabayi Management Consultants, columnist, political commentator and author of “Blame Me on Apartheid”.
Cape Times