“The long-awaited decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to reconstitute his Cabinet and also fill existing key ministerial vacancies will be judged by the outcomes achieved in the period ahead.”
In commenting on the Cabinet reshuffle that was announced on 6 March, Prof Raymond Parsons, economist from the North-West University (NWU) Business School, says the selection of ministers is inevitably the outcome of a delicate navigation of political forces and interests in deciding on the Cabinet’s ultimate, yet enlarged, composition.
“Leaving personalities aside and given the present challenging socio-economic challenges facing South Africa, the reshuffled Cabinet in its new configuration must now set the pace for the urgent implementation of key policies and projects in the rest of 2023.”
According to Prof Parsons, this is especially the case in the key portfolios that affect the economy, such as energy, transport, public administration and local government.
He says that the new Minister of Electricity in particular has a heavy responsibility to ensure that the turf problems that have bedevilled Eskom will indeed be a thing of the past, that all the key decision-makers in energy policy can soon be on the same page, and that load-shedding will reduce steadily.
“As Ramaphosa emphasised, South Africa’s current political economic trajectory confirms that the country now does not have the luxury of time.”
Prof Parsons points out that there is a crisis of confidence to be managed by the revamped Cabinet, taking into account the declaration of a state of disaster that exists to deal with the present energy exigency.
He says the policy framework within which the new Cabinet must work therefore still matters greatly. “There indeed remain potential solutions to what may appear intractable problems – if they are tackled urgently and smartly and in collaboration with the private sector. Indeed, many answers for the reconfigured Cabinet ‘lie hidden in plain sight’.”
According to Prof Parsons, cohesiveness and consistency in policy implementation remain essential to underpin business confidence. “Ultimately, if confidence and credibility are to be strengthened and uncertainty reduced, the imprint of authentic leadership must run like a golden thread through future Cabinet decisions.”
He says timelines must be set and enforced, with consequences if they are not met. “There is no substitute for sustained, disciplined political leadership.”
