South Africa: The inscrutable fire fighter

Soothing jittery investors
The only rabbit to come out of the hat as expected was the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa as Deputy President.

A successful and largely self-made businessman, Ramaphosa’s job will be to crack the whip, get the rambunctious economy back in line, put his shoulder to the wheel-spinning National Development Plan, and soothe a jittery investment community both at home and abroad – all in the interests of more robust economic growth, currently languishing at just over 1%.

President Zuma referred to the reshuffle as “the second phase of the transition to a national democratic society that would be a radical phase of socioeconomic transformation … to ensure implementation and the impact of the National Development Plan”.

And it is with the NDP that the President is placing the biggest basket of eggs. “After all,” he points out, “The National Development Plan was designed to address the country’s problems. It identifies three key priorities that must be addressed urgently and with much vigour. These are: raising employment; improving the quality of education; and building a capable developmental  state.”

Most importantly, the plan proposes ways to get more people working by creating 11m jobs, and ensuring total employment rises from 13m to 24m by 2030.

The President’s to-do list is long and crowded. He has new ministers and old ministers in new jobs to blood. He has the violent and hugely expensive platinum mines strike (five lives lost and some $2bn in irretrievable revenue and miners’ income). But the strike has changed ways things are done at the mines and they will never be the same.

Zuma must explain why R220m ($22m) of taxpayers’ money was spent on his private home. His spokespeople insist it was for “security”, but few South Africans are actually buying that.

The ANC unquestionably lost votes due to tardy and nonexistent social delivery – especially in education and housing. The focus for Zuma and his new social development minister, Bathabile Dlamini, is to keep the government’s promises – failure of which is a favourite target for the opposition in exploiting frequent delivery protests.

They could also be pounced on by ultra-left newcomers Economic Freedom Fighters, keen to make their mark and find any excuse for a good parliamentary scrap.

Zuma has already said that policy implementation and social delivery head his worksheet. He might also fast-track that resolve by launching a department for small business; many micro enterprises struggle with venture-throttling red tape.

He is also considering cutting government fat by merging such departments as Land and Agriculture, and joining the Ministries of Sports and Recreation with Arts and Culture.

With unemployment a big worry, job creation will be a top priority and he will be keen to fire up the small business sector by providing help, advice, financial boosts and professional mentoring. He will also ponder ways of calming foreign investors, many unnerved by the violent industrial unrest on the platinum belt and the deepening levels of corruption in government and business institutions.

President Jacob Zuma has demonstrated his political prowess in the face of seemingly impossible odds. More of the same seems simply grist to the mill.