MAKHUDU SEFARA | A cabinet reshuffle isn’t service in itself, so please just do it, Mr President

It has been a long time coming, this much-talked about cabinet reshuffle that president Cyril Ramaphosa is about to make. Or will eventually make. 

The inevitability of the reshuffle has given rise to speculative questions such as: has deputy president David Mabuza resigned his government position to make way for newly-elected ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile? When the latter’s name is submitted to parliament, the public discourse is couched in preparatory terms for the “eventual” reshuffle. Has the president accepted the resignation letter? When Mashatile is sworn in, the question to him is, when is he going to replace Mabuza?

Therein lies part of our current challenge: we have stopped talking about how to resolve what has become the bane of our existence (energy) and relegated the actual main challenge facing the country (unemployment) because we are treating the much-anticipated reshuffle as if it is an end in itself.

So focused we have become as a country on this reshuffle that should the president make the announcement soon, it would feel like it is, in itself, a major achievement. It might feel like a major weight has been lifted off our collective back.

Yet the main accomplishment will be from the work that ministers who are to be announced will hopefully achieve through their work. In other words, we conflate the symbolism of the anticipated announcement and movement of chairs with actual results, when it must be seen for what it is: enabling movements for our servants (as leaders ought to be) to do what they must — serve.

But the weight of all this anticipation is rooted in what newly-elected ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told the media as the ANC elective conference was being adjourned after the re-election of Ramaphosa in December.

What is troubling is not that the reshuffle will not happen, but the slow-motion unfolding before us all. It is almost like a metaphor for much of what troubles us.

“The president should be applying his mind about his cabinet, and as the secretary-general, I will have a discussion with him, but it is his prerogative ... He has got to think about cabinet. If he is not thinking about it, that would be reckless of him. He ... should be thinking about how to strengthen the executive because from our side, I want a cabinet that is breathing life into society and running. That is non-negotiable. And he has the whole December to think, if he is not [already] thinking about it,” Mbalula told the media.

Predictably, Ramaphosa needed not only the December Mbalula talked about but the whole of January too. And he is not done yet. The country, meanwhile, is in the grip of unending speculation: will he reshuffle now or later? Will it be before, during or after the state of the nation address?

It is plain that a reshuffle is required. Mbalula, for starters, can’t continue as transport minister given his reassignment to Luthuli House. Mabuza has already told the country that he has resigned to make way for the newly appointed Mashatile. Some MPs have resigned their positions to make way for new national executive committee members in Maropene Ramokgopa, Parks Tau and Sihle Zikalala, who were sworn in earlier this week.

What is troubling is not that the reshuffle will not happen, but the slow-motion unfolding before us all. It is almost like a metaphor for much of what troubles us. It is this troubling slow speed that gifted us the energy crisis and delivered us to a screeching halt in service delivery. The absence of urgency to our crises is stomach-turning. Many certainly yearn for a cabinet that is “breathing life into society” and certainly “running”.  

There is something appealing about keeping your enemies guessing your next move. But it is quite another thing to be immobilised into undesirable inaction. The country needs to be saved from this needless suspense.

It is natural that once a need for a reshuffle is communicated publicly, some of the deployed ministers and senior officials attached to political offices begin to slowly take their feet off the pedal of service delivery in anticipation of either their complete removal from cabinet (more so if they are no longer NEC members) or lateral movements. So there’s a disincentive for thinking long-term. So the sooner their suspension is confirmed or dismissed, the better for them and society at large.

That said, is it asking too much of the president to move with speed, to understand that reshuffling cabinet is not, in itself, an act of service but mere enablement? The sooner this distracting speculation about cabinet reshuffle is dispensed with, the sooner we will move to more substantive issues that hold us back as a country.