Zuma cabinet experiment may bode poorly for economy
At this difficult time for the South African economy, it is deeply concerning that President Zuma has decided to overhaul the structure and functioning of his cabinet, ostensibly in an attempt to appease the ideologues who delivered him to office rather than to address the key economic challenges of our time.
The early months of the new Zuma administration will now almost certainly be beset by serious coordination problems. Six new Ministerial posts have been created, and in many cases departmental portfolios have changed quite significantly. Government is now more bloated and centralised than ever before, and the potential for turf wars between cross-cutting portfolios appears to have been left entirely unaddressed.
In this regard, the creation of a National Planning Commission (NPC) and a new Department of Economic Development is a step into the unknown. No detailed rationale has been supplied for this. Indeed, at face value these new Departments appear to have been set up to appease the left - the creation of the NPC has allowed for a long-serving member of the Communist Party to be installed as Finance Minister, while a staunch trade unionist is the new Economic Development Minister.
The elevation of Communist Party officials like Blade Nzimande and Jeremy Cronin to cabinet posts gives further credence to this reading of Mr Zuma's cabinet restructuring. This is the worst possible time to experiment with the framework for the country's economic policy making, particularly if the basis for changes has been to appease political stakeholders rather than improve the functioning of the economy and mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis on South Africa .
In particular, Ebrahim Patel's appointment to the new Economic Development Ministry must be watched very closely. With more than 200,000 jobs lost in the first quarter, this is hardly the time to be appointing a Cosatu executive committee member and General Secretary of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) to a key economic post. Rigid labour laws continue to stifle investment in our economy, but if difficult decisions need to be made on this front, will Mr Patel be prepared to make them?
At a time when a balanced approach to the economy is desperately needed, appointments such as Mr Patel's appear to signal an untimely leftward lurch.
Statement issued by Athol Trollip MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, May 11 2009
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