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With elections behind us, South Africans have high expectations of the sixth democratic government – even more so this week, with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of his new ministers and their deputies.
With Cabinet now trimmed down from 36 ministries to 28, taxpayers will be spared somewhat from forking out for bodyguards, government homes, free government cars, advisers and personal assistants.
Although Ramaphosa did reduce the size of his Cabinet, he appeared to undermine that achievement by appointing 34 new deputy ministers when we had been led to believe that these would be trimmed down, too.
The names of those deputies indicate that Ramaphosa was performing a fine balancing act, appeasing and accommodating most sectors and interest groups.
There were also misgivings about his retaining some of the incompetent crew from the Jacob Zuma era and his keeping tired bodies, who have served several terms, in the House.
While the outcome proved better than what we had under the Zuma-led administration, there was certainly room for more improvements.
During the pre-election season of kissing babies and using public transport to show that politicians were in touch with the masses, many promises were made – including one to include young faces in Cabinet and another to no longer tolerate malfeasance in public office.
Ramaphosa had promised us a fresher, action-oriented team – a “new dawn” team, so to speak.
But we have to understand his constraints. Like any other leader, he had internal party dynamics to manage.
It is what it is now, and we can no longer dwell on what has happened.
The Cabinet has been chosen. It now has the Herculean task of getting down to business and making South Africa thrive over the next five years.
As Ramaphosa has said: “The people appointed must realise that the expectations of South Africans have never been greater.”
With the ANC majority reduced to less than 60%, Ramaphosa must know that this may be the party’s last opportunity to turn this country’s fortunes around.
South Africans will no longer allow mediocrity to dominate – and it is the action of this administration, not the president’s eloquent words, that we will be paying the most attention to.
