President Cyril Ramaphosa. (GCIS)
Thursday.
It’s early days yet, but things do appear to be going somewhat swimmingly in President Cyril Rampahosa’s fledgling government of national unity.
From what we are told, there appears to have been very little in the way of aggro going on at the first cabinet lekgotla held over the weekend in preparation for the president’s opening-of-parliament address.
Way less, for example, than at meetings of Ramaphosa’s ANC national executive committee — or at those of the cabinet he inherited from his predecessor after Jacob Zuma was recalled by the ANC in February 2018.
Far less of the malicious compliance characteristic of Ramaphosa’s first cabinet, a number of whose members ended up getting the heave in his first — and long-awaited — reshuffle in August 2021.
No leaked minutes, correspondence or recordings: it’s as if the weeks of negotiation that marked the talks leading up to the formation of the unity government never happened.
Things appear to be working out — for now.
The lekgotla participants are understood to have spent more time focusing on what they had in common — beyond the desire to run the country of course — and how to turn that into jobs, electricity, water and houses, than on their differences.
A synthesis of the areas of commonality in the manifestos the parties had published ahead of the elections into a working document appears to have guided the members of Cyril’s cabinet in finding each other, to borrow a phrase from the president’s lexicon.
That will help.
So will the understanding that the career of every person in the cabinet depends on the success of Ramaphosa’s government, as does the performance of their parties when local government elections come around in 2026.
They all know they will be judged on their performance not only by Ramaphosa, but by the punters when we go to the polls nationally and provincially in 2028.
There are also a fair number of people in the cabinet who didn’t have a hope in hell of a seat at the cabinet table this time two months ago. They will be too busy counting their blessings — and proving their worth — to want to delay getting down to work.
Factor in the reality that the Republic can’t afford pedantry, tantrums or walkouts at this point and there is every reason for all of those involved to try to make Ramaphosa’s government work.
Everybody’s been quoting Operation Vulindlela since the negotiations wound up and the parties were asked to give the president the names of their cabinet deployees ahead of his announcement of who was in his new team.
New rules apply.
There’s no invite to Phala Phala for the weekend for Cyril’s new friends at this juncture. No reciprocal to Northwood Old Boys Club for the rugger and a Castle Lite, but relations between Ramaphosa and Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen — and the rest of the cabinet for that matter — do appear to be on the up and up.
Steenhuisen had a bit of a glow about him — could it be a farmer’s tan? — during the debate on the agriculture, land reform and rural development budget in the mini plenary in Cape Town on Tuesday.
John dealt with the agriculture bit and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania’s (PAC) Mzwanele Nyhontso handled the land reform and rural development component.
The PAC finally got the land — ministerially speaking at least — and the portfolio is now split between the two party leaders.
So was the heckling and insults that flowed from the latter-day izwelethu brigade on the opposition benches.
They didn’t seem to see the funny side of being double-teamed by the PAC and the DA during the debate on the land.
Cyril clearly did.
Perhaps it was the new suit and the government-issue speechwriter, but Steenhuisen vibed ministerial in his address to one of the four mini plenaries held to debate — and pass — budgets ahead of the opening of parliament.
So did the rest of the newcomers to Ramaphosa’s cabinet, and the majority of the recycled ones from the ANC side, with the exception of the ever-unintelligible Blade Nzimande.
Ramaphosa should have appointed Nzimande as minister of science fiction, a portfolio more suited to his relationship with the world the rest of us live in, rather than science and technology.
Or left him out.
South African Communist Party general secretary Solly Mapaila has accused the ANC of selling out for convening the same unity government that his national chairperson is “serving” in, so perhaps he will do Cyril — and the rest of us — a favour and recall his deployee.
Perhaps.