What the scores mean:
A: Take a bow. You’re doing an excellent job
B: Good, but room for improvement
C: You’re OK, but that’s all we can say for you
D: Get your act together
E: Do yourself and the country a favour: resign
F: You’re fired
Kader Asmal
Minister of Education
Grade: B
The moustache bristled, the glasses flashed and the flamboyant hand gestures sawed the air as the combative education minister continued his gladiatorial drive to transform the country’s entire education landscape.
But there was also a new and surprising note of pragmatism that — intermittently, anyway — kept holstered the six-guns Asmal all too often empties as he battles real and imagined opponents. This was nowhere more evident in higher education, which saw by far the year’s most fundamental transformation moves.
In a political coup that astonished most observers, Asmal managed first in May, and then after a period of public comment again in December, to get Cabinet approval for the bulk of controversial tertiary-merger proposals, and did so in the teeth of opposition from serious heavyweights inside and outside the government.
The newfound pragmatism certainly played a key role, with Asmal backing down on the inflammatory proposal to merge Fort Hare and Rhodes universities, among other concessions.
But as the end of his term of office approaches, there are mounting concerns over how many of the policy initiatives he has driven through will be sustainable and implementable, and how much of apartheid’s disastrous education legacy still remains intact.
The production of a new curriculum for Further Education and Training (that is, grades 10, 11 and 12 in schools) perfectly illustrates this. The curriculum is undoubtedly impressive, but Asmal seems curiously unmoved by crucial questions that teacher unions and others ask about the practicalities — especially the costs — of teacher training and supply, and of getting appropriate support materials into all schools.
Policy documents are one thing; on-the-ground transformation is another. Too many schools are still light years away from being non-violent centres of high-quality learning.
Adult literacy has seen some progress, largely because of Unisa’s link-up with the Department of Education. But adult education as a whole remains a disaster area, and ministerial and departmental lethargy here remain inexplicable. And ongoing battles between the education and labour departments continue to impede the flow of funds to Sector Education and Training Authorities critical to the country’s whole skills development programme.
Vintage Asmal remains the flashy, articulate launch and the colourful rhetoric of vision. But he shies away from the messiness of implementing and sustaining change. The real education battles are still to come.
Ngconde Balfour
Minister of Sport and Recreation
Grade: F
A very poor all-round performance that showed Mr Buffet to be little more than the playground bully. His dealings in the sports arenas showed the same diplomacy and grace that Pieter van Zyl brought to the King’s Park rugby field in June. Balfour’s bellicosity had its admirers — in the African National Congress Youth League, in particular — but it alienated him from most sports administrators and fans (Van Zyl’s tackle on referee Dave McHugh also drew pockets of praise from extremists).
Balfour’s tendency to speak first and think later was on display throughout the year in his handling of cricket. From inflammatory comments on the Justin Ontong issue during the Australian tour to his hurtful asides on star player Jacques Kallis in a meeting on quotas with the United Cricket Board, his contribution to the game amounted to little more than malicious meddling.
In contrast, he continues to handle soccer with kid gloves. He failed to institute an inquiry into delays in paying out the families of victims of last year’s Ellis Park tragedy; inappropriately got involved in the ousting of national coach Carlos Queiroz; and turned a blind eye as the Premier Soccer League axed two clubs days before the season started. His ”fury” at the hooliganism at the Coca-Cola Cup final is unlikely to be backed by any stern action.
His support for so-called traditional games would be touching if it were balanced out by any interest in other minor sports.
If coach Thabo Mbeki wants to maintain a winning team, he should consider substituting this player.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Minister of Home Affairs
Grade: C-
The public war between Buthelezi and his director general, Billy Masetlha, came to an end in mid-2002, when the latter was finally removed. The auditor general later vindicated the minister’s persistent complaints that Masetlha had continued to work without a contract.
Informants say the department’s morale has never been so low. Acting Director General Ivan Lambinon told Parliament the department had had three directors general in six years and had lacked a chief financial officer for 18 months; and that Masetlha created and filled more than 150 posts without ministerial approval. Lambinon said the department could take six months to process a ministerial request, instead of the mandatory month, while several regional offices had thousands of uncollected ID documents that the department could not afford to distribute. Regional offices lacked the capacity to register children for welfare grants.
ANC government leaders who indulged Masetlha — particularly President Mbeki and Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi — have much to answer for. But insiders accuse Buthelezi of indecisiveness over appointments. More than 20 home affairs officials are said to be serving in an acting capacity.
Despite leaving in June, Masetlha has not been replaced and another battle appears to be looming over his successor. Mbeki appoints directors general, and the front runner is said to be Barry Gilder, Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Intelligence. Masetlha came to home affairs from the South African Secret Service, and Buthelezi is apparently resisting another spook. He and his special adviser, Mario Ambrosini, seem to have their hearts set on Lambinon.
Buthelezi’s wisdom in clinging to Ambrosini must be questioned. Justified or not, profound ANC suspicions about the controversial Italian-American are a recurrent source of disruption in home affairs.
They probably underlie Mbeki’s insistence on appointing spooks to oversee the department. They clearly underlie persistent ANC meddling in the vital Immigration Bill — seen as Ambrosini’s baby — which reached a farcical climax this year when the Bill was passed by Parliament with a request for immediate changes. At the eleventh hour, as the vote loomed, ANC MPs inserted sweeping amendments shown to be either unworkable or unconstitutional. These were retained to meet a constitutional deadline for enactment.
Thoko Didiza
Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs
Grade: C-
Didiza is clearly desperate to improve her ministry’s delivery record, particularly on land reform, and cannot be faulted for trying. In one or two areas she can claim achievements. But the impression remains that she lacks the inner steel for the politically fraught and chronically under-resourced land portfolio.
On the plus side, the controversial land reform and agricultural development policy — aimed at harnessing land distribution to black farmer promotion — is beginning to happen. Most land acquisition payouts seem modest, at around R20 000, scotching fears that the new scale of grants is designed to favour haves over have-nots. The snag is that while they might have land, emerging farmers get precious little support from the agriculture department, also Didiza’s responsibility. In addition, she could do South Africa a favour by avoiding inflated claims about land transfer. Given the department’s pitiful budget, there is no way on Earth that 30% of land will be black-owned in 15 years.
Didiza can also claim some success in restoring land to people dispossessed by apartheid, with 48% of claims now resolved. Doubts persist, however, over progress in settling intractably complex rural claims — the acid test of whether she can meet the president’s 2005 deadline for the closure of restitution.
Didiza’s Waterloo, once again, is the interminably stalled and politically explosive Communal Land Rights Bill, intended to secure the tenure of people living under traditional leaders. The Bill takes a bold step by limiting the amakhosi to 25% of seats on land administration boards — but does Didiza have the thigh muscles to ride the political storm it has triggered? She is reported to have ducked meetings with furious traditionalists in KwaZulu-Natal and there are widespread predictions that the Bill — at least four years in the making — will not make it to Parliament next year.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Grade: C-
Dlamini-Zuma is the original battle-axe, and one may question whether her rather brutal strength of personality is suited to such a sensitive portfolio. No replacement has been found for her former director general, Sipho Pityana, a year after he quit for the private sector. Rumour has it that South Africa’s ambassadors in Paris and Brussels have both turned down offers because of her fearsome interpersonal style. Yet strangely, given her toughness, she has not followed up on Pityana’s pledge late last year of a clean-up of erring ambassadors. Our man in Indonesia, for example, retains his job after being convicted on multiple counts of sexual harassment.
It was a year of big events for Dlamini-Zuma, including the launch of the African Union (AU) and the hosting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), and she played a workmanlike number-two role to Mbeki in building the necessary consensus for these to happen. Despite her lack of tact, she does have a knack for multilateral diplomacy.
But it is striking that on two of Africa’s most intractable crises, those of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, other Cabinet ministers have been drawn into South Africa’s diplomatic thrust. It was Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana who spearheaded (abortive) efforts to broker a coalition government in Zimbabwe, and Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi, a skilled negotiator, who has been central to the latest Congo talks.
In a year when Africa reached some milestones, much of the world was looking the other way, caught up in the United States’s ”war on terrorism”. In a world once more bipolar, South Africa had to tread a delicate path.
Dlamini-Zuma made a good start in February when she gently reminded US President George W Bush that ”the fight against terrorism is a matter that concerns all the world, not only the US”.
When Bush turned his sights on Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a similar reprimand might have been in order. By allowing her deputy, Aziz Pahad, to run off to Baghdad and hold hands with a megalomaniac dictator, Dlamini-Zuma overstepped the mark.
Her lack of subtlety, and hard-line African nationalism, was most in evidence in her pronouncements on Zimbabwe. Nothing had gone awry in that tortured country, she recently assured South Africans — it was all an invention of the counter-revolutionary media.
Alec Erwin
Minister of Trade and Industry
Grade: D+
Erwin is a man of two faces — a star on the international front and a struggler in domestic affairs, a gifted intellectual and an inept manager. An articulate spokesman on economic policy, his contributions to international trade forums mark him as a champion of the downtrodden. He has consistently used South Africa’s unique standing to insist on rules-based trade agreements that benefit developing countries. Observers were puzzled by the department’s announcement of plans to reduce the number of foreign representatives at a time when South Africa needs more, not less, representation in key trading partners.
Erwin’s department recently announced the five-year extension of the highly successful Motor Industry Development Programme, a move expected to bring in investment of R6-billion. However, Trade and Investment South Africa — designed as a one-stop shop for would-be investors — continues to be seen as ineffectual in investor circles.
Gambling policy is also in disarray, with the spotlight turning on both the social fallout of the national lottery and other games of chance, and the fact that the proceeds are not reaching charities in the required volumes.
A glaring shortfall has been the failure to produce the comprehensive black empowerment policy statement pledged in the president’s State of the Nation address, apparently because of conflicting views on empowerment targets. At the beginning of the year, the country was promised a Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council based in the presidency, but officials tell of a bureaucratic stalemate that has seen the process fail to go beyond draft phase.
At the same time, there is little evidence of beneficial impact in growing small business. Because of the bureaucratic hoops they must jump through, most small and medium enterprises do not look to Department of Trade and Industry for help.
The department’s undoing seems to be that it has gradually taken on additional responsibilities, such as empowerment, without an accompanying growth in administrative capacity. The interminable ”restructuring” of the department has made little apparent difference to its performance, while sowing division and undermining morale. There is a widespread view that Erwin should have stayed in the Treasury.
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi
Minister of Public Service and Administration
Grade: C+
A hate-object for the left because of her repeated run-ins with public service unions, Fraser-Moleketi would have been purged from the leadership of the South African Communist Party this year had she made herself available. She should be not be measured by this — workers’ rights must be balanced against citizens’ rights to services — but against her professed aim of streamlining the wasteful and inept state bureaucracy. In these terms, her 2002 record was mixed.
Her biggest feat was wrapping up the interminable horse-trade with labour over public service ”restructuring”. Much softened since her predecessor, Zola Skweyiya, talked of 100 000 retrenchments (and did nothing), the deal involves the retraining and internal redeployment of redundant employees. Union compliance — eight out of 12 finally signed — was, however, bought by means of a pay deal that overstepped the budget by R1-billion and put upward pressure on interest rates. The uniform 9% award was attacked for failing to differentiate between worker bees and drones, and ignoring skills shortages. Another negative spin-off was a blanket moratorium on new appointments, in a context where, for example, South Africa lacks 10 000 science and maths teachers.
Fraser-Moleketi announced continuing strides in racial transformation, with 85% of all civil servants and 60% of managers now black. But continuing capacity shortfalls were underscored by moves to monitor state departments’ heavy reliance on consultants, which cost R2,6-billion between 1998 and 2000. To boost performance, she stipulated that 70% of officials should attain minimum qualifications over the next five years. In contrast, senior managers’ qualifications were only finally verified this year, after a two-year delay. A thousand members of the vaunted new Senior Management Service failed to declare their financial interests under asset register requirements.
Industrious and clear-minded, despite her weakness for opaque process-speak, Fraser-Moleketi’s reformist endeavours are complicated by the past and present use of the state sector for racial redress and the ruling party’s delicate relations with labour. HIV/Aids, too, is a huge threat — an internal report, which her department refused to publish, estimates that 250 000 public servants, many skilled, may die in the next decade. She is making slow progress, but still has a mountain to climb.
Ronnie Kasrils
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry
Grade: B
Kasrils goes on producing results in the water portfolio, while his natural pugnacity continued to manifest itself in his determined advocacy of Third World interests at the WSSD, and his polemics, as a left-wing Jew, against Israel’s Palestinian policies.
This financial year the water department will connect more than a million additional South Africans at a cost of about R800-billion. At this rate, the 2008 deadline for clean water for all — seven million people are still without it — will be met. Also this year, R120-million will go to providing 55 000 toilets for 430 000 people as part of Kasril’s sanitation drive. The free basic water programme celebrated its first anniversary, with 27-million now benefiting. The Working for Water programme, which pays the unemployed to remove alien vegetation from watercourses, continues to provide up to 20 000 short-term jobs each year.
Efforts were also made to boost water supply in our semi-arid region, where demand threatens to outstrip resources in two decades. A deal was signed with Mozambique and Swaziland on the Inkomati river, and the Mohale dam — part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project — was completed within budget.
The National Water Resource Strategy, released in August for comment, was hailed as ”a blueprint for survival”. Its tenets include balancing water demand and supply, and protecting resources.
The collapse of the Nkomatiland forestry privatisation was a setback for Kasrils’s plans to sell off state forests, but reflected far more directly on the lead ministry, public enterprises.
He earns a black mark, however, for singing in the Mbeki Tabernacle Choir after the October anti-privatisation strike, when he accused the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) of associating with ”loony” organisations. He also mounted a toadying defence of Mbeki’s HIV/Aids stance during the State of the Nation debate in Parliament early in the year. Such interventions may have cemented his Cabinet post, but hardly chime with his vaunted radicalism.
Mosiuoa Lekota
Minister of Defence
Grade: D+
One of the Cabinet’s more likeable members, Lekota could not be described as insubstantial. But he has never seemed quite the same person since the death of his daughter and his humiliating removal as premier of the Free State.
His rehabilitation as defence minister in 1999 meant he inherited the mess left by Joe Modise, including the ruinous arms deal. This latter, which plundered the defence budget to support the ambitions of the Department of Trade and Industry, resulted in the purchase of high-tech weapons South Africa does not need and cannot afford to run, and the provision of a ”retirement fund” for Honest Joe.
In 2002 Lekota has seemed disengaged from his portfolio, distracted by ANC duties. The minister, who earlier this year spoke about challenging Jacob Zuma for the ANC deputy presidency, retained his position as ANC chairperson despite far from unanimous support for him in the party.
Meanwhile, one seasoned military observer describes the defence department as ”a shambles”, adding: ”The most hopeful thing we can say is that the problems may be bottoming out.” There are feelings that he would do well to fire defence secretary January Masilela.
Morale and discipline are said to be at a low ebb, with the department struggling to manage the posting of peace-keeping troops to the Congo. Scheduled for November, deployment is unlikely to take place before March next year.
In Parliament, Lekota provided an unconvincing rebuttal of startling reports on the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) lack of combat-readiness and elderly and sickly personnel. He dismissed (probably exaggerated) reports of 60% HIV levels among troops, but later admitted no proper study had been done and that he was guessing.
The arrival of the military’s expensive new toys over the next year will delay the restructuring of the force. On his 2002 performance, Lekota is not the man to lead it away from the mythical and costly vision of the SANDF as designed for conventional warfare, towards a simpler, more efficient, better-resourced force, capable of fulfilling regional peace-keeping and domestic security roles.
Penuell Maduna
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development
Grade: C+
Maduna’s ministerial record does not inspire confidence, so any sign that he has pulled his socks up, and his feet out of his mouth, deserves special praise.
Maduna has introduced 14 pieces of legislation this year. Although these include controversial measures — like the Interception and Monitoring Act and the floor-crossing legislation — opposition MPs credit him with a willingness to listen to their objections.
He also announced the creation of 2 000 new posts, including office managers for the courts, in a bid to speed up the processing of court cases. Despite efforts to reduce the backlog, the volume of new cases has also increased, leaving the department largely running on the spot.
Justice has the worst record of financial mismanagement of all national departments, and corruption in the courts remains rife. Pilot electronic docket systems and the outsourcing of more financial management functions should bring improvements.
In addition, Maduna launched a well-deserved attack on vested interests and collusion in the liquidation industry, though we hope the minister’s closeness to certain other liquidators will not detract from this worthy campaign.
Of course, the justice minister would not be himself without one or two loud-mouthed gaffes. A case in point is his comment on the controversy-plagued pardons granted by the president early this year, and his attack on Desmond Tutu, who said the pardons made a mockery of the truth commission process.
”The fact that one person allegedly committed a crime, for me it’s neither here nor there, because what you are saying to me is that I must be so cautious as never to make any mistake whatsoever,” Maduna said at the time.
His oafish remark may return to haunt him. Now that the Eastern Cape man accused of committing a brutal murder within weeks of being pardoned has been convicted, Maduna’s conduct — and that of Mbeki — are likely to come under intense scrutiny.
Trevor Manuel
Minister of Finance
Grade: B-
The man who boasts about delivering ”the sweet fruits of liberation” put in another solid performance, although his fiscal con- servatism leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the poor and continues to make him a bugbear of the left. Unlike some ministers he has the benefit of an able deputy in Mandisi Mphahlwa, and an effective department under Director General Maria Ramos.
His year, like all others, started with a Budget that maintained the government’s tight rein on the fiscus. But it is time to ask whether he has now erred too much on the side of caution. Government deficit before borrowing currently stands at 1,6% of gross domestic product. The European benchmark is 3%, and developed countries like Germany have even higher deficits. The stranglehold, together with a R15-billion tax break for middle- and high-income earners, did not endear him to Cosatu.
The Treasury was also blamed for the government’s rejection of a basic income grant.
Exchange control remains an area the government is determined to control by saying nothing. The official policy is that controls will be removed gradually. But in a year when there was, at best, mere tinkering, market participants are wondering whether it is time to stop being vague and just say they will not remove them — at least not in the short term.
Manuel caused market anxiety, and mild excitement in the media, when his large ego seemed on a collision course with that of Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. Their relationship drifts from healthy tension to mud-slinging, and this year two battles stood out. They clashed over the formation of a single financial regulator responsible for banking supervision, with Mboweni insisting that the function remains within the Reserve Bank.
In a second incident, Manuel left Mboweni to defend the government’s inflation targeting policy after the governor had raised interest rates four times to stem runaway inflation. Unveiling the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, the minister announced the relaxation of the 2004 inflation target and dismissed talk of a major disagreement.
It is worth asking whether Manuel raises his voice sufficiently when Cabinet colleagues undermine inflation targeting. From generous wage increases for public servants to tariff hikes by parastatals, the left hand of the Cabinet seems to undermine the right.
This year, Manuel pushed ahead with capital gains tax amid continuing questions about its wisdom and administrative complexity. He takes credit for an economy whose growth has outpaced global growth, but is hardly sufficient to alleviate South Africa’s pressing social problems.
Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri
Minister of Communications
Grade: F
Despite Matsepe-Casaburri and her department’s pious talk of ”bridging the digital divide”, the chasm seems to be getting wider. In July 1996 South Africa was the country with the 14th-highest number of Internet hosts — a good measure of how switched on we were as a nation. By July this year, we had slipped to 29th, overtaken by many lesser competitors.
High call costs, inadequate communication infrastructure and Telkom’s monopolistic behaviour are partly to blame. Yet the government’s steps to create better access at better prices have been so hobbled that much of the time we are moving in circles.
Some 18 months ago, when Matsepe-Casaburri finally extricated herself from the third cellphone licence debacle, industry players were relieved. ”Now we can get on with it,” they said. That ”it” was telecommunications sector reform that included finalising new competition-friendly policy and licensing a second national operator (SNO) to compete with Telkom.
Well, Telkom’s monopoly protection expired in May, but remains unchallenged in practice. Icasa, the telecommunication regulator, is in the unenviable position of having to choose between two half-baked competitors for the SNO licence, one of them led by a panelbeater.
It is easy for Matsepe-Casaburri’s fans to mutter about an internationally depressed telecoms market. But just as offputting to quality bidders have been the confused regulatory environment — for which Matsepe-Casaburri and her department are to blame — and the way international bidders felt themselves screwed in the race for the third cellphone licence.
The minister’s every major initiative is wracked by controversy, confusion and unnecessary delays. This year she had to back down on provisions of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill and the e-commerce Bill after initially digging in her heels on clearly untenable provisions.
Face it, minister, you’re leading us on a road to nowhere. It is time to go.
Thabo Mbeki
President
Grade: C-
A common lament of presidential aides and senior ANC leaders is that people just ”don’t understand the chief”.
In their quest to make lesser mortals understand Mbeki, those close to him spend an inordinate amount of time explaining his utterances, philosophies and actions.
The assumption, of course, is that the problem is with the rest of us. Not with the manner in which ”the chief” relates to the electorate and speaks (or doesn’t) to the people he governs.
Mbeki’s aloof and distant relationship with South Africans and his apparent disregard for their opinions is his greatest weakness and could undermine what could be a great presidential legacy.
During the course of this year, the glimpse of Mbeki that South Africans caught was of him cavorting with G8 leaders in the Canadian resort town of Kananaskis, holding court with Commonwealth leaders in Coolum, Australia, and arriving at foreign airports amid much pomp and ceremony. When he was on home soil, they saw him taking charge of the newly formed AU, presiding over the WSSD and supping with members of the high-powered international advisory councils he turns to for wisdom.
Some who were more fortunate saw him in the flesh when he had occasion to venture out into the provinces during imbizos (visits to the grassroots).
This distance, which those close to Mbeki do not seem to find problematic at all, is the reason why the perception that he is an absentee landlord is increasingly finding resonance among many in his own political constituency. It is also the reason South Africans, among whom he should be seeking support for the essential project of putting Africa back on the world map, are apathetic towards it.
Instead Mbeki has ensured that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) was adopted as an official programme of the newly formed AU, and secured the backing of the Commonwealth and financial commitment of the G8. This was due in no small measure to the fact that it was also being driven by a gradual move towards peace in some of the continent’s hot spots — a process that was driven largely by Mbeki and his ministers. For this he deserves full marks.
But then all these efforts placing South Africa at the helm of Africa’s regeneration are falling victim to Mbeki’s dismissive attitude to anyone below the rank of head of state or corporate captain. Despite being a well-thought-out and home-grown programme, the Nepad initiative has unnecessarily earned detractors in the form of trade unions, civil society groups and leading African intellectuals who argue that they have been left out of the consultation process.
Mbeki’s answer to them? Go and search the Internet for further details.
Even on Zimbabwe, the issue that has become Nepad’s Achilles heel, Mbeki has been scornful of those who dared question his approach to the crisis. Despite the fact that there are no tangible results, Mbeki insists that trying to talk sense quietly to the Mugabe government is the best route possible.
His answer to those who dare ask what quiet diplomacy practically means and what its successes have been? I will not bomb Zimbabwe.
Mbeki’s main success continues to be in the execution of the main part of his job description: the management of South Africa. The economy is stable, the crime rate has stabilised, the currency has weathered domestic and international crises and the work ethic among ministers and senior officials has improved immeasurably.
What should be giving Mbeki sleepless nights however, are indications that despite macroeconomic stability and a negligible growth rate, poverty levels are on the increase.
The fight against poverty, the success of which Mbeki’s presidency will be judged against, can only be won if Mbeki himself overcomes his fear of alternative opinions, suggestions and hints, rather than silencing those who have alternative opinion through labelling them ultra-left enemies of democracy and historical relics.
With the much-awaited Growth Summit on the cards, poverty an in-your-face problem, the Zimbabwe crisis now affecting the entire region and political temperatures rising ahead of a general election on the horizon, the year 2003 will be a critical one in the Mbeki presidency.
In the same way that he backed down on his controversial standpoint on Aids, Mbeki must step back and realise that he is the leader of a nation.
Membathisi Mdladlana
Minister of Labour
Grade: C+
Despite his oddities — he once treated the media to a discourse on toilets in the Transkei — Mdladlana is a former unionist with a reasonable grasp of the labour field and like his predecessor, Tito Mboweni, a clear plan.
The minister has a number of ”deliverables” to show for this year. The Labour Relations Act was amended, ostensibly to make for greater labour market flexibility, but with the sweetener of retrenchment strikes for the labour movement. Minimum wages were proclaimed for domestic and farm workers. To ease its chronic solvency problems and bring vulnerable workers into the Unemployment Insurance Fund net, unemployment insurance was extended to most of the workforce, including domestics.
Mdladlana’s biggest headache has been the enforcement of the two-year-old Skills Development Act. The 25 Sector Education and Training Authorities were reported to be riddled with corruption and mismanagement, with R1-billion in accumulated levies idling in their bank accounts. The minister conceded that only the public sector had made headway on training.
This is the clearest weakness of the labour ministry — policies are announced, consultations are held, laws are passed and sabres are rattled. But more and more, it seems an elaborate shadow-play. The Democratic Alliance apocalyptically warned that 170 000 domestic workers’ jobs were threatened by the new statutory minimum wage.
But the real question, given the unskilled nature of the work and the weakness of the government inspectorate and domestic workers’ unions, is whether the R650 to R800 floor-rate will have any impact. How many workers will use their new-found right to strike over retrenchments and how much effect will it have on job loss? Given the growing mobility of capital, mass unemployment and the progressive casualisation of labour, how much do formal instruments like labour law really count in our globalising age?
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Minister of Minerals and Energy
Grade: A
Probably the Cabinet’s star performer, Mlambo-Ngcuka rounded off 2002 with the announcement of free electricity provision for a million households.
Her tour de force was the Mining and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the mining charter that flowed from it — both aimed at driving black empowerment in an industry that symbolises racial capitalism in South Africa. Tough, but clear-minded and pragmatic, she rode out the industry’s stiff resistance to the legislation, while making strategic concessions aimed at stabilising jittery markets. In its final form, the charter marks an important empowerment milestone by entrenching the idea of ”broad-based empowerment”, which goes beyond the enrichment of a few black mining magnates. In effect, Mlambo-Ngcuka has wrested the stewardship of black economic empowerment from Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin.
This year she also began redefining the energy generation environment with a White Paper on the Promotion of Renewable and Clean Energy Development. The aim, consistent with the decisions of the WSSD, is to create an institutional framework for the introduction of renewable energy sources into the mainstream economy and the diversification of energy supply.
A major headache remains the Central Energy Fund (CEF), following controversy surrounding its oil-trading subsidiary, the Strategic Fuel Fund, for ”effectively privatising” the country’s crude-oil purchases. This year, the CEF suspended its CEO, Renosi Mokate, for allegedly violating its risk management policy, exposing the fund to huge losses.
Impressive as her achievements look, Mlamblo-Ngcuka still has it all to do. Awaiting her is the Herculean task of restructuring the R25-billion electricity distribution industry. The overhaul, a decade in the making and described as the ”biggest, most complex and politically volatile” to be undertaken, involves the creation of six regional distributors by merging Eskom’s distribution function with those of 250 municipalities. She has vowed to complete this before her term of office expires.
On the mining front, large questions remain unanswered. Chief among them is how the capital needed to effect racial asset transfers will be raised, and how the enormous sums involved will effect black empowerment in other industries. The mining charter envisages the transfer of 15% of the industry to black entrepreneurs.
Mohammed Valli Moosa
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Grade: A-
This is one minister who abides by his own department’s motto — ”act before it is too late”. For commitment and drive, Moosa deserves a straight A.
His delivery this year includes the WSSD hosted in Johannesburg — a logistical success that placed developing countries’ interests squarely on the world map, even if it did not go far enough towards solving environmental problems.
He managed to get Parliament’s approval for restrictions on the use of 4×4 vehicles on beaches, and reached agreement with both business and labour on limiting the use of plastic bags. He engineered the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park treaty, signed by the presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in early December.
Though his portfolio is traditionally regarded as a junior one, he has built up its significance. An astute politician, he has shown that delivery pays. His delivery has deliberately focused on Mbeki’s stated priorities, like economic growth, employment creation, black economic empowerment and Nepad.
Tourism figures continue to grow. Disadvantaged communities are increasingly reaping the benefits, chiefly through the wise use of poverty relief funds. And though providing more equitable access to marine resources has proved tricky, it is working.
So where does the minus come in? Delivery in reducing pollution, waste and climate change is still lacking. These are major challenges for the country, and they hit the poorest areas hardest.
Moosa is also not acting firmly enough in insisting on corporate accountability for environmental damage. He has shown willingness to act — plastic bags are an example — but there appears to be a lack of clarity on how to tackle the problem.
This is exacerbated by an unwillingness — not unique to his department — to share responsibilities, particularly with provincial structures. There is not enough capacity-building at provincial level.
Legislative changes he is introducing have created confusion and hostility among the provinces and the public, chiefly because his department is not public-friendly. Rapid staff turnover has resulted in leaking institutional memory, lack of support for what he is trying to achieve and, in some instances, inefficiency.
Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele
Minister of Housing
Grade: B+
Filling the shoes of Joe Slovo from January 1995 was widely seen as a tall order for Mthembi-Mahanyele, but keeping her in office for seven continuous years has borne fruit. She has become a good minister with a secure grasp of a technical field.
The continuing decline of formal houses built with government subsidies cannot justly be laid at her doorstep — it mirrors changing budget priorities since the halcyon Slovo days. It also reflects a shift to more diverse provision in the form of more rental and social housing stock.
About 120 000 subsidy units were built this year, sharply down from the 322 000 in 1997/8.
Delivery achievements this year included the transfer of 400 000 municipal houses to tenants, the provision of water and sanitation in 293 informal settlements and the upgrading of 65 of 145 government hostels.
The housing subsidy was raised to R22 300 from April, while a task team was set up to fight corruption, fraud and maladministration in the subsidy scheme, resulting in a number of busts. Closer monitoring cut the default rate among contractors and developers from 5,9% in 1998 to 0,2%.
With a female minister at the helm, the housing department has made serious efforts to advance the role of women in construction. This year saw the launch of the Women for Housing Organisation. By June 16 women contractors shared R16,4-million through the National Urban Reconstruction Housing Agency.
An interesting initiative was the Home Loan Guarantee Company, which aims to protect HIV/Aids sufferers from eviction by financial institutions.
A centrepiece of Mthembi-Mahanyele’s parliamentary agenda next year will be the Community Reinvestment Bill. In readiness for this, she has been mobilising professionals and institutions in the low-income housing field to lend to qualifying beneficiaries.
The minister should also be praised for bolstering press freedom in South Africa. She lost her long-standing defamation case against the Mail & Guardian, making it much harder for Cabinet ministers to sue journalists in future.
Her election to the full-time position of ANC deputy secretary general will be a great loss to the Cabinet.
Sydney Mufamadi
Minister of Provincial Affairs and Local Government
Grade: C+
A low-profile minister with an unsexy portfolio, Mufamadi’s busy year included a package of local government laws and a national framework for disaster management. His October White Paper on traditional leadership was a symbolic landmark that, with the Communal Land Rights Bill, signalled the ANC government’s growing determination to subject the chieftancy to constitutional norms, even at the risk of jeopardising its power-sharing alliance with the Inkatha Freedom Party. With unprecedented clarity, the White Paper emphasises that in three elections rural South Africans have demanded a new system of governance.
Mufamadi’s efforts to beef up his feeble department continued with the sidelining of his director general, former homeland bureaucrat Zam Titus, and appointment of well-regarded trade and industry official Lindiwe Msengena-Ndlela as his replacement. He placed emphasis on improved coordination and communication in local government, launching the South African Cities Network, aimed at improving the exchange of information among the nine metropoles and three other major cities.
Central to his legislative package were the Municipal Finance Management Bill, which extends the financial controls already in force in national and provincial government, and the recently tabled rates Bill, which seeks to standardise local valuation and rating systems.
But the reality behind the high-falutin’ legal instruments and institutional tinkering was exposed in May, when Mufamadi revealed that service debts to local government now stand at R22-billion — a figure widely viewed as an underestimate. Growing debt was compounded by ”daunting capacity constraints and infrastructural backlogs”.
In essence, functioning local government exists only in South Africa’s major cities and towns, which have the necessary tax base, financial expertise and debt-collecting infrastructure. District councils, for which government has grandiose plans as providers of retail services, are in the worst position of all.
Mufamadi plans a major indaba with all municipalities on credit control and financial management in January. From this must come some practical responses to the seemingly intractable financial woes of local government.
Ben Ngubane
Minister of Arts, Culture Science and Technology
Grade: C+
For the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology it was the year the Siamese twins were separated. In July President Thabo Mbeki gave the go-ahead for arts and culture to be wrenched from science and technology — the former to become the co-responsibility of national and provincial government and the latter a national competency.
Ngubane would remain at the helm of both. In March he released the report ”Scientific Cooperation in the ’90s” — listing the successes of cooperation between the European Union and the Southern African Development Community in research on HIV/Aids.
Other involvements include a government investment of R10-million in coelacanth research and moral support for tourist astronaut Mark Shuttleworth’s Hip2b2 youth science and technology roadshow.
In arts and culture, R10-million was given to provinces to develop and transform the performing arts, and the much-maligned funding body, the National Arts Council, received an additional R20-million to develop the arts until 2005.
Both wings of Ngubane’s portfolio scored brownie points for their splendid presence at the WSSD, with 650 national craft projects on display at the Craft Imbizo. And, of course, the nation stood still in April as the remains of the historical figure Saartjie Baartman came home from France after negotiations he spearheaded. ÂÂ
A thorn in the minister’s side remains the mystery of the missing R24-million from the coffers of the State Theatre in Pretoria. Taxpayers have already coughed up millions for an investigation that has taken five years. Ngubane may have been cleared of responsibility, but those to blame are still at large.
Charles Nqakula
Minister of Safety and Security
Grade: C (provisional rating)
Nqakula has not had a chance to make much of an impact, having taken office only in May after the death of Steve Tshwete. In contrast to Tshwete’s bluff and blustery manner, Nqakula is a low-key police minister in the mould of Sydney Mufamadi. He shares with Mufamadi a closeness to Mbeki, rather than any obvious aptitude for dealing with crime or managing the bureaucratic behemoth of the South African Police Service.
”He seems realistic about what the police can do,” says one analyst. ”He has more regard [than Tshwete] for human rights issues and will hopefully help resurrect the crime prevention strategy, which looks at social causes of crime and cuts across other departments.”
Although Commissioner Jackie Selebi has successfully pushed for a larger police force, analysts say it is not so much the numbers as the quality of personnel that matters — and the way they are deployed and equipped. Basic equipment like two-way radios is still in short supply. A significant number of policemen are functionally illiterate. The detective branch is still over-stretched, though the amalgamation of the dozens of different branches into three main divisions — serious and violent crime, organised crime and commercial crime — is expected to improve matters in the medium term. In addition, the pledge of 25 000 more police personnel over four years takes no account of the annual loss of 5 000, through resignation or other causes.
Surveys of members of the public who have dealt with police stations suggest the service is slowly improving. But government bromides about the ”stabilisation” of many priority crimes do not convince. Particularly depressing is the fact that in the majority of ”hot spot” police stations targeted for special resourcing, in line with Mbeki’s announcement last year, crime continues to increase. And while ”stabilisation” is certainly to be welcomed, a real reduction seems as elusive as ever.
As the current chairperson and former secretary general of the South African Communist Party, Nqakula did not impress as a natural leader — and doubts about his temperamental suitability for a tough portfolio persist. Said one commentator: ”The question is whether the minister — who seems to spend quite a lot of time doing political stuff for Mbeki’s office — is able to provide real leadership. So far we haven’t seen much evidence of that.”
Abdullah Omar
Minister of Transport
Grade: D-
Omar’s unglamorous portfolio tends to become visible only when foreign tourists die in an accident. He lacks full jurisdiction over vital aspects of transport: the privatisation of Spoornet and Transnet fall under public enterprises; passenger train security is the primary responsibility of safety and security; roads are shared with public works and provincial and local government. But he continues to grind away, with varying success, at road carnage, taxi recapitalisation and the cash-strapped, corruption-ridden Road Accident Fund.
He faces a daunting challenge in the form of an accumulated road maintenance backlog of R24-billion, with the provincial backlog more than doubling in seven years. This year he won the Cabinet over, in principle, to a R30-billion road maintenance and development plan over five years, a sharp increase in spending (if it happens). Some R60-million was spent this year on passenger trains.
The taxi recapitalisation agreement with the South African National Taxi Association Council in November was a tribute to his persistence and negotiating skills, considering the process started years ago under his predecessor.
He successfully piloted through Parliament the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Amendment Bills, which introduce a demerit system under which traffic re-offenders will lose their licences, and a computerised system to ensure traffic fines are paid. Professional drivers’ training for bus and taxi drivers is now mooted.
However, there is not much indication that the Arrive Alive campaign is working. Easter road deaths rose 20% to 179, and it was reported that crashes this year cost the economy R15-million more than last.
Omar conceded last month that aspects of the ”road to safety” strategy, launched by the department last year, have not yet materialised. The plan aims to cut accidents, deaths and injuries by 5% a year until 2005.
Essop Pahad
Minister in the Office of the Presidency
Grade: D+
The eyes, ears and strong right arm of Mbeki — his close friend since they studied together in exile — Pahad’s formal responsibilities include government communications, the offices for women, children and the disabled in the presidency, media-related matters and bodies like the International Investment Council. In practice, he is a powerful minister without portfolio, with broad spin-doctoring, opposition-baiting and trouble-shooting duties.
He has had his pennyworth this year on everything from Nepad to black empowerment and crime statistics. It was he who unearthed the hymns to the apartheid defence force written by a youthful Tony Leon for Paratus magazine.
Because Pahad mirrors Mbeki’s hatred of the commercial media, there was suspicion around the aims of the Media Diversity and Development Act, passed this year. The Bill initially gave him a large say in the writing of regulations and media projects funded under the Act, and made him the final court of appeal against decisions of the Media Diversity and Development Agency. The troublesome clauses were overhauled by Parliament.
His influence is not always malign. This year, for example, he is credited with helping to re-engineer the Broadcasting Amendment Bill after an outcry over clauses that threatened to turn the SABC into a state, rather than public, broadcaster.
It would wrong to think such interventions are guided by principle. Pahad is the very type of the Stalinist apparatchik who makes himself the unswervingly loyal servant of his boss in order to exercise power over others.
He is reputed to have been one of the ANC hit men behind attempts to cow immunologist Malegapuru Makgoba into toeing the president’s line on HIV/Aids. Mere months later, when the ANC top brass decided the line must change, he is credited with helping to broker the party’s celebrated policy shift on the disease.
Jeff Radebe
Minister of Public Enterprises
Grade: C-
Battered, beleaguered and bruised is how Radebe appears at times. Or maybe just trying his best in wrestling with one of the most technically complex and politically sensitive ministries.
One commentator dismissed him as having ”done nothing”. Last year, the national Treasury expected R18-billion from privatisation proceeds; only R2,3-billion materialised.
This financial year, the Treasury expects R12-billion, and Radebe hopes to meet this via a renewed focus on small and large high-profile deals.
On the plus side, the sale of a 30% stake in Denel to BAE Systems was approved. Also, a consortium led by Spoornet signed a 15-year, $78-million concession agreement to manage, operate and rehabilitate the Ressano Garcia railway line from Komatipoort to Maputo. And the sale of government’s stake in cellphone company MTN was deftly handled.
More importantly, the two biggest money-spinning privatisation projects — the listing of Telkom and the partial privatisation of Eskom — have recently witnessed encouraging progress. Radebe has bitten the bullet and announced plans to list Telkom amid depressing global sentiment and ahead of the introduction of competition in the telecommunications sector.
The release in December of a regulatory framework to govern tariff increases on electricity is the strongest indicator of the government’s commitment to phased liberalisation of the power generation market.
However, experts are warning about the wisdom of some envisaged details, such as a foreign partner for Eskom, given that Eskom is a success as a state-owned enterprise. Labour has warned that privatisation will simply lead to higher tariffs for the poor.
The pitfalls that marred telecommunications privatisation should be heeded — there must be policy clarity ahead of privatisation of the electricity utility.
Policy vagueness also dogs the process of port ”concessioning”, and means that the process will be high-risk and fraught with disputes with labour.
Radebe’s most unfortunate setback has to be the derailment of the sale of the state’s largest forestry assets — the R335-million Komatiland forests in Mpumalanga and Limpopo — after bribery claims sullied the bid process.
But he deserves credit for encouraging officials to grasp the nettle of dealing with corruption, both in the case of public enterprises chief director Andile Nkuhlu and in that of Spoornet CEO Zandile Jakavula.
In short, he’s trying hard, but he could do better.
Stella Sigcau
Minister of Public Works
Grade: D
Usually low-profile, Sigcau slapped a security guard at Durban International airport when he tried to stop her going through a door marked ”No Entry”, according to Rapport. Perhaps the frustration of being in charge of government properties worth R120-billion finally became too much.
Known for a hands-off approach, Sigcau relies heavily on her officials. The departure of her director general, Tami Sokutu, reportedly after a fallout, has not helped.
The long-promised sale of redundant state land has still to take off in a major way, although 65 properties were sold for R17,7-million.
Mud also stuck to public works over the controversial sale of a state-owned home in Port Elizabeth, to Zanele Mbeki, wife of President Thabo Mbeki, for R440 000 — and its resale a few months later on the open market at almost double the price.
The government owed almost R6,5-million to private institutions and municipalities for properties they rented. The United Democratic Movement exposed the fact that at least 24 empty government buildings are costing the taxpayer R1-million a month, although this appears to be an improvement on last year.
On the positive side, public works awarded contracts worth R908-million to black contractors in 2001/2002. Progress included an HIV/Aids awareness programme in the construction sector as part of four pilot projects, and the stipulation that all companies tendering for public works contracts should include awareness programmes.
The long-awaited government immovable asset management framework, which will lead to the establishment of a fully state-owned company to manage government properties and land, is finally being wrapped up.
Sigcau’s showcase is the community-based public works programme, which has among other things, built 14 multi-purpose community centres in various provinces.
It could undergo expansion next year, as officials are conceptualising a ”Massive Public Works Programme” in conjunction with other departments such as health, housing and social development.
Lindiwe Sisulu
Minister of Intelligence
Grade: B
This minister is a smooth operator, but also had an easy act to follow in replacing the ailing Joe Nhlanhla.
She impressed even the apartheid old guard by consulting widely (even chatting to apartheid spy bosses Neil Barnard and Mike Louw) and bringing in sweeping reforms. The first change to reap dividends was stricter compartmentalisation between the sections of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), resulting in less ”cafeteria chit-chat” and, consequently, leaks.
Successes this year include the security management of major events such as the AU launch and the WSSD.
However, the heavy-handed treatment of ”dissident” groups, such as the Landless People’s Movement, and indications of NIA involvement in monitoring the activities of trade unions suggest a worrying trend towards the party-political use of the agency.
This concern has been reinforced by the naming of the new Intelligence Academy, established by Sisulu, after former ANC security chief Mzwai Piliso. Piliso notoriously despised all forms of oversight and administered beatings to obtain information.
Concerns persist, also, about the extent of real oversight of the NIA. Claims that former inspector general of intelligence Fazel Randera resigned for personal reasons in January this year are widely viewed as nonsense —the real problem is that the position puts the incumbent on a collision course with the intelligence agencies. This may explain Sisulu’s refusal to appoint a successor until the role and reporting lines of the inspector general were ”clarified” in legislation. The law was passed last month.
The NIA apparently played an important role in identifying the white rightwingers currently charged with treason. However, the organisation is known to be still very concerned about the right-wing threat and has placed special pressure on white agents to crack right-wing networks. Sisulu seems to have hastened the integration of old guard and liberation movement spooks, with several recent senior appointments going to whites.
Other successes are reputed to be the efficient bugging of the Sun City talks on the Congo, although South African agents were supposedly outdone there at the ”human intelligence” level by their foreign rivals.
Sisulu also earns points for her savvy apology for the ”over-zealous” screening of potential members of the presidential press corps, which included detailed questions about their sex lives.
Ben Skosana
Minister of Correctional Services
Grade: D-
Just how badly Skosana has been doing his job was starkly spotlighted this year by the Jali commission, which brought to light the moral and administrative rottenness of South Africa’s 241 prisons.
Mind-boggling evidence to the commission included a videotape filmed by inmates of the Grootvlei prison, with the permission of the prison head, showing warders supplying prisoners a weapon, alcohol, drugs and a minor for sex.
The picture that emerged was of a system riddled with murder, gangster networks reaching into the townships, fraud involving more than R40-million, jobs for pals and staff corruption including condoned escapes and recruitment scams. Judge Thabani Jali told Parliament that members of the prisons union Popcru conspired to make the Pietermaritzburg prison ungovernable in order to grab the jobs of white managers.
In fairness, Skosana did recommend the commission’s appointment to Mbeki and has apparently followed Jali’s recommendations, suspending 22 Grootvlei officials and a number of staffers in KwaZulu-Natal. He announced plans to strengthen anti-corruption units using Scorpions investigators. He and correctional services commissioner Linda Mti embarked on an anti-corruption roadshow.
Skosana’s job is not an easy one. The prison population stands at about 179 000, bringing overcrowding to 164%, and inhuman conditions fuel criminality. Minor relief is expected from jails for low and medium-security prisoners, due for construction shortly, that will provide an additional 30 000 beds.
Correctional services has also had to implement the new demilitarised prison management system and convince the 33 000 staff members that the lock-up-and-throw-away-the-key approach is misplaced. A staggering 50% of offenders return to jail after being released.
But he is the responsible minister, in the portfolio for more than three years. Why did he require a commission to enlighten him of such gross and systematic irregularities? Why were the Jali disclosures needed to galvanise him into action? Skosana is not noted for his dynamism. Given the scale of the disaster, it is time for energetic new leadership.
Zola Skweyiya
Minister of Social Development
Grade: C+
The minister with the heart of gold stepped up his rhetorical campaign deploring the government’s treatment of South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens. While he has certainly been saying the right things, questions about concrete delivery on multiple social ills are sharpening, especially as Skweyiya’s heart-on-sleeve approach is, three years into his tenure, still producing patchy and sometimes non-existent results.
Easily the Cabinet’s most vocal critic of the government’s handling of the HIV/Aids crisis, he has championed the rights and dignity of children, the elderly and the disabled —all prime victims of the country’s endemic poverty. He is also winningly outspoken on the incompetence and indifference of public servants in their dealings with the elderly and other vulnerable supplicants of government assistance.
But the National Development Agency still stutters in its chief function, which is to channel funds to civil society organisations working in a wide range of poverty-related areas. And while Skweyiya has strongly criticised the disbursement of Lotto funds, little has been done about the issue. Equally problematic is that poverty alleviation projects in all provinces are still dysfunctional — efficient disbursement of funds is again the sticking point.
His shambolic department lurched further into mud