The South African Cabinet has dismissed opposition parties’ end-of-year report cards on its performance, saying it will not be judged by the wish lists of opposition parties.
”The ‘silly’ season is upon us and with it comes the publication of the so-called ‘score cards’ by the opposition parties,” government communications chief Themba Maseko told journalists after the Cabinet’s final fortnightly meeting of the year.
”[The] government has a programme of action to improve the life of our people,” he said.
This programme is based on the mandate the government received from the electorate.
”Therefore, we will disregard all these opposition play cards, because our performance must, and will, be judged against our implementation of the programme of action and not the wish lists of opposition parties.”
The programme is published on the government website and progress reports are updated regularly in line with two-monthly cluster reports to the Cabinet, so that the public can assess the government’s performance based on factual information, Maseko said.
Meanwhile, in media statement released on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health rejected the report card of the Democratic Alliance (DA) on the performance of members of Cabinet.
The ministry stated that the DA ”should rather be channelling its energies towards evaluating its own leadership, with the aim of finding a capable leader who can undo the damage caused by Tony Leon in opposition politics in the country”.
”The next leader of the DA faces an enormous task of transforming the party from being a bunch of government-bashers to a constructive player in improving the lives of the historically disadvantaged people of South Africa.”
‘Admirable realism’
The DA on Wednesday released its end-of-year Cabinet report card, according to which Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena are the government’s top 2006 performers. However, it found that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang continues to languish at the bottom of the class
The document, launched by DA leader Tony Leon at a media briefing in Cape Town, gives Manuel seven out of 10 on its performance scale — one point down on last year, but high enough to leave him way ahead of many of his colleagues.
It credits the finance minister with having the best-run department in government, and pays tribute to the ”general sense of balance” it says he has displayed towards his tasks.
Mangena, who also scored seven, is praised in the report for actively seeking new opportunities to develop South Africa’s technological capacity.
The report gives President Thabo Mbeki a ”middling five”, for the third year in a row. It says the president has shown little of the strong purposeful leadership required to head off many of South Africa’s pressing problems.
His deputy, however, earned herself six-and-a-half points, thanks largely, says the DA, to her achievement in ”negotiating a turnabout on the government’s unforgivable foot-dragging on HIV/Aids”.
The report says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has ”brought an admirable realism to bear on the issue” of Aids, but warns the jury is still out on her leadership of government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative.
The report deals harshly with Tshabalala-Msimang’s performance, which Leon described as ”a perfect zero”.
”As with last year, it has proved to be impossible to find anything good to say about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and she again scores nought.
”The DA can only say that it hopes reports of her side-lining have not been exaggerated, and that by next year we will have a more able appointment to evaluate,” it states.
‘Dark cloud’
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has scored an average of 30% in the past year — down from 38% last year — in the eyes of the average Freedom Front Plus (FF+) supporter, says its leader, Dr Pieter Mulder.
On Tuesday, he released the results of his party’s annual ”report card” of the ANC’s performance on the basis of the viewpoint of the average FF+ supporter in key areas.
Under crime prevention and clean governance, the ruling party got just one out of 10 compared with four out of 10 last year. ”The biggest mishap was most probably the minister of safety and security’s statement in Parliament that people who complain about crime should either stop complaining or leave the country.”
There is also a ”dark cloud” hanging over Mlambo-Ngcuka and Social Development Zola Skweyiya in the so-called Oilgate issue, the leader charged.
The figure for education, however, was the only area where the rating was up — to four out of 10 compared with three out of 10 last year. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge