Shooting stars, sharp tongues and schoolmarms

The week-long set of Cabinet briefings in February provide a snapshot of the state of government and of the styles and strengths of ministers.

An energy crisis is gripping the country and at its heart is the problem that bedevils both economic growth and effective delivery: a dearth of skills, which is now showing itself to be a massive hurdle in both the public and private sectors.

The power crisis, a high interest rate environment and slowing growth have made the spotlight fall on a set of other severe problems.

Huge political changes hastened by the ruling party’s Polokwane conference have dampened the national mood from buoyant to bleak in a few months.

In a crisis, the relative abilities of ministers become apparent in how they manage and lead. Which is why last week’s briefings were largely disappointing but for a few areas where there is Cabinet competence or at least an ability to grapple with the big needs.

A lot that was put on show is not new but rehashed over at least three years of briefings, which suggests that government moves at a snail’s pace.

Most notable here are big-ticket projects such as the industrial policy, the taxi recapitalisation programme, a plan to substantially reduce the cost of telecommunications and the home affairs national identification scheme.

Little to inspire confidence

Public enterprises, minerals and energy minister and communications minister

A mixed bag of portfolio performance here. Buyelwa Sonjica (far left) is clearly way out of her depth if her performance at the ministerial briefing was anything to go by. She kept her eyes closed for much of the briefing, smiling as if meditating. When asked a question, she batted it to Alec Erwin, who is leading the management of the energy crisis — ostensibly because Eskom, a parastatal, reports to him. ‘The minister will help me,” she said as she passed yet another set of tough questions to him. ‘I have not done that homework yet,” she said when asked what impact the national savings campaign has had. ‘It’s an area we are looking at,” she said in response to another question, adding a final inanity: ‘You need to understand the totality of the situation —”

Power rationing, the import of coal and the promise of renewable and other forms of energy use are part of a package of measures that Erwin promises will downgrade the energy crisis from an emergency to an urgency. The crisis will last for four more months while energy supply will be tight for four years.

Erwin (above centre) is always an articulate politician but, as one of the Cabinet’s oldest hands, it is time for him to answer the accountability questions about why new power plants weren’t built in time and about why, under his hand at trade and industry, the key investment has been in huge aluminium smelters with little jobs potential and massive electricity bills.

It’s trite to say it again, but Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri (above right), has never quite made it on to the information superhighway. She looks the part of a genial granny and would be best deployed to a directorship in an institution of care-givers. The real power behind the throne is her DG, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who is a statist by inclination. This explains why she has failed to liberalise the telecoms market even though President Thabo Mbeki has promised for several consecutive years that call and data line costs will come down substantially.

Relatively high costs bedevil growth because South Africa cannot compete with emerging markets such as Brazil and India. Shope-Mafole says quality of service is also important, though for her department to be doing the study on costs only now suggests a lack of responsiveness.

Out of his depth

Trade and industry

Mandisi Mpahlwa is ‘Mr Business as usual” in a year that is supposed to be the opposite. He is the Cabinet’s nice guy.

There was a lot in Mpahlwa’s presentation that we have heard for several years now including measures to stimulate four major sectors and eight subsectors through industrial incentives. Each seems to be in early planning phase and the only material progress is in business process outsourcing — call-centres — where six investments have been secured.

Mpahlwa has tried for several years to fix the state’s system of support for small-, micro- and medium-sized enterprises but it remains bedeviled by role confusion and a lack of coordination.

Too little, too late

Health

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was subdued at this year’s briefings. She came across as somebody who has lost her steam — and she probably has.

With her denialist history, Tshabalala-Msimang can never be the steward of HIV and Aids policy. She has lost the nation’s confidence and this serial black mark can never be erased, it colours any assessment of her work.

Her position on bringing down the costs of private health care is not popular but is a necessary intervention, as is her continuing crusade to ensure that drug prices are regulated.

A difficult task

Land affairs and public works

You have to feel for Lulu Xingwana (above left). As the minister in charge of a portfolio that has always struggled to meet its land reform targets, which faces protracted court battles and which deals with irate Afrikaner farmers who feel under siege from the government, hers is a difficult task.

But her nasty comments and hostility towards farmers and property owners do not help to build relationships or inspire cooperation to meet targets.

At her briefing, Xingwana became increasingly exasperated with the barrage of questions and resorted to one-sentence answers to some and pleading ignorance about others.

She was upstaged by the former land and agricultural minister, Thoko Didiza (above right), who offered to help with the questions.

Didiza replied with precision, context, detail and patience, which must have shamed Xingwana whose briefing suggests she lacks the level-headedness, patience and drive her job requires.

Didiza’s public works department will meet the target of creating one million job opportunities in five years. The expanded public works programme has already put 850 000 people into jobs, though these are temporary and there are questions about job sustainability and skills transfer.

Very few questions about public works were directed to her and the fervour with which she assisted in land issues could be an indication that she could do with a more challenging post.

Humanitarian … and fiscal realist

Social development

The most striking impression of Zola Skweyiya is of a minister who, given a chance, would give it all away in grants, such is his empathy and humanism. But he is a fiscal realist and often responds to questions about grants by saying ‘let’s wait for Trevor”, indicating that his plans are in the hands of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.

When he talks, it is of the pain he feels in watching people in rural areas bereft of resources and benefits which government has decided to provide for free. Voted at Polokwane among the top 10 ANC leaders, Skweyiya could be a good indicator of what to expect from a new government next year.

It’s a hard job

Public service and administration and home affairs

Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi (right) is like a headmistress, complete with spectacles perched on her nose. She needs to be, as her civil service is often like a high school full of squabbling teenagers. She is a veteran of her complex portfolio and it would be hard to find a replacement to manage adequately the cross-cutting hierarchies that characterise the public service.

Because this cluster of ministers depends on each other for success, it could be a breeding ground for the politics of passing the buck, but under Fraser-Moleketi the cluster is moving toward better coordination, while others are still struggling. Vacancies bedevil the civil service, though Fraser-Moleketi says the figure suggesting a 30% vacancy rate cannot be correct. Her key tasks in 2008 will be to ensure that the senior management service personnel sign contracts tying their pay packets to performance. A Bill on a single public service will be tabled in March. And while the title of her ‘occupation specific dispensation” may be clunky, it is necessary to encourage scarce skills to remain in the public sector.

It’s a pity Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula did not attend last week’s briefings because her Director General, Mavuso Msimang (right), did such a good job, that commentators may suggest he take her place. Msimang’s greatest asset is that he is not defensive about the mess that is the home affairs department. He acknowledges corruption and has a firm plan to stamp it out. Hundreds of bent officials have already been charged since he took office last year. He has a 58-point plan to turn the department around.

It’s a hard task, given that even the South African passport is not safe from forgery, but home affairs finally has a strong hand at the helm.