SCORE: D- Known for her flamboyant hats and headdress, Pemmy Majodina has big shoes to fill. Her predecessor, Senzo Mchunu, drew widespread praise for his tireless efforts to turn around the department, which had been hollowed out by state capture. She is still in the early stages of her tenure and under close scrutiny and […]
SCORE: C Minister Barbara Creecy succeeded the inept Sindisiwe Chikunga when the seventh administration began in July. The baggage she has to sort out is plentiful. The department’s reintroduction of the country’s passenger rail system has been rocked by a potential R5.1 billion lawsuit for debts not paid to a service provider. The contractor had […]
SCORE: B Solly Malatsi has hit the ground running as a rookie minister — perhaps a reflection of the fact that he is one of the youngest members of cabinet at a youthful 38 years. In September, Malatsi received a forensic report on governance and financial breaches at the Postbank that resulted in financial losses […]
SCORE: C+ There has been a case of new ooms sweeping clean in the prisons department, where new minister Pieter Groenewald has made significant progress. Groenewald has identified five priorities in reforming the parole system; maintenance of 243 prisons; easing overcrowding (prisons are on average 46% over capacity); food production in all prisons and improving […]
SCORE: B In his first six months leading the department of trade, industry and competition, Parks Tau has made effective moves. He led the delegation to the United States to lobby for the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) agreement. Alongside other African ministers of trade Tau urged the Biden administration and […]
SCORE: C It’s still early days for Dion George, who candidly admitted ahead of the United Nations COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, that he had never heard of the Conference of Parties before he assumed office in July. Hard-working, energetic and pragmatic, with a strong background in finance and economics, George is a self-proclaimed […]
SCORE: E Blade Nzimande faces allegations of bribery for the procurement of tenders at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). Although the minister has refuted the claims, his ethics have been questioned. The department received a clean audit but salary adjustments in the first quarter of 2024 caused variances. It planned to spend R1.711 billion […]
SCORE: F- So broken and badly managed is the department of defence that three men on a donkey with a duct-taped drone could possibly topple Pretoria. The department incurred unauthorised expenditure of R3.4 billion in 2023-24, making it not so much a department as a place where taxpayer money goes to cough up and die. […]
SCORE: C- Maropene Ramokgopa highlighted South Africa’s progress in the 30-Year Review of Democracy report, which showed improvements in poverty reduction, access to services and advances in education. But she has been criticised for not bridging the gap between planning and execution. The National Development Plan (NDP) set ambitious goals such as achieving an annual […]
SCORE: C+ One of the first actions of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania president on taking office was to drop his plan to scrap section 25 of the Constitution and to instead focus on using existing legislation to secure access to land. Mzwanele Nyhontsho inherited a backlog of just over 5 700 land claims from […]