President Cyril Ramaphosa has been inaugurated as the 5th president of the Republic of South Africa at the Loftus Stadium on Africa day. The pomp and ceremony were beautiful and allowed us for a moment to forget about the mountainous task the 5th administration has ahead of it. The country has continued to bleed jobs and with weak economic growth, subdued investor confidence and global risks on the horizon that threaten the global economy’s productivity and demand, South Africa will need a steady and strong hand on the throne.
The first sign in determining whether Ramaphosa is that man will be the cabinet he appoints to run the country. He has promised to reduce the size of the executive and appoint people who really can help bring about the “new dawn” he proposed to us all after his elections as president of Republic last year February in Parliament.
There are many speculations on who will be his deputy and while this role has been given much airtime in the media space. This hype is in relation to the power dynamics within the ANC but as toa the functionality of the executive, we ought to focus on the reconfiguration of the executive. Which departments will he merge and who will lead? Moreover, what mechanism will the president put to assess performance against performance indicators? Lastly, should a minister fail to meet their KPIs, what will be the consequences for their inaction?
The president has no time to waitand it will be key for him to mix experience, innovation and casting a eye to the next generation of leaders when he makes his appointment of the executive.
Beyond this, Ramaphosa will need to strengthen the quality of the bureaucratic system in place, ensuring that ministers do not unduly impact the ability for Director-Generals, heads of department and other key players from implementing policy decisions.
In other words, the president must answer the question; How do we bring to life the letters on our policy documents? For it is my earnest belief that a good policy can only be judged as being good upon implementing it and seeing if it had the necessary impact. As South Africans, we love saying “South Africa has the best policies” yet in the same vain we say, “our issue is that we don’t implement!”. So, how is that we can judge the quality of policies with no evidence of their effect? This leaves me puzzled. So, Mr President congratulations on your inauguration but now pull us all together and let’s get to work! Time is not on our side!
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