By Eamonn Ryan
The cold chain has much to be grateful for from the make-up of the new cabinet of the Government of National Unity – it could have been much worse.
While there may be many complaints about the bloated nature of the cabinet and the incumbent ANC continuing to hold all the levers of economic growth, that this new government has come about at all is to be applauded. The DA had to be part of it come what may, though it clearly has had to swallow a bitter pill to achieve that.
Given what has happened politically in the past two decades, nobody could expect a business-friendly government. All that could be expected was a start in moving in the right direction, and this cabinet achieves that small first step. It is a well-diversified cabinet which reflects the will of voters from a statistical proportion, and now the ladies and gentlemen must hit the ground running.
It’s time for the moaners to take a break – the DA and ANC are in government as we anticipated and it’s what the situation demands. The reality of this country is still that more than two-thirds of the electorate voted for populist parties, and on that basis business-friendly parties will not get a majority any time soon – so this is as good as it gets.
Yes, the potential for wasted expenditure and conflict between ministers is epic. But for the present, there are other sets of eyes so there may be less wiggle room for corruption and appointment of incompetents in the civil service.
However, Ramaphosa continues to struggle to distinguish ‘growth’ from ‘development’. Growth is a quantitative increase in numbers. Development is a qualitative improvement in the output of the economy which is what South Africans are crying out for.
Good news is that with the exception of the Minerals and Petroleum portfolio, most important economic ministries have at least seen a modest improvement, and some a substantial improvement.