DA clashes with ANC over moving PIC chair to the Presidency

The appointment of deputy minister Seiso Mohai as chair of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has strained relations between the ANC and its biggest GNU partner, the DA.

President Cyril Ramaphosa overlooked the DA’s deputy minister of finance, Ashor Sarupen, when appointing a replacement for David Masondo, the ANC’s deputy finance minister who resigned last month amid a governance crisis at the asset manager.

Government sources said DA ministers argued during a cabinet meeting this week that precedence dictated that the PIC board be chaired by a deputy minister in finance and that as there were two of them, the post should have gone to Sarupen.

Instead, Ramaphosa moved the chair from finance to his office by appointing Mohai, a deputy minister in the Presidency for planning, monitoring and evaluation. Mohai will effectively report directly to the president and the department’s minister, Maropene Ramokgopa, on the affairs of the PIC, which manages trillions of rands in public assets.

Ramokgopa was the first option to take over the PIC when Ramaphosa sought legal advice on whether he could move the asset manager from under the Treasury to the Presidency, as reported by this publication last week.

“The only reason they took it to the Presidency is because they did not want to appoint a DA deputy minister. Because there’s precedence, and you’ve got two deputy ministers of finance, so if one is a problem then why not appoint the other?” said a senior DA leader.

“Three weeks ago we held a press conference where we were saying that our policy position on the PIC is that it should be chaired independently. So that’s a principled position, but in the current legislative framework we say at the very least [appoint Sarupen]. But we know why they did not want Ashor, it’s because they did not want the PIC to be under the DA.” The move perpetuated the notion that Ramaphosa was creating a “super Presidency.”

Another DA leader said the move was in line with the perception that the ANC did not consider the DA an equal partner in the GNU.

The DA was now “considering [its] options”.

“The ANC acts as if it is governing alone, and it is constantly trying to short-circuit the DA. They must be very careful about that attitude because sooner or later we are going to put our foot down on things that we don’t agree with and start going public,” said the senior party leader.

Another DA leader said the party’s ministers had strongly questioned the decision, with some arguing that the PIC should remain under the department responsible for its oversight.

It seems that Ramaphosa is not facing pushback from the DA only.

There appears to be discomfort in sections of the ANC over what they see as the creation of a “super Presidency”.

A high-ranking ANC leader accused Ramaphosa of running a “parallel government” from the Presidency, arguing that key functions and institutions were increasingly being pulled away from the departments meant to oversee them.

The leader pointed to the Presidency’s planning, monitoring and evaluation function, which handles the National Development Plan and now the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), arguing that the latest move effectively places the PIC under the president rather than the finance minister.

State-owned entities (SOEs) are also being run from the Presidency’s planning, monitoring and evaluation department, which is busy with finalising the mooted SOE Bill.

“The deputy minister [Mohai] will answer to the president, not the minister of the National Treasury,” the ANC leader said.

“What we could not do is give it to the DA. The PIC is of strategic importance.

“If the DA was in our position, they would never have given the PIC to the ANC.”

The leader said the broader problem was Ramaphosa’s apparent lack of confidence in his own cabinet.

“The major problem is that Cyril continues to demonstrate a lack of confidence in the rest of his ministers and the government that he leads. Energy and electricity is in his office. He is running a parallel government from his office. Even interventions on local government and water are in his office.”

DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said his party would have preferred Sarupen to take over as the PIC board chair.

He said Sarupen would have prioritised the implementation of the Mpati commission recommendations on cleaning up the PIC.

“The question now in the Presidency is how long will they take to do the Mpati reforms? We will make sure that we hold him accountable and that it happens as quickly as possible.”