Energy minister Gwede Mantashe cannot in the normal course of conducting his ministerial business be accused of having a rubber arm.
On several fronts he has shown his arm is usually not for twisting, unless the twister happens to be his boss, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Before the president's intervention this week, which saw Mantashe commit himself to a giant leap forward in private-sector involvement in SA's crippled power supply system, he had developed a reputation for setting his back against the renewable-energy revolution. On several occasions it has been said he has shown his fondness for coal.
It seems incredible, but alas it is all too true, that a minister in a government ostensibly committed to accountability could for so long resist the pleas of organised business, the mining sector, and indeed the trade unions Mantashe holds so dear, for the lifting of the ceiling on so-called embedded generation, in terms of which companies can build plants to produce their own electricity without onerous licensing requirements.
Perhaps the onset of winter, and the dark nights for many enduring Eskom's load-shedding, and obviously the huge business losses, were enough to persuade Ramaphosa that the time had come to pull rank on his minister.
Earlier this year, Mantashe had reluctantly agreed to lift the ceiling beyond which new embedded generation projects planned by miners and industry would have to go through a cumbersome licensing process, from 1MW to 10MW.
He even claimed to rely on a survey conducted by the department of mineral resources & energy, which found businesses were "not ready" for 50MW - even though it was widely demanded.
Later, it emerged no such survey had been conducted.
Still, the minister's arm was not for twisting, even though Business Leadership SA produced a study that said enabling embedded generation through lifting the electricity licensing threshold to 50MW would create up to 16,000 direct jobs a year and result in R75bn-R85bn of investment, as reported in Business Times today.
While discouraging a proven source of jobs and clean energy, the minister moved with alacrity to encourage wartime-style "powerships", amid ongoing controversy over his wife's reported involvement in the project, and an outcry over the billions to be spent on ships docked in South African ports producing electricity.
Yet in so many ways, energy production is the new gold of SA, and, given our abundant sunshine and wind, may be our best shot at creating a new and vibrant economic sub-sector.
What's perhaps as important in Ramaphosa's arm-twisting is the decisive nod it gives to the private sector about attracting investment and encouraging growth
What's perhaps as important in Ramaphosa's arm-twisting is the decisive nod it gives to the private sector about attracting investment and encouraging growth.
Ramaphosa is sending a signal that he is his own man, not beholden to the demands of the balance of power suggested by his appointment of Mantashe as mining and energy minister, a key post.
The job should not be a comfort zone for a former trade unionist committed to the unions and big coal. And in any event, the unions were on Ramaphosa's side this time.
Similarly, the government's bold move to relinquish, at least on paper, its control of South African Airways is an embrace of privatisation that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, given the historical antipathy to private ownership of public assets.
Yet the predations of the state capture era, and the coronavirus pandemic with its shutdowns and job destruction, have concentrated important minds, it seems.
The luxury of routine multibillion-rand bailouts is no longer affordable, if it ever was in the first place.
There is no reason Ramaphosa shouldn't carry on in this vein.
Big business is often accused of withholding investment, but the government must share the blame for this.
When companies like Clover have to shut operations because they have become unsustainable in a town broken by looting and neglect, the government has to realise that without the private sector's active co-operation there can be no upliftment.
If that involves slaying a few ideological sacred cows, who will really miss them?
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