Bizarre cabinet and Gauteng 'gemors': ANC is playing Russian roulette with our future

It would seem the ANC are still struggling to get over the five stages of grief. They're in denial, depressed, angry, and they have to bargain, all at the same time. They can't cope with the loss. Acceptance is still a long way off. Somebody please call a shrink to lend a hand.

For all the excitement that a government of national unity — clumsy, unwieldy and disunited, if you ask me — was at last up and running, the sense one gets is of a party that has yet to wake up and smell the coffee. They've got their heads stuck in the sand. They still can't believe tectonic plates have shifted. Because they've been in power for so long they've internalised the fiction that the state is their fiefdom; it is there to serve their purpose, not the people’s interest. It's their nest egg.

For instance, instead of sufficiently reducing the ANC allocation in the cabinet to accommodated the other parties, President Cyril Ramaphosa saw fit to brazenly increase its size. It seems the only unemployment he cares about is that of his cronies. And one of his sidekicks, Khumbuzdo Ntshavheni, had the audacity to blame voters for the bloated cabinet.

Also, words don't seem to have any meaning. Ramaphosa said the appointments had been made with due regard to commitment, capability and integrity. By integrity, I guess, he's referring to his deputy, Paul Mashatile, who counts a bunch of crooks among his cronies; Gwede Mantashe, who retains his place in the cabinet despite his role in the Bosasa corruption scandal; and Blade Nzimande, who has yet to come clean on the numerous NSFAS scandals. As Humpty Dumpty would say: when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.

Ramaphosa also seems determined to turn his cabinet into an old-age home. How else should one explain the appointment of Angie Motshekga as defence minister? She's spent 15 long years running down the department of basic education and destroying the future of our children. But no, according to Ramaphosa she's done a sterling job and deserves a crack at another portfolio. Any reasonable person could surely have turned down the offer. Fifteen years in the cabinet is a long time, especially for somebody who's less than adequate. And how could she in good conscience deny her grandchildren the precious thrill of seeing their grandma pottering about the house?

Because they've been in power for so long they've internalised the fiction that the state is their fiefdom; it is there to serve their purpose, not the people’s interest. It's their nest egg.

Patricia de Lille’s appointment is utterly astonishing. It's bizarre. It doesn't even make sense politically. Her party got 0.18% support in the election and she would have lost her deposit had we had a credible electoral system. How is such a cabinet appointment justifiable? And it's not as if she's the brightest crayon in the box, or even squeaky clean. Her singular achievement in government was spending millions of taxpayers’ money on a wobbly fence on the border in a misguided attempt to stem the flood of illegal immigrants. It's even questionable whether the money was ever used for that purpose. It’s incompetence compounded by dishonesty. But she was never made to pay for it; instead she's been rewarded with one cushy job after another.

There must surely be some ANC members scratching their heads right now and wondering how they could possibly have been overlooked for someone like de Lille. And nobody, except perhaps his immediate family, had heard of the guy from the PAC (0.23% support) before he became an esteemed member of Ramaphosa's cabinet. There are many such absurd preferments — raise your hand if you've heard of Al Jama-ah. It frankly beggars belief. They do nothing to enhance the reputation of either the cabinet or the president himself.

For the cabinet to be credible and earn the support of the public, the appointments need to be seen to have been reasonable, especially given the fact that, in line with the electoral system, voters have had no say in the selection of these individuals. To retrieve individuals from total obscurity and plonk them in the cabinet — with all the powers that come with it — is to make a mockery of the entire system. But there seems to be an ulterior motive behind these strange decisions. Dishing out appointments like candy, irrespective of the outcome of the elections, projects the impression that nothing has changed; the ANC is still in charge. It still has the power to dispense favours. But the ANC has also cobbled together these little bits-and-pieces parties to mask the fact that it has actually entered into a grand coalition with the DA, a party they've told their supporters over the years served only white interests and was, at worst, racist. How then do you justify embracing such backwardness? By inviting every person and their dog to join a purported government of national unity, thus hopefully burying your inconvenient ally in an avalanche.

Gauteng accounts for a third of the country's economy and is home to multinational companies and first-rate financial, educational and cultural institutions. One therefore would have thought it would receive particular attention from the ANC or the government. But no, it's been allowed to fall into the grip of a bunch of illiterate and boorish incompetents. Panyaza Lesufi could easily have formed a solid provincial government that would have also helped to stabilise the metros. That’s just common sense. Instead he put together a pathetic collection of nonentities as his administration, which is likely to end in tears. It's quite clear the party leadership supports this decision because such lunacy is part of the plan; it’s in line with what Ramaphosa is doing nationally.

These people are playing Russian roulette with our future. The scenario we’re going through was obviously not foreseen by drafters of the constitution. An amendment is therefore required so that such decisions are never left to the capricious whims of self-serving individuals. Ramaphosa, for instance, should not be at liberty to willy-nilly increase the size of his cabinet, as though he's playing a concertina.