It should be some solace for our beleaguered finance minister Enoch Godongwana — caught this week by a live microphone disparaging Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter — to know that hot mics have been the bane of dozy politicians since the technology was invented. But that, I guess, is small beer given the trouble he’s in after the extraordinary decision by the government this week to cancel his budget speech at the eleventh hour. He’d have been out on his ear, unemployed and probably unemployable, had we had a government worthy of the name.
It’s ironic that he seems to have poured fuel onto the fire at a press conference called to explain away an unprecedented fiasco that has left the ANC with egg on its face. The golden rule of politics, it is said, is always to assume the microphone is live. Godongwana is in illustrious company, however. Running for president in 2000, George W Bush, unaware that microphones were on, pointed out a reporter in the media scrum to Dick Cheney, his running mate: “There’s Adam Clymer, major-league asshole from the New York Times.” Cheney responded: “Oh yeah, he is, big time.” That little chat created such a headache for the campaign that Bush, a favourite of the moral right, had to apologise.
Something said in jest by Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War caused a diplomatic kerfuffle. “My fellow Americans,” the US president joked during sound checks for recording his weekly address, “I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The Soviet Union was obviously none too pleased.
The comments were funny and amusing but, in the end, harmless. The culprits, so to speak, went on to bigger and better things. Godongwana, on the other hand, is drowning, and dragging our economy — and future — down with him. That the two men, Godongwana and Kieswetter, whose co-operation is vital if the economy is to prosper, are at loggerheads should be of concern to the public. Godongwana’s standing, which has never been high, could not have been helped by this debacle.
The country has been fortunate in that it has had capable and trusted finance ministers since 1994. They were often a cut above the rest, giving the country some sense of comfort that — amid the corruption and mismanagement — the country’s finances were at least in safe and capable hands. Trevor Manuel set the bar high. The other element was that he had the unstinting support of President Thabo Mbeki, a luxury which most of his successors don’t seem to have enjoyed. Jacob Zuma and his crowd got something of a rude awakening when, after forcing Mbeki out of office in September 2008, the currency took a nosedive on the news that Manuel was among the ministers who’d resigned in sympathy. Manuel was immediately asked to stay on, and the markets were assured he would be part of the incoming Zuma administration. He didn’t get his job back, but Pravin Gordhan, his trusted lieutenant, was appointed to succeed him.
Gordhan, of course, fell out with Zuma and was fired when he refused to append his signature to the costly Russian nuclear deal. The fact that the president couldn’t clinch the deal without Gordhan’s acquiescence attests to the pivotal position the finance minister occupies in the country’s governance infrastructure. Nhlanhla Nene, Gordhan’s successor, also got the boot after he too refused to bend the knee. But it was Gordhan’s dismissal after his second coming that was to prove the beginning of the end of the Zuma presidency. The public rose in protest like never before after the firing of a cabinet minister. And Zuma’s goose was cooked.
In a sense, Godongwana has been dealt a bad hand. Unlike his predecessors — who enjoyed the luxury of having the full backing of a unified ruling party.
Godongwana’s appointment was almost something of an afterthought. President Cyril Ramaphosa twice opted for retirees before scraping the bottom of the barrel within the party. Nene, an honourable man, decided after less than a year on the job that tending to his vegetables on his farm in Kranskop was a more pleasurable pursuit than being harangued by the EFF for lying about his odd meeting with the Guptas. Tito Mboweni was never interested in the job, preferring instead to call the shots from his farm in idyllic Magoebaskloof.
In a sense, Godongwana has been dealt a bad hand. Unlike his predecessors — who enjoyed the luxury of having the full backing of a unified ruling party — he has to deal with a cabinet that is nothing short of a rabble, riddled with suspicion and each one of them always on the lookout for a nugget of information that would curry favour with their respective constituencies. It’s a game of one-upmanship. Bits of the budget speech had already been leaked even before this week’s shambles. Cabinet collective responsibility, confidentiality or collegiality are all foreign concepts. One would obviously be wary of sharing confidential information in such a snake pit. But Godongwana has to. He wasn’t preparing an ANC budget, but one that had to be approved and agreed to by all parties in the GNU, which is still virgin territory.
But what happens to Godongwana after this debacle? ANC ministers aren’t known for throwing in the towel. Can the country afford to limp on with a discredited finance minister? A copy of the speech, for instance, is out in the public domain and has already been closely analysed. What then does he do on March 12? Does he cobble together a new speech or does he serve warmed-up porridge? It’s a mess. But it’s the ANC that has to look itself in the eye. It’s been arrogant, devious and dishonest in its dealings with the other parties. Now the DA has got its pound of flesh, handing the ANC a bloody nose.
This debacle will turn out to have a silver lining if it were to finally convince the ANC that they are no longer the only bull in the kraal and have to deal fairly and honestly with the other parties if any progress is to be made.
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