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By Eric Naki

Political Editor


Is there any decision Ramaphosa is willing to make without delay?

Unlike Zuma who fired ministers who undermined him, Ramaphosa is yet to reshuffle his Cabinet and still no action against politician who is accused over Eskom graft.


Is there any decision that President Cyril Ramaphosa is willing to make without any delay? Why does his administration thrive of delays, procrastination and indecision when it is expected to act?

On the other hand, controversial Jacob Zuma at least made decisions, whether good or bad. He fired Pravin Gordhan, who was the finance minister, before recalling him from an overseas trip and replaced him with Des van Rooyen overnight.

He made sure that those he did not want in his Cabinet did not stay even a day in office. Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande can testify to how he was the only minister axed while others were moved around in one of Zuma’s overnight Cabinet reshuffles. These were bad decisions, but at least “Msholozi” acted and demonstrated his intention.

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What is Ramaphosa up to, why is he quiet?

After the State of the Nation Address and the budget speech, there are no more excuses. He is a man who over-consults and he has done exactly that this time around.

He consulted the ANC and at the weekend the tripartite alliance partners, Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party.

One won’t be surprised if Ramaphosa delayed because he had to consult whether to fire Ministers Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu.

One thing we know, Ramaphosa does not want to offend anyone, while he doesn’t mind being offended. Then he shouldn’t be in politics because being in political leadership is about making unpopular decisions.

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This Cabinet reshuffle is not only about Sisulu and Dlamini-Zuma but identifying other ministers who are the rotten apples. If Ramaphosa was serious about clean governance, he would have acted against the politician who was accused by former Eskom boss André de Ruyter of being involved corruption.

As one businesswoman once said, De Ruyter is being made a scapegoat in a rotten environment.

When Ramaphosa’s ministers, some other people and bodies aligned to the ruling party went out of their way to publicly discredit De Ruyter, it was no secret that it’s all about defending wrongdoing at the power utility.

If De Ruyter reported to Gordhan about the MP who participated in Eskom cartels, what action did the public enterprises minister take? It raised suspicions when a CEO chased after criminals who sabotage and steal from Eskom, but senior politicians criticised him for doing that.

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Should De Ruyter not have acted against criminality that was taking place at Eskom? De Ruyter is the first CEO at Eskom to have decided to blow the whistle instead of letting the ANC politicians turn the parastatal into a feeding trough. All other CEOs allowed it and they also ate, hence their names are now discredited.

There was a signal when De Ruyter was poisoned soon after he announced his resignation last year. This said to all that some big fish were behind it. The continued criticisms levelled at him were part of an attempt to silence and intimidate him not to reveal more dirt about the graft at Eskom.

Corruption at Eskom went beyond De Ruyter’s short tenure. His offence was to try to stop the feeding frenzy. The ANC politicians he is talking about might have been bold enough to confront the CEO to open the gates for the feeding frenzy to continue. He refused.

We know that a commission of inquiry into the Eskom matter might be too expensive for the taxpayers, as shown by the high cost of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. But at least the call for an ad hoc parliamentary committee to be established to probe the matter, should be entertained.

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