Cabinet reshuffle: Ministers’ performance reviews just window dressing?

The much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle has once again raised questions about ministers’ and deputy ministers’ performance agreements, which are supposedly meant to guide President Cyril Ramaphosa in selecting the best people for the job.

Are these agreements taken seriously by the president and government, or do party politics hold greater weight?

It took Ramaphosa some time to implement performance contracts following his election as ANC president in 2017. Most of the agreements showed they were signed in 2019.

Some of them, such as that of Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, span five years and are due for review next year.

Agriculture and Land Reform Minister Thoko Didiza‘s covered March 2020 to April 2021. It is not clear whether her review was done or what the outcome was.

What is the purpose of the agreements?

Ramaphosa’s predecessor Jacob Zuma was the one who introduced the system, but not much information is available about the appraisal processes and results thereof under the former president.

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Professor Siphamandla Zondi, director of the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation, said the performance agreements were meant to convey the message that the ANC took political governance seriously.

“The ANC recognised that it was facing a dangerous association between its brand and crass materialism and corruption. It wanted to also rebuff the growing perception that cadre deployment was about incompetence, patronage, and nepotism.

“But while the signing of agreements was also publicised to confirm, indeed, that a step was being taken, whether this was being used in any meaningful way to focus ministers on their targets and to measure their proficiency on them was never clear. If there was ever a review, it would have been done in private. How thorough it was and it is, we will never know,” said Zondi.

Ramaphosa only ‘ticking boxes’

Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson Solly Malatsi said it was well-known that an ANC president reshuffles Cabinet to reward those in the party who supported his election, rather than basing the decision on performance.

The agreements were just “ticked boxes” for Ramaphosa, he added.

“When the President launched performance agreements, he said they were meant to improve governance and performance, but to date, there hasn’t been any single minister who has been penalised for under-delivery and failing to meet targets.

“Some of them will not be in those positions by the time evaluation comes, so what are you evaluating?” he asked.

In a parliamentary question to Ramaphosa in November last year, Malatsi inquired whether the president would be taking any action against underperforming ministers in view of the lack of improvement in wasteful, irregular and fruitless expenditure as detailed in departments’ annual reports and those from the Auditor-General.

He said the mismanagement and expenditure continued every year despite agreed-upon targets and performance standard agreements in place.

Ramaphosa replied: “The Performance Agreements entered into with Ministers include, among other things, targets for the reduction of wasteful, fruitless and irregular expenditure by 2024.

“Progress towards the achievement of these 2024 targets, therefore, forms part of the assessment of Ministers’ performance and will be among the factors considered when determining appropriate steps to be taken.”

Ministerial appointments ‘not about competence’

According to Zondi, no attempt has been made to show that the signed agreements made any difference in the public service.

He said the collapse of proper governance, as seen in the botched Giyani water project that cost billions of Rands with nothing to show for it, the disappearance of railway lines as criminal syndicates roam free and Eskom’s load shedding would have served as evidence that the agreements have not been honoured.

“What action is taken when targets are not met, we do not know. I guess the ANC and President Ramaphosa have made a promise that they should not have even made in the first place, because decisions about who becomes a minister are not really about technicalities of competence but other political considerations – including uniting the ANC, avoiding isolating certain factions and to reward loyalty.”

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No accountability in ANC

National Freedom Party (NFP) spokesperson Canaan Mdletshe said there has never been accountability in the ANC.

“Since the beginning of President Ramaphosa’s term, ineffective and inefficient ministers such as Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan have literally plunged our country into darkness and they got away with it because no one holds them accountable.

“In reality, there’s no performance agreement for ministers, making them super-appointees. Our executive is there to make numbers and fill their pockets, because no matter how poor they perform, they cannot be held accountable until the end of the term.”

He called on Ramaphosa to evaluate all ministers and their deputies annually and make the findings thereof public for taxpayers to also assess for themselves.

Nonceba Mhlauli, the spokesperson for the Department of Monitoring, Planning and Evaluation, which is responsible for the performance contracts, directed all inquiries to the Presidency.

In a reply to questions, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the performance processes are the president’s ambit and no one else’s.

“The management of performance agreements and appraisals remains in the purview of the employer and the employee. Cabinet appointments are a prerogative of the President,” he said in a written reply.