Will Ramaphosa buckle under pressure and load-shed Gordhan?

Cyril Ramaphosa is facing the biggest dilemma of his presidency – whether to fire his right-hand man, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, as the Eskom power crisis threatens to break the governing ANC.

Some observers say he will have to either remove Gordhan or implement a Cabinet reshuffle. But pressure is mounting, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and its affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu), demanding that Gordhan must go.

They allege he failed to turn around the state-owned enterprise and Ceppwawu has accused Gordhan of aiming to implement his “dirty privatisation and unbundling” of Eskom.

Some political analysts have defended Gordhan and lambasted those calling for his head.

Professor Lesiba Teffo questioned the obsession with getting rid of Gordhan by some within the tripartite alliance, comprising the ANC, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party.

Teffo said Gordhan was doing his job well and was liked by South Africans.

He blamed the ANC’s cadre deployment policy for the rot across all of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) – managers were appointed on the basis of their political affiliation, rather than managerial skills and qualifications, and that contributed to their failure.

He lashed out at Deputy President David Mabuza for blaming Gordhan for allegedly misleading the president, saying his statement was “inappropriate for someone in his position”.

Teffo said: “Rather, Mabuza should have come up with an intervention in the form of strategies on how to fix the problem at Eskom. There are ways to deal with the matter – unless Mabuza, too, had an agenda [and] is fanning the fires.”

Another analyst, Zamikhaya Maseti, said calls for Gordhan to resign over Eskom would be justified and carried through in a genuine democracy like Britain.

In SA – an abnormal democracy – the factional battles of the ruling party were behind the calls.

Maseti said SA politicians who erred refused to take responsibility for their actions.

“Since 1994, we have [had] this culture of impunity, where people do as they wish. They don’t care because we have an abnormal democracy.

“Such a call … serves and advances the ANC factional agenda, particularly that of beneficiaries of state capture, who feel threatened by Gordhan and are using this opportunity to put pressure on him,” Maseti said.

Following the resignation of Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza over his board allegedly misleading Ramaphosa last month, when they assured him there would be no load shedding until January 13, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, followed by Cosatu and Ceppwawu, want Gordhan out.

Earlier, Mabuza had accused Gordhan and the Eskom board of misleading the president, which Ramaphosa’s office denied.

Yesterday Ceppwawu said it was “fully behind the call and the sentiments” expressed by Cosatu, which called for “accountability and consistency”. It demanded Gordhan should not be allowed to find a scapegoat.

Ceppwawu general secretary Welile Nolingo said: “It has been as clear as daylight that whatever he touches implodes.

“All the SOEs are on their knees under his watch and he has placed himself as a good guy for javelin throwing in order to catch [the javelin] on the other side, as he is advocating for privatisation and unbundling.

“South Africa has capable men and women who can turn the SOEs around without Pravin Gordhan’s dirty privatisation and unbundling hands. The sooner Pravin Gordhan goes, the better and safer,” Nolingo said.

Ramaphosa had to cut short a trip to Egypt to return home after Eskom implemented stage 6 load shedding.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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