Many ministries in our bloated Cabinet have to go - starting with Gayton McKenzie's Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture

Dear DM168 reader,

It really did not augur well for the GNU when we, the nation, were stood up for our 9pm date last Sunday with President Cyril Ramaphosa. I  waited for our President's Cabinet announcement for close to an hour with fellow South Africans on SABC’s YouTube channel, and was fortunately saved by our national sense-of-humour coping mechanism in the comments section.

Eventually, a bleary-eyed President arrived to tell us why he broke a key promise to reduce the number of ministers in his Cabinet, bloating it to kingdom come to accommodate demographics, regions, factions and constituencies in the ANC and aspirations or demands from the DA, IFP, PA, PAC, GOOD and UDM.

South Africa’s Cabinet has increased to 32 ministers (from 30) and there are now 43 deputy ministers (from 36) in the Government of National Unity (GNU). That's simply way too much for a country our size.

My fellow YouTube audience were quick to express their views on the President catering to his party instead of  the country.

@mandlasithole4526 said: There are ministers who don't only look physically tired but appear to be mentally exhausted and without constructive ideas to take the country forward in their portfolios. Angie, Blade and Gwede. They should be at home taking care of great-grandchildren. Imagine Holomisa as former General, is deputising Angie who knows nothing about military. This is a joke

@VusiIrvinMthimunye said: Angie can't even defend her teeth from nearly falling every time she tries speaking. What more tanks and artillery?

Ja well no fine. It appears that not just the President but all the party leaders pandered to politics as opposed to we the people of this country by eventually conceding to this bloated beast of a GNU.

There were some gobsmacking giant question marks about who had to be appeased by whom to be appointed ministers and deputy ministers, but the one position that really bugged me was a position that always bugs me because it shows how stuck in the Jurassic Age our politicians are.

That is the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture, gifted to our number one reformed gangster, former convict, anti-African xenophobe, anti-Palestinian and token representative of coloured people, Gayton McKenzie. So-called-by-apartheid “coloured” is my allotted tribe in Mzansi, but really guys, let’s make it clear, Gayton and me, different WhatsApp groups, star signs and planets.

If any ANC or GNU idiot thinks giving me Gayton, or Patricia de Lille for that matter, will appease my sense of belonging, they need to jump out of their 19th and 20th century race-box-ticking  time warp and fast forward to the future of complex human identity in the 21st century. A human identity that is rooted in Africa and the ever-evolving world of global thought and culture and is deeply allergic to race-baiting, fellow African-hating and conservative Christian populist ignorance.

Now that’s off my chest, let me explain why, with or without Gayton at the helm, having a Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture makes no sense to me.

Let’s face facts. Did Siya Kolisi and the Springboks win the Rugby World Cup, galvanise a polarised country and bring a sense of pride, joy, hope and belief in our ability to achieve against all odds because of the stupendous support from the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture? Let me put it differently: did singer Tyla, who won a Grammy this year and just this week was named Black Entertainment Television’s Best New Artist and Best International Act, and Limpopo-born artist Makhadzi, who won the BET Viewer’s Choice: Best New International Act, achieve what they did because they were nurtured and boosted by the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture? I could ask the same of Black Coffee or Trevor Noah, two of our biggest cultural exports.

[embed]https://youtu.be/5cKfE5N13fs[/embed]

The answer to all of this is  a resounding NO. All these hard-working, training, practising, creative and sporting great South Africans achieved global recognition without the help of a narcissistic back-slapping Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture or their many minions in a bureaucratic government department. A department  that mostly existed to promote what playwright Mike van Graan told our reporter Victoria O’Regan were “vanity projects that do little other than consume significant resources to showcase the ANC as political liberators” or “supported institutions and agencies that have been beneficiaries of substantial public funding but that have not substantially transformed people’s lives or the arts and culture”.

The creative economy dubbed  the orange economy is  the biggest employer of youth between the ages of 15 and 29 globally, be it music, design, film, gaming, fashion, crafts, or app creation or more, yet our government treats the arts as an insignificant, unimportant Cinderella side act to banish errant cadres such as Nathi Mthethwa or Zizi Kodwa, or to appease the self-stated demand for a seat at the table of power by a populist politician like Gayton McKenzie.

I think there is a great possibility that our artists and sports players would be better off if we reduce the size of cabinet and shut down the ministry and department of sports, arts and culture. That the doors of sports, arts and culture will be flung wide open for the people of South Africa if we take away the billions from the DSAC bureaucrats and give the money to local government for community arts centres,  museum, monument and library management, sports clubs  and sports associations and to Basic Education so every child in every school has access to qualified arts, design, music, dance and drama teachers as well as qualified sports coaches for a variety of codes. Spend the billions of rands in the budget on children so they can develop arts and sports skills that will equip them to create their own careers.

Drop the bottomless pit of tenders and tasteless government vanity projects. Instead, let the arts, culture and fourth industrial revolution knowledge industries and sports franchises,  fall under the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, as should Tourism; Mineral Resources and Energy; Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment; and all trade and industry sectors. Make Trade, Industry and Competition the ministry that supports and facilitates economic growth through enabling policy, legislation and incentives, that develop all job-creation sectors.

Government cannot create rugby stars, playwrights, film directors, Olympians, Grammy award winners or  YouTube sensations but it can create an enabling environment for many more South Africans to achieve their potential in creative and sporting fields. No need for several  ceremonial deputy ministers, just hire qualified, agile, committed, hard-working civil servants who think creatively and who are knowledgeable in each industrial sector and can facilitate the growth of industries and job creation.

There you go, GNU. I have helped you shave off several ministers and deputies to serve the most important national priority of youth job creation, as opposed to job reservations for sycophantic politicians and their pals.

A woman can dream.

But alas, here we are with Gayton, who claims he is bringing “massive changes” to the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture. The biggest change dear Gayton, would be to listen to arts and sports organisations, artists and players about how you as their servant could facilitate their development so that many more Trevors, Tylas, Siyas and Tatiana Smiths can flower in South Africa.

During the elections, our online engagement team asked Daily Maverick readers to tell us what they would want the new government to tackle most urgently. Three key priorities came up: job creation, solving the electricity crisis and fighting crime. For this week’s lead story in DM168, Victoria O’ Regan has interviewed several experts to assess how suitably skilled and equipped all the newly appointed ministers responsible for these three key priorities are. Share  your thoughts about our  GNU cabinet appointments with me at [email protected] and I will consider publishing them on our letters page.

Yours in defence of truth and creative industry,

Heather

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.