Who’s in charge of SA — ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula or President Cyril Ramaphosa?

Take the past fortnight. The newly minted party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said at the weekend that the ANC will remove Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan if there are no tangible improvements in the transport utility Transnet, hobbling the economy at a pace equal now to Eskom’s death knells.

But Cabinet ministers are appointed by Ramaphosa, who has not said anything about the party boss’s threats. This shows that party deployment is still superior to the Cabinet accountability system.

Last week, Mbalula warned the SA Reserve Bank that it wanted the cost of living to come down. The SA Reserve Bank’s independence to set monetary policy is constitutionally protected. However, this has never stopped the governing party from taking repeated potshots at the central bank. SA Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago ignores the political rhetoric. Still, it needs clarification about South Africa’s mores and how committed the ANC is to the Constitution that it helped birth.  

The country does not need more confusion in a precarious moment where rolling blackouts, the logistics crisis and a challenging global economy have put South Africa on a precipitous edge. 

In China, Xi Jinping is also the secretary-general of the governing Chinese Communist Party, so the issue does not arise. But in none of South Africa’s comparator countries does the head of a governing party steer so far into governance. You would not, for example, even recognise the name of India’s BJP party secretary (BL Santhosh). These roles generally involve managing the party machinery and running elections. In the ANC, the secretary-general also sits with the President to decide Cabinet positions. In the past, this official has also broken the news to members who have lost their jobs. Over the terms of successive ANC governments, it is a role that has grown in power to the extent that it risks overriding the function of the country’s President. 

The role confusion spreads like a virus into the rest of the Cabinet system. This week, for example, the Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel (with the party’s labour ally, Cosatu) asked the US to renew the Agoa trade agreement worth $28-billion ahead of schedule. At the same time, wearing her party hat, the Minister in the Presidency, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, took a broadside at a nefarious neo-imperial order (including the US) at a BRICS party summit. (Read business leader Busi Mavuso’s summation here).  

Read more in Daily Maverick: After the Bell: Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on those dastardly banks and why BRICS is our only saviour

In the energy sphere, it needs to be clarified whether Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe is equal to the two other Cabinet ministers responsible for energy or their senior. This is because he is also the ANC chairperson.  

President Cyril Ramaphosa is conflict-avoidant, and you never know quite where he stands. He prefers "kitchen cabinet" governance through more than 100 structures that crisscross government, business and civil society. (See City Press’ report on a research paper here.)  

Mbalula has seen and taken the leadership gap since he was elected party secretary-general in December 2022. With his braggadocio and hip-shooting style, he risks confusing the rest of the country, which is not au fait with the governing party’s particular culture and practices. 

A different opinion