Bloated Cabinet needs to agree on priorities, agenda for deepened economic reform - CDE

The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) said on Friday the centre of government needs to be streamlined with more effective processes feeding into Cabinet to ensure better decision-making.
Crucially, only the best people should be appointed to senior positions in the public service and in entities such as Eskom and Transnet, stressed CDE executive director Ann Bernstein.
On Sunday President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new Cabinet after forming a government of national unity (GNU), announcing a high number of Ministers and Deputy Ministers.
Ramaphosa added two Ministers and seven Deputy Ministers, increasing the Cabinet size to 75. It is the largest Cabinet the country has ever had.
Bernstein said it was unfortunate that Ramaphosa went for an even bigger Cabinet than the enormous ones of previous administrations.
"Big Cabinets are difficult to manage, slow to make decisions, hard to hold accountable and less likely to commit to a clear set of reforms on which there is no back-tracking," she said.
She advised that the incumbents in some 130 mission-critical posts should all reapply for their jobs and, where individuals were not the best possible candidates for these jobs, they should be replaced.
She noted that the newly appointed Cabinet needed to agree on its priorities and an agenda for deepened and speedy economic reform.
The CDE said as part of its AGENDA 2024 project, it had identified five priority areas that required immediate focus, highlighting that dealing with the fiscal crisis must be top of the new government's agenda, with careful attention paid to moderating public-sector remuneration.
"The long-standing crisis in the performance and financial viability of State-owned companies needs to be addressed. Unaffordable, populist policy pronouncements made during the election, will need to be rethought," said Bernstein.
She also wants prioritisation in freeing up the economy so that markets and firms - disciplined by competition, but supported by a capable State - are able to thrive.
She said a growing economy was the only way to ensure that millions of people had the opportunity to rise out of poverty.
Public-private partnerships need to be used to harness private-sector capacity for infrastructure development, and should be introduced as widely as possible, she added.
According to the CDE, a new approach to mass poverty and inclusion was required, based on incentivising employment for millions of people desperate for work.
It is essential that the rule of law is dramatically strengthened, she said, highlighting a need for implementation of a new approach to governance.