Cosatu has described President Cyril Ramaphosa’s move to appoint his allies to key cabinet posts and around himself as a good move as it would now leave him with no excuses for the failures of his administration.
The Thursday night cabinet reshuffle saw Ramaphosa roping in more of his allies, in what is seen as a bid to bring closely those he trusted and avoid the same embarrassment suffered by his administration during the recent looting and public violence where he was forced to admit that the government was caught napping.
While Cosatu has slammed the reshuffle as the recycling of the same people, the federation said Ramaphosa's move was expected after recent events.
Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said Ramaphosa would now have to take full ownership of the failure of his administration and cabinet.
“It would be silly to appoint people you don’t trust, especially after what we have seen. We see this as a positive thing because when we hold him accountable, he must be able to take responsibility and not say he was sabotaged,” Pamla said.
As Ramaphosa shook up his cabinet, he also swiftly moved to tighten his grip of the security cluster by disbanding the State Security Agency (SSA) and installing intelligence services in his office, where he also appointed former state security minister Sydney Mufamadi as his national security advisor as part of improving support to his office and the national security council.
Mufamadi had in 2018 been appointed by Ramaphosa to lead a high level panel to probe the state of affairs of intelligence services and made damning findings about internal operational rot within the SSA, but its recommendations had not been implemented.
While critics have complained that the moving of intelligence services into Ramaphosa’s office would give him unfettered and unchecked power over civilians, Pamla said the federation did not see this bad move given the state of the intelligence service.
“Also, this thing of having a separate ministry of intelligence is not even common around the world. This concept of discussing intelligence matters in cabinet is not usual and contributes to the many leaks that happen,” he said.
Some of those who survived the chop despite expectations that they would be reshuffled include Ramaphosa’s close ally former SSA deputy minister Zizi Kodwa, who has moved to the presidency as deputy minister for state security.
Ramaphosa also appointed former deputy finance minister Mondli Gugubele, another close ally, as minister in the presidency where he is replacing the late Jackson Mthembu who succumbed to Covid-19 complications in January.
Ramaphosa is yet to give details about the next deployment of axed defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula which he said was imminent after he pushed her out of his cabinet and replaced her with former National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise.
Mapisa-Nqakula generated controversy in the aftermath of the recent riots after she contradicted Ramaphosa’s characterisation of the public violence as an insurrection, saying it was counterrevolution.
Modise, a former soldier of uMkhonto we Sizwe, is among the highly regarded senior ANC leaders in Ramaphosa’s camp.
Cosatu, which has long been critical of Treasury’s “neoliberal policy posture” and arrogance of ministers in the portfolio over the years, said it would give newly appointed finance minister Enoch Godongwana some time before judging him.
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