By Wiseman Magasela
After the president of the Republic of South Africa, also the president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, appointed ministers to his cabinet in the government of national unity (GNU), the real battle, over post-election policy decisions, begins.
The GNU brings together a total of eleven political parties from across a wide political spectrum.
The president was elected by the ‘together but unequal’ political parties that are members of what has been called a government based on national unity. This government, based on unity, is yet to function in the multiple areas and dimensions of both the state and government.
What was reported, in part, as outrageous demands over ministerial positions, is, in fact, an indication of the yet to unfold, policy contestation at the executive and other levels.
The South African Constitution vests in the president with other members of the cabinet, the responsibility of, among others, developing and implementing national policy.
The demands and contestation over executive decision-making power is at the very core and centre of the character of the state expressed through adopted and implemented social and economic policies at the national level, global relations and the posture on international affairs.
The contestation is to be on decisions of the cabinet of the Republic of South Africa and the decisions of ministers in the various portfolios.
The ANC was the leading and governing party in the past six administrations. From a policy perspective, the ANC’s post-election political emasculation, marks a critical juncture in South Africa’s policy re-alignment and policy agenda under the new political unity arrangement.
An unprecedented, explicit, ‘non-ANC only’ policy agenda and policy direction is to come out of the multi-party arrangement, the GNU. Policy analysts and the South African population, wait with anticipation to witness the extent of post-election policy convergence or policy divergence.
On policy, political parties tend to have central policy positions that define what they are, what they stand for, what they do not stand for, their non-negotiables and the red lines. Many have noted significant policy similarities between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, both key partners in the GNU.
The declared political unity in the GNU is yet to be tested on policy unity. The GNU will have to answer the questions of unity of whom, united on what, for what purpose, what objective. And, most important, the policy path to achieving the purpose and objective of the unity.
Address poverty? How? Minimum wage, social grants, free education, fiscus-funded national health system, SOEs playing a developmental role, the role of the private sector in public infrastructure, the just energy transition, BRICS+, South Africa on the African Continent, and many other national, regional and international policy issues.
In South Africa, as in other modern capitalist societies, policies are informed and determined by two primary factors. These are political ideology (core values and principles) and the political process to assign the nature and extent of the role of the state, the market (private sector), NGOs and other partners in human, social and economic development.
High levels of poverty and high levels of unemployment have, from an ideological and social provisioning standpoint, different solutions. Policy answers to the questions – who is in poverty, why are they in poverty, how do they move out of poverty, does it matter that they are in poverty – lay bare the political and policy divergence and contestation on the ‘path to prosperity’.
Politicians, as members of the executive and ministers (the executive authority in government departments), and heads of departments (who lead policy formulation and policy implementation) are the vehicle and conduit for the expression of political power held by and exercised by political parties.
The indisputable role of politicians is to see the interests of their constituencies, the people who vote them into political power, expressed in adopted and implemented policies.
By definition, in the post-2024 elections policy agenda of government, there has to be a shift in some key policy choices to accommodate the new political unity. Without a shift in policy, ‘everyone becomes ANC’ through the adopted and implemented policies of government and there is no substantive expression in policy decisions of the declared political unity.
In the post-2024 elections period, the balance of political power has shifted, and this is bound to have consequences in the policy terrain. This is uncharted waters for the executive, government ministries and government departments.
It remains to be seen if South Africa’s policy landscape, formed and consolidated by the ANC over six administrations, is to change in significant or minor ways.
* Dr Wiseman Magasela holds a DPhil in Social Policy from the University of Oxford, a former Deputy Director General and Adviser in the Government of South Africa and current Executive Director of Clermont Analytics, a strategic research, policy development and policy advisory firm.
** The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The African.