South Africa awakens this morning to the newly formed government of national unity (GNU). Following the elections of last month, President Ramaphosa announced the formation of the new cabinet. The ANC has kept its grip over 20 out of 32 cabinet posts, while the DA holds six, including Home Affairs. Six other portfolios are shared amongst smaller parties.
The newly formed cabinet has been (necessarily) publicly welcomed by the ANC as “an important step forward, and a testament to the resilience of our democracy”, the DA said it was “proud to rise to the challenge and take our place, for the first time, at the seat of national government“.
The newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Amos Schreiber, appears to be on paper the perfect fit for the mammoth challenge ahead of him.
Back in 2018, in his book ‘Coalition Country: South Africa after the ANC’[1], Dr Schreiber had predicted, as the natural result of years of the ANC’s hegemony (“a country that has been psychologically colonised by one-party domination”) that the demographical shift and the rise of the urban middle class voters could only lead to a government of coalition. He wrote: “The ANC won’t disappear. However, it will soon lose its iron grip on the country’s politics, with ANC single-party governments replaced by a broad range of political coalitions”. In his view, urban middle class voters were bound to be driven and interested in practical services delivery issues rather than in only a narrative. A more critical demographic of voters that would lead to a new phase of politics and new ways to determine what is legitimate.
In his book Dr Schreiber also examined best coalition practices elsewhere in the world, exploring what different coalition configurations could entail for the country and what compromises would be necessary to strike a balance.
For well over a decade we have been outspoken denouncing the corruption and mismanagement plaguing the Department of Home Affairs. Dr Schreiber has equally been vocal in advocating against the “ANC’s descent into maladministration and corruption” and is now faced with the opportunity to reshape the DHA and align it to the principles of legitimacy, accountability and efficiency that we have all been calling for. This will be far from a simple or immediate process, the mountain to climb is rocky and high. Determination coupled with knowledge will be key.
We wish the Minister a steadfast and productive journey ahead!
by Claudia Pizzocri | CEO | Eisenberg & Associates
[1] Schreiber, L.A. (2018) Coalition country: South Africa after the ANC. Cape Town: Tafelberg.