Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa’s obsession with task teams and advisory councils has reached the point where one has to question his faith and trust in his bloated Cabinet and deputy ministers.
Since occupying the highest office in the land, we have counted no less than 10 task teams, expert panels and advisory councils that Ramaphosa has appointed.
Among them are the presidential climate finance task team, the high level task team on matters related to the benefits of military veterans, the Eskom sustainability task team, and an oversight task team to monitor the relief funds meant for KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape flood victims.
He also set up another task team to attend to the frustrations raised by Khoi-San leaders, an expert panel on the July unrest, an inter-ministerial task team to give urgent attention to matters of governance and risks facing the North West, and a high-level review panel on the State Security Agency.
In his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa announced appointments to the national anti-corruption advisory council, saying this group would bring together stakeholders from across society to oversee the implementation of the government’s anti-corruption strategy.
Some of the individuals in these panels are people with close links to the president. What informs the appointment of so many bodies at the cost of the already squeezed taxpayer is a question Ramaphosa has yet to answer. Even the cost is something not disclosed to the public.
Sure, the president is using his powers to appoint these bodies, but where does this leave the highly paid ministers? In fact one can even argue that the president’s confidence in outsourcing the responsibilities of his Cabinet members says a lot about how much trust he has in their ability to do their jobs.
For someone who was elected on the ticket of clean governance, accountability and transparency, there appears to be a lack of oversight of these bodies that only report to him.
The claims that Ramaphosa uses the reports produced by these bodies to remove those opposed to him are hard to dismiss. A case in point is the premature removal of ex-police comissioner Khehla Sitole.
Cape Times