Richard Calland is a visiting adjunct professor at the Wits School of Governance and Director of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership ’s Africa Programme.
Secretary-general of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union from 1993 to 2009, Patel is not really an ANC man . He does not have a major constituency within the African National Congress — which may have allowed him to keep his head down and avoid the brutal internecine factional battles that have destroyed the ANC over the past two decades.
Talking of mergers, in 2019, Patel’s diligent defence of institutional integrity was rewarded by Cyril Ramaphosa, who not only appointed Patel to minister of trade and industry but allowed him to bring economic development and competition into an expanded department. Patel has relished the opportunity and challenge.
Now that we know Patel will not be coming back it makes even more sense. It is, perhaps, one of the longer ‘handover’ notes written for a new cabinet minister — a position that will inevitably be one of the hottest commodities for trading in any coalition negotiations that follow next Wednesday’s election — but is none the worse for that. It reflects the serious-mindedness of Patel; something that is in short supply as populist leaders flourish across the globe.
What he explained to a packed house of thought leaders, policy wonks and students was that an inclusive industrial policy is one that reverses or defies the extractive logic of the Victorian and colonial period of Africa, and builds meaningful value chains, for example, this means ensuring that the transition is not only from coal to renewable energy, but can galvanise what I have written of as a ‘This is why industrial policy is back and why it matters — it is critical to inclusive growth and...
Patel adds that “the new conditions require a strategic focus on aligning South Africa with the opportunities arising from the global green economic and technology revolutions, whilst strengthening economic integration on the African continent. Implementation requires agility in leadership and in State capability, as well as even deeper partnerships across government and with the private sector; all underpinned by an appropriate set of support measures”.