The finance minister has traditionally been the face of economic policy in our politics. What is widely underappreciated is that many of the levers of economic policymaking sit outside his control. Improving our development trajectory requires alignment between fiscal, monetary, industrial, trade, energy, minerals, immigration and technology policies, among others. Where these should be coordinated and mutually reinforced, too often they have worked at cross-purposes.
As this month’s State of the Nation Address has sparked debate about whether the Presidency’s growing advisory apparatus is too large or duplicative of line ministry functions, it is worth reflecting on some of the ways in which countries around the world pursue coherent economic management, as we seek to strengthen our own.
The then-president Jacob Zuma, responding to the ANC left’s long-standing desire to wrest control over economic policy from a Treasury perceived as conservative , fragmented economic policymaking with the introduction of the Department of Economic Development. President Cyril Ramaphosa seemed to be building towards a Mbeki-Manuel-esque partnership with Minister Tito Mboweni for a couple of years, but this couldn’t be sustained as Mboweni wanted to return to private life in Magoebaskloof.
Ramaphosa expressed his desire to reform the Cabinet in his first State of the Nation Address in 2018, but did so only partially, reducing the number of ministers from the Zuma peak of 36 to 28 currently, in line with Mbeki-era levels . Some expected Ramaphosa to go further in consolidating ministerial portfolios but he held back, perhaps due to the risk associated with implementing such fundamental change within the fraught internal politics of the ANC.
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