Dear Editor
The DA has today submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to the Minister in The Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, requesting that she release the outcome of performance reviews that were conducted on Cabinet Ministers between April and July 2023.
While responding to a DA parliamentary question on ministerial performance assessments, Ramokgopa revealed that ‘Performance management was conducted with Ministers between April and July 2023.’ Since signing performance agreements with Ministers in 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa has not lived up to the commitment he made to enhance accountability through a structured performance management system at the executive level because of the failure to either conduct or publish periodic performance reviews.
The DA strongly believes that it is in the public interest that progress reports on the performance of Ministers are accessible to South Africans. Ramokgopa should therefore lift the veil of secrecy around the reviews conducted between April and July 2023 and make them available publicly as a matter of urgency.
Considering the multitude of crises facing the country at the moment, and the cluelessness of the ANC government to effectively address them, it is not surprising why Ramaphosa’s government will want to keep the performance reviews a secret. The cost of living has driven consumers to the edge, load-shedding has become progressively worse, unemployment is at an all-time high, Treasury has issued a red alert warning that the country’s public coffers are empty, SOEs have collapsed and crime has become a national pandemic.
To cap it all off, Ramaphosa’s new dawn has irretrievably collapsed. The country is essentially on autopilot as the ANC fumbles in the dark while Rome is burning. If they still cared about South Africa’s future, Ramaphosa and his poverty cabinet should have resigned en masse by now.
The only recourse available to South Africans is to vote out Ramaphosa and his entire poverty cabinet in 2024. We therefore call on Ramokgopa to release the ministerial performance reviews so that South Africans are clear on how the ANC government has badly managed the country and brought it to the brink of financial ruin.
Regards
Zak Mbhele MP
DA Shadow Minister in the Presidency
Shooter
Bitter koud — very cold. An Afrikaans phrase meaning ‘bitter cold’, often used to describe the cold weather during winter.Example: “Oh, my gosh! It’s bitter koud outside!”
Jack Cassidy
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is home to the oldest meteor scar in the world – the Vredefort Dome in a town called Parys. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.