Cabinet reshuffle lets the baddies win, while we all watch

The latest cabinet reshuffle is interesting to be polite. Someone might say that I should be grateful for the disastrous governmental leadership shown at the moment, because it means that I will always have a job. In a country with the highest rape rate in the world (of countries not at war) a job in sexual violence research and advocacy is pretty much guaranteed for the near (and probably distant) future. But when did I, and I don’t think I’m alone here, relax complacently into the acknowledgement that the baddies had won, and I’d be left picking up the pieces? Examining the new leaders thanks to this great M&G guide leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not too bothered about the change in communications minister, because to be frank all you need is a skilled spokesperson that can tow the party line and talk endless circumlocutive nonsense and they’ll be fine. Same job, different face, no difference.

What is worrying is the move of Lulu Xingwana to what I like to call “the ministry of everyone and everything”, or the ministry for women, children and people with disabilities. As Anthea Buys said earlier this year Yoo-hoo Lulu! Just so you know Ms Xingwana, there are lesbians and gays and all sorts of folk that your ministry will have to deal with now. Best you brush up on your knowledge and leave the homophobia at the door. In my opinion, using Lulu’s words herself, putting a homophobe at the head of this department is “immoral, offensive and against nation-building”.

The loss of Edna Molewa as the head of the department of social development (DSD) is sad. She was brave enough to stand up in front of her peers and correct the Zambian misogynist who they had asked to speak at the International Victim Empowerment Conference. She has been moved to managing water, and hopefully she can take the same energy to that position. Perhaps she’ll engage with great stakeholders like Greenpeace Africa, now based in Joburg? Then again, maybe she’s just been shackled so that she can tow the party line more effectively.

More saddening is her replacement by a convicted fraudster, Bathabile Dlamini. There is no indication that Bathabile is ready to step up and into Edna’s shoes, or that she has changed her wily ways. The DSD is one of the big funds providers to NGOs in South Africa. The services to the victims of crime rely heavily on their ability to receive funding, and if it’s being spent on cars, hotel tickets and handbags instead, this will result in a grave shortage of services to the most vulnerable victims of crime.

There are many others in the reshuffle that look dubious, but you get the general gist. It is not enough that we let this shuffle happen quietly and watch the deliberate mismanagement of good leaders and their replacement by dubious characters. Civil society is also responsible for critiquing what government does — each one of us. Perhaps the reliance on state funding for their general day-to-day needs has led many organisations choking on a self-imposed gag order, but it is now time to play an active role and say that this is not enough.

We need:

Ministers who are interested in and committed to the department that they lead, not figureheads.
No convicted or corrupt people in government, and that should start from the very top.
Training for all new officials on corruption, on management, on budgeting and financial procedures and on the central issues that face their department.
Regular monthly public reports to let us know what each department is doing.

We cannot just sit back and let the baddies win, because it keeps us in a job or we’re too scared to lose funding to criticise. We must speak out, demand the leaders that we want, and engage with government on placing the right people in the right position. We must actively critique their poor choices, and commend their good choices. If not, then I don’t know what the word democracy means.