Let’s Not Opt For Second Best

TRADITIONAL Cabinet retreats, or reviews as they are now called, have not in the past yielded much in terms of effectively measuring the performance of individual Ministers and changing the status quo accordingly.

Usually political considerations overshadow questions of merit when it comes to ‘reshuffles’ of the country’s executive elite, but it is time for this to change. Recently President Hifikepunye Pohamba held what is now called a Cabinet review, at which all Ministers and their deputies were required to give account of the work of their Ministries over the past year.In previous years this gathering was held at Swakopmund at the coast, but it was an expensive process because Ministers, their deputies, as well as other senior personnel had to be transported and accommodated there for the duration.High expectations of positive outcomes from these ‘retreats’ (characterised by nice words and promises about pruning of expenditures and cutting down on waste and promoting good governance) have been dashed in the past, with little if any substantive change emerging to the betterment of the business of government and the wellbeing of the nation as a whole.Perhaps President Pohamba has taken the first positive step by having the meeting in Windhoek, rather than incurring high costs to have it elsewhere in the country.But now he needs to take another: that of conducting Ministerial ‘job appraisals’ and holding these top officials responsible for what has happened in their respective portfolios in the course of the year.It is time he looks at the merits of his team, as we are told was the reason behind the review.What is expected of the President is a very serious, considered opinion of the people surrounding him and who most directly influence the work of his Presidency.He needs to consider, among other things, what they have achieved so far in terms of goals set and make his judgement on his new team based on such considerations.Some form of scorecard needs to be drawn up by President Pohamba prior to him mapping out the way forward to Vision 2030.What is also positive about the latest review is that Ministers themselves were placed in the spotlight.At earlier retreats, they were accompanied by a phalanx of bureaucrats who tended to answer questions and elaborate on issues, so they escaped the scrutiny that could have and should have come about.The annual Cabinet review can certainly serve the specific intention of performance assessment as well as help the President to determine whether he needs to ‘reshuffle’ in the year ahead.Apart from the ‘testimony’ of the Ministers themselves, the President can do, and should have done, his own homework in this regard.He too reads, listens and watches the media and has a good idea of what his elite team have accomplished or not over the past year.Hopefully he was direct in his questioning with a view to making informed decisions about the various members of his Cabinet.Hard though it may be in the camaraderie that has come about between most of them in the decades during and after the liberation struggle, the President has to try to put political considerations and patronage aside in the interests of a more transparent and more effective executive.A Cabinet reshuffle that is based on a solid assessment of the performance of his various Ministers will be in the interests of the country as a whole.A Cabinet reshuffle which simply rewards friends and penalises enemies is not the way forward.This too has been characteristic in the past.We are hopeful that President Pohamba will for once and for all set an example in this regard.Recently President Hifikepunye Pohamba held what is now called a Cabinet review, at which all Ministers and their deputies were required to give account of the work of their Ministries over the past year.In previous years this gathering was held at Swakopmund at the coast, but it was an expensive process because Ministers, their deputies, as well as other senior personnel had to be transported and accommodated there for the duration.High expectations of positive outcomes from these ‘retreats’ (characterised by nice words and promises about pruning of expenditures and cutting down on waste and promoting good governance) have been dashed in the past, with little if any substantive change emerging to the betterment of the business of government and the wellbeing of the nation as a whole.Perhaps President Pohamba has taken the first positive step by having the meeting in Windhoek, rather than incurring high costs to have it elsewhere in the country.But now he needs to take another: that of conducting Ministerial ‘job appraisals’ and holding these top officials responsible for what has happened in their respective portfolios in the course of the year.It is time he looks at the merits of his team, as we are told was the reason behind the review.What is expected of the President is a very serious, considered opinion of the people surrounding him and who most directly influence the work of his Presidency.He needs to consider, among other things, what they have achieved so far in terms of goals set and make his judgement on his new team based on such considerations.Some form of scorecard needs to be drawn up by President Pohamba prior to him mapping out the way forward to Vision 2030.What is also positive about the latest review is that Ministers themselves were placed in the spotlight.At earlier retreats, they were accompanied by a phalanx of bureaucrats who tended to answer questions and elaborate on issues, so they escaped the scrutiny that could have and should have come about.The annual Cabinet review can certainly serve the specific intention of performance assessment as well as help the President to determine whether he needs to ‘reshuffle’ in the year ahead.Apart from the ‘testimony’ of the Ministers themselves, the President can do, and should have done, his own homework in this regard.He too reads, listens and watches the media and has a good idea of what his elite team have accomplished or not over the past year.Hopefully he was direct in his questioning with a view to making informed decisions about the various members of his Cabinet.Hard though it may be in the camaraderie that has come about between most of them in the decades during and after the liberation struggle, the President has to try to put political considerations and patronage aside in the interests of a more transparent and more effective executive.A Cabinet reshuffle that is based on a solid assessment of the performance of his various Ministers will be in the interests of the country as a whole.A Cabinet reshuffle which simply rewards friends and penalises enemies is not the way forward.This too has been characteristic in the past.We are hopeful that President Pohamba will for once and for all set an example in this regard.