Manuel squashes fears of overlaps in economic cluster departments

THE minister in charge of the newly created National Planning Commission, Trevor Manuel, has dismissed widespread concern that the new arrangement of economic cluster ministries was a recipe for disaster.

President Jacob Zuma had made it clear that he wanted cooperative governance, Manuel said, but if conflict arose Zuma would have the final say, as he had assigned the respective ministers in the cluster.
Manuel said people were not aware that there were huge co-ordinating programmes in the government that would prevent any conflict arising.
‘Sometimes people see problems where there are none,’ said Manuel, the outgoing finance minister, minutes before the swearing in of the new ministers by Chief Justice Pius Langa, Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Justice Kate O’Regan of the Constitutional Court in Pretoria.
When announcing the new cabinet on Sunday, Zuma said there would be additional posts, including minister for performance monitoring and evaluation, to be held by Collins Chabane.
A new Department of Economic Development would focus on economic policy making and be headed by trade unionist Ebrahim Patel.
Zuma said the implementation of economic policy would remain a Department of Trade and Industry function.
‘We went into an intensive process through the ANC’s national executive committee to discuss the type of government structure that would best serve our goals,’ Zuma said.
‘We wanted a structure that would enable us to achieve visible and tangible socio-economic development within the next five years.
‘It should be a structure that will enable us to effectively implement our policies.’
Already in the cluster were finance, trade and industry, and minerals and energy, which has been split into two departments.
Manuel conceded that there were risks of overlaps of functions in the cluster, but things would be smoothed over.
Patel said Zuma had set out in his vision of a co-operative government the idea that each department would not operate on its own.
‘I have an absolute conviction that through co-operation we will ensure that there are no overlaps but synergies. This is a challenge that President Zuma has put on all of us.’
Chabane said that if there was a conflict in the cluster, it would be over policy, management style or administration.
Any conflict would have to be referred to the ANC.
Pravin Gordhan, the new finance minister, echoed Manuel’s words, saying it was important that ‘we work in the spirit of co-operative governance. Let us not see problems where there are none.’
It was too early to say there would be overlaps, he said.
‘We must give ourselves a few months to work. I am sure we will find workable solutions.’
-Business Report