Zuma moves Manuel, but to a strong position

PRETORIA – Trevor Manuel was appointed to head a powerful new planning body yesterday, keeping South Africa’s former finance minister at the heart of policy-making in President Jacob Zuma’s first cabinet.

A day after taking office, Zuma named tax authority chief Pravin Gordhan to replace Manuel in another sign of continuity as Africa’s biggest economy heads towards its first recession in 17 years.’I think the positions that the financial markets were worried about have been skilfully handled,’ said independent analyst Nic Borain.Manuel had been in the job for 13 years, making him the world’s longest-serving finance minister. Investors approved of the tight monetary and fiscal policies he kept in place.’Comrade Trevor Manuel has been given a new structure, a very powerful structure that is going to work out a national plan of government,’ said Zuma, who expects a positive financial market reaction to Gordhan’s appointment.As well coping with the fallout from the global financial crisis, Zuma also faces pressure to deliver on 15 years of promises by the ANC to tackle widespread poverty, crime and AIDS, and create jobs.Zuma made his way to the presidency despite facing trials for rape and corruption. His toughest task may be balancing the interests of unions and communists who helped him rise to the top against those of investors who fear he will steer the economy to the left.Some of the more vocal left-wingers found places in the cabinet, but not holding key economic portfolios.South African Communist Party General-Secretary Blade Nzimande was named minister of higher education and training.’He certainly put his own staff on the cabinet, which I think is a good thing,’ said Nel Marais, acting managing director at Executive Research Associates.’There are quite a few strong new faces in the cabinet that played a significant role in Zuma’s political fight for survival in the past few months.’Zuma also reached out to Afrikaners, many of whom feel excluded 15 years after the end of white minority rule. He named a deputy agriculture minister from the Freedom Front, which explicitly aims to protect Afrikaner interests.Possibly in a sign of tougher measures against violent crime before next year’s soccer World Cup finals in South Africa, Zuma created a new ministry specifically for the police.Although markets were expected to welcome the key economic appointments, some pundits questioned how effectively Manuel’s new planning commission and another new economic ministry would work with trade and finance ministries.’All those, plus deputies, will be fighting for the same bowl. Co-ordination from that point of view is going to be hugely problematic,’ said Marais. – Nampa-Reuters