Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 19, 2003

It is said that on the eve of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's departure for exile, West African leaders pleaded with South Africa's Thabo Mbeki to be present at the handover ceremony.

For them the presence of the South African leader would send a message to Liberia's people, the warlords and the rest of the world that the continent's powerhouse cared about that country's conflict.

Such has the stature of South Africa grown on the continent that this country is viewed as a powerbroker that punches way above its own weight.

And that is in no small part due to the attention Mbeki has given to foreign affairs and South Africa's role in fixing Africa.

As Mbeki nears the end of his first term in office, it is in the area of foreign affairs that his legacy will rest.

Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo was driven by South Africa. The people of Burundi owe their transition to democracy to South Africa's intervention. The Comores is on its way to normalcy thanks to South Africa's leadership of an African Union initiative. The 18-month-old African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) this year spluttered into life as a result of the attention Mbeki gave to these projects.

South Africa always has a reserved seat at the head table at powerful multilateral organisations and associations and Africa is now a high agenda item at the summits of the Group of Eight (G8) major economies.

If Mbeki were to be rated on his performance on the international stage, he would pass with flying colours. But then there is that blot that is Mbeki's insistence that South Africa's approach to Zimbabwe is the correct one. No matter the measure of spin, there is not a single shred of evidence to suggest that the quiet diplomacy approach has not been an absolute failure.

If he were to be rated on macro-economic management, excellent would be written all over his card. For even though poverty levels are still too high and joblessness is not being tackled effectively, there is consensus that South Africa is one of the better managed economies in the world. There are sound infrastructure, clear policies, sound legal and legislative framework, and the country is regarded as a good destination by business and leisure travellers.

Where Mbeki falls short, however, is in the area of providing the country with cohesive leadership and a clear vision. Although the enigma clich is no longer attached to him, South Africans' relationship is mainly one of fascination. "Why did he do that? What did he mean when he said that? What lies behind his thinking on this or that subject?" are common refrains.

The reason for this is that despite having access to the public broadcaster, independent broadcasters and a myriad newspapers, Mbeki rarely interacts with his 42-million. His favoured form of communication with his subjects is through his party's website. It is there that he lets rip at political foes and out-ofûline party members.

In the past year Mbeki he has used this medium to tear into what he calls "fishers of corrupt men", opponents of his Zimbabwe policy, critics of black economic empowerment (BEE) and opposition parties. Even the much vaunted Presidential Press Corps, which was meant to provide senior political journalists with greater access to Mbeki, has only had an audience with him twice this year - when the structure was launched and when United States President George W Bush was in the country.

Lastly, but most importantly, it is Mbeki's refusal to take a lead in the war against Aids that will keep him from achieving high marks. Having been defeated by public opinion and forced to move from denialism to action on Aids, Mbeki has shied away from speaking about the disease.

For Mbeki's rating to improve, he needs to lead this nation.

Jacob Zuma, Deputy President -- Grade: F (2002 E)

This was the year in which Deputy President Jacob Zuma's mettle was tested. Zuma entered 2003 with a cloud hanging over him. This newspaper had revealed that he was being investigated for attempting to solicit a bribe from a French defence company that was involved in South Africa's arms deal. Subsequent reports in other newspapers raised further questions about the relationship between Zuma and his so-called financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

For Zuma, 2003 was going to be a make-or-break year. In his fight-back campaign Zuma marshalled all the resources at his disposal: he issued blustery public statements slamming the National Prosecuting Authority, he revived his old African National Congress networks, which set out to defend him in his hour of need and he rallied the ANC's marginalised union and communist allies to his side.

From a fight-back point of view, there is no arguing that Zuma was in every way the consummate strategist. As 2003 drew to a close it was clear he was winning the political war.

Not only did he have National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka on the ropes for much of the second part of 2003, he more than reclaimed his position as one of the ANC's most popular leaders. As South Africa's point man on the Great Lakes, he continued to play a key role in South Africa's contribution to ending the conflict in Burundi.

Yet for one of the key custodians of our Constitution and one who clearly has presidential ambitions, Zuma's conduct has been less than presidential.

He has hidden behind legalistic arguments, sought the protection of the party machinery and actively engaged in an unseemly public battle with the nation's chief prosecutor. To his credit, he has belatedly decided to use the constitutional structures and taken his gripes to the public protector. He has, without providing any evidence, characterised what seems a straightforward investigation as a conspiracy.

Unfortunately for Zuma the verdict of suitability to hold the office he occupies or to aspire to higher office will rest on his convincing the nation that he was within his rights to walk around town with enamel cups begging for hefty "loans" from business people. He will have to convince us that it is acceptable for public officials to leave the management of their finances in the hands of someone who is facing serious criminal charges. He will also have to justify his decision to become part of a campaign to undermine the credibility of an agency of state that he should be protecting.

For Zuma to improve his mark - or even to have the honour of appearing in this report card next year - he will have to become a tad more honest with South Africans.

Kader Asmal, Minister of Education -- Grade: B- (2002 B)

Minister of Education Kader Asmal's grand plan to reduce the number of tertiary institutions in the country by merging many of them has dominated education discourse this year.

The merger plan was consolidated with Asmal's announcement in October of the new names and the interim councils for the 21 new institutions.

But his cavalier response to criticism, from stakeholders and the media, and litigation against the mergers from some institutions has earned him a reputation for arrogance.

At the same time, it must be said that his energetic, hands-on approach to his portfolio and personal enthusiasm and concern about South African education is one of his greatest strengths as a minister, and one of the main reasons for his consistently high grades.

However, while the need to keep up the pace of transformation and delivery is undisputed, Asmal's hurried "delivery now and sustainability later" approach when he was the minister of water affairs and forestry has raised questions about the long-term viability of the new institutions.

A major achievement by his ministry this year was the School Financing Review, which scrutinised the issues of uneven school fees and high transport costs, among others. However, it remains for the ministry to act upon the review's recommendations.

The minister has achieved mixed results with his Further Education and Training (FET) programmes. Despite his having declared 2003 the year of FET, there is still no full outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum in place for grades 10, 11 and 12. This means those learners who received OBE education from grades one to nine, this year reverted in part to the old curriculum. On the plus side, the programme to get FET colleges - the new name for the old vocational training colleges - up and running seems to be taking shape.

Another mark against Asmal is the department's lethargy in tackling adult education. One in two South African adults is illiterate and does not enjoy a basic right to education. This continues to spoil Asmal's grade.

Asmal's success in boosting the 2002 matric results (the pass rate was 69%, a whopping 7% increase from the year before) must be recognised, although many stakeholders warn that the gap between the final year marks of secondary students and their ability to cope with the academic demands of university and other tertiary institutions is unrealistically wide.

These reservations indicate that confidence in the minister's ability to drive his big plans to a successful conclusion is waning and he is going to have to deliver on some of his rhetoric in the coming year to stop his grade from sliding further.

Ngconde Balfour, Minister of Sport and Recreation -- Grade: B (2002 F)

Every now and again someone surprises even the strictest of examiners. Last year Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour received an F on our annual report card: he was failing on all fronts and seemed a liability in the Cabinet.

But 2003 has seen Balfour a transformed man. He has dropped the bull-in-a-china-shop approach to his job; in fact, he has dropped most of the bull. Instead of sounding off on all sports-related topics before engaging his mind, and throwing his weight around whenever one of the codes under his supervision raised his ire, he has become a guiding hand behind the scenes, stepping in only when necessary.

He started the year being a model of diplomacy and the ultimate genial host at the cricket World Cup. Previous incarnations of Balfour might have leapt at the opportunity to get involved in some of the problems that bedevilled the tournament - such as England's refusal to play in Zimbabwe - but he wisely kept a low profile and largely let the cricket authorities sort things out. He could, perhaps, have tried a little harder to keep Percy Sonn in his trousers, but some things might be beyond even the best intentions.

Balfour's enthusiasm for his job - something conspicuously absent in several other members of the Cabinet - came to the fore when South Africa decided to bid to host the 2010 soccer World Cup. Without attempting to steal any of bid chief Danny Jordaan's thunder, Balfour has made world governing body Fifa well aware that this country is ready and able to host the showpiece and that the bid has full government backing.

And with Trevor Phillips back in charge of the Premier Soccer League, it seems to be getting its house in order.

But it is in his handling of rugby that Balfour's transformation is most apparent. After revelations of racism in the Springbok squad came to light he immediately instituted a commission of inquiry - something he is quite fond of doing - but allowed it to be postponed until early next year so that it would not be rushed or interrupt the players' preparations for the tournament.

This commission could confirm Balfour's new-found stature. If it manages to root out the racists and put rugby on a new path free of apartheid-style Kamp Staaldraads, who knows, he might be in line for top marks next year.

Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Minister of Home Affairs -- Grade: E (2002 C-)

The main reason for the drastic downgrading of the minister is simply that he has persistently failed to put aside his political differences with the rest of the Cabinet and get on with his chief responsibility - sorting out the Department of Home Affairs. The department is key to the government's plans to improve its administration and delivery of social and other services to South Africans.

An assessment of home affairs, released late this year by its new Director General, Barry Gilder, painted an unsurprisingly bleak picture of the department. Poor morale, paralysis caused by a long-running fight between the minister and his former director general, incompetence and corruption are the order of the day.

The department's biggest problem is lack of capacity. It has 7 500 positions but, Gilder says, a study shows that it needs 12 000 posts to run at full steam.

Mangosuthu Buthelezi has better reasons than most ministers for the mess in his department. He has only just emerged from a long-running battle with his previous director general, Billy Masetlha, who was appointed to his post by Mbeki, despite Buthelezi making it clear he wanted to appoint his own person. Ironically, Gilder, like his predecessor, is a former ANC man and a member of the South African intelligence services. Gilder was also appointed above Buthelezi's preferred candidate.

But, while there is seemingly a great deal of suspicion and political mistrust between Buthelezi, who is leader of the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party, and the rest of the ANC dominated Cabinet, most other ministers share his complaint that the national Treasury gives them only miserly budgets.

As minister responsible for the department, Buthelezi cannot only blame political differences with his director general and the rest of the Cabinet for the poor management of home affairs. Making sure their departments function as effectively as possible, despite political differences with many of their staff, has been the responsibility of every post-apartheid Cabinet minister.

Gilder has formulated a turn-around strategy for the department, but whether or not it succeeds will depend on whether he and Buthelezi can work together. If Buthelezi is to deserve to keep his post as minister of home affairs in the new Cabinet, he must be central to turning the department around. If the president is going to keep Buthelezi in the Cabinet for broader political reasons - like keeping the IFP in the government of national unity - then Buthelezi must be given a post where he can do what he is good at, acting as an elder statesman and representing the IFP, and not the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs -- Grade: B (2002 C-)

The significant improvement in the minister's grade reflects the improvement in the achievements of the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs in the past year.

Thoko Didiza's biggest success this year has been the department's budget expenditure. It spent 98% of its budget, with 79% of this going to land reform. Officials credit the improvement, which increased by 58% from last year, to Didiza's management. In the past eight months there has been a 197% increase in the number of hectares restored to claimants under the land restitution programme. This achievement is a result of prioritising rural claims, and not merely relying on "chequebook restitution", where the community receives no land, only money.

Though support for black farmers on newly gained land remains a problem, the minister has encouraged public-private partnerships to help the new farmers get on their feet. The bankrupt citrus farm Zebediela was turned into a success through such a partnership, after the farm was given back to black farmers.

But hundreds of hectares of fertile ground belonging to new land owners still lie unused, while they struggle to survive on the plots they can manage to farm. This should be an indication to the minister that a worrying amount of hard work remains before South Africa has a significant and sustainable class of small farmers.

It still remains to be seen whether the department will meet its target of distributing a third of the country's white-owned land by 2015. Even officials inside the department say it will be a formidable task. And, with organisations like the Landless People's Movement quick to latch on to the emotional issue of landownership to score political points, Didiza will feel the pressure once election time arrives.

Commercial farmers were encouraged by the way she fought at the Cancun round of world trade talks for the scrapping of government subsidies in developed countries. These subsidies make the goods of farmers from the US and the European Union unfairly cheap on world markets.

Didiza has come in for a lot of criticism on both the Communal Land Rights Bill, intended to secure the tenure of people living under traditional leaders, and the amendments to the Restitution Act, which will give her the right to expropriate land from difficult farmers.

Despite many amendments to both Bills, several interest groups are unhappy about the levels of consultation with interested parties. In both cases, Didiza faces accusations that the laws give her too much power.

However, in general she has a good relationship with interest groups in the agricultural sector, with whom she might not always see eye to eye. To her credit, she has an open-door policy and always invites constructive criticism.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs -- Grade: B (2002 C-)

Remember the ANC's first foreign minister, snoozing Alfred Nzo? Then do not snort at Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's grade B. Being nice (though it would make a refreshing change) was never a qualification for being effective in office and this minister has been effective, if never a candidate for a Ms Congeniality award.

From a foreign policy that depended on one man (a very big man, Nelson Mandela) South Africa has found its place in the world and its voice. This year the department led a spirited and right-minded opposition to the war on Iraq. Despite a trade pact with the US in the wings and a bi-national commission with the country, South Africa has consistently stated its opposition to the "war on terror" and its preference for multilateralism.

In the past year Dlamini-Zuma has boned up the country's South-South links - boosting ties with India, Brazil and China, all important allies. The department's budget has been restructured to strengthen relationships on the rest of the continent and with the emerging giants.

And this year Dlamini-Zuma finally appointed a Director General, Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, with whom she worked with at the Department of Health.

Dlamini-Zuma's position is more that of a lieutenant to Mbeki than a captain of her own ship and, as executor of his will, she is effective. With vigour (and a budget to match), she has put the nuts and bolts on Mbeki's pet project, the reinvigoration of the continent. This year the AU turned one and the minister handed over the reins to her Mozambican counterpart. She spent the year putting the first meat on the bones of the AU and achieved as much success as was practically possible: setting up its own administrative structures and getting the essential protocols ratified.

Moreover, the minister faced down the continental patriarchs who opposed a gender equity plan in the appointment of six AU commissioners who will run the union. Dlamini-Zuma is less even-handed on the government's foreign policy Achilles heel: Zimbabwe. No amount of evidence of the human rights abuses and the economic meltdown in the country shifts the minister from her position of solidarity and quiet diplomacy. If the minister wants to leave a legacy as a diplomat, she need not learn to be nice, but to be flexible and strategic.

Alec Erwin, Minister of Trade and Industry -- Grade: B (2002 D+)

Alec Ewin wears the exhausted look of a minister whose energy has been sapped by tireless campaigning for rules of world trade to be fairer for developing countries.

However, the result is that he is recognised internationally as a determined, hard-nosed trade negotiator who is leading the developing world in its efforts to ensure a rules-based international trade system. Immediately after the collapse of the Cancun round of the world trade talks he set about revitalising them by getting developing countries together to try to save efforts to open the global economy. If he succeeds, the medium- to long-term benefits to South Africa, an exporting economy, are significant.

But his department is responsible for so much more than sorting out the world trade system. Among others, it is charged with driving South Africa's BEE programme, its small business development initiatives - seen as key to tackling the country's chronic unemployment problem - and attracting foreign direct investment. With such a large number of programmes vital to the success of the country in the trade and industry portfolio, the department needs a skilled manager and administrator, not only a leading trade negotiator. It is the persistent weaknesses in the management of South Africa's industrial and small business development programmes, among others, that has resulted in Erwin not getting a higher grade, despite all his hard work.

On the home front, Erwin's greatest achievement this year was finally putting in place the Black Economic Empowerment Bill. The legislation spurred the creation of a number of individual industry transformation charters - like the Financial Services Charter - which clearly set out employment and equity targets for individual industries. This has resulted in some big empowerment deals in the mining and financial services sectors, among others, this year.

This was also a year of reckoning for the government's Motor Industry Development Programme. Whether the programme is a success or failure depends on who you ask. Supporters point out that motor vehicle exports have grown from 12% of total exports in 1996 to 24% in the first nine months of this year. Yet critics point out that it has done nothing as spectacular for jobs. The department also took strides in the flagging area of attracting fixed investment. This year the department approved 20 strategic investment programmes with a total value of R26-billion, commencing commercial production between March this year and September 2005. These are expected to create 3 000 direct and 57 000 indirect jobs.

The development of small, medium and micro-enterprises continues to be a headache. For its part, the department stimulates the sector by promoting procurement policies geared towards small business and has put the Small Business Bill through Parliament. But some say progress in this crucial area remains too slow.

Erwin has totally failed to come to grips with the liquor Bill, frequently coming under attack from brewers. At issue, among other things, is how best to make beer legally and more widely available in townships, where a high proportion of clear beer is consumed. There is also the matter of breaking the three-tier system that allows entities to be involved in wholesale, retail and distribution arms of the business.

This is another example of where Erwin and his department have not been able to intervene quickly and efficiently in an important local industry that can create jobs and stimulate local enterprise.

The Department of Trade and Industry's morale-battering restructuring exercise, which has dragged on for years, is said to be complete and it is now in a period of "consolidation". Unfortunately, the department has not shown the necessary improvement in dealing with South Africa's trade and industry issues to earn a significant mark-up for the minister.

Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration Grade: C (2002 C+)

A tough minister with a clear vision, it has been a relatively good year for Minister of Public Services and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, although she has still not succeeded in streamlining South Africa's largely inert and wasteful public service. This is why her grade remains stuck at C.

It seems the civil servant unions have worn her down, and she has resisted union-bashing in her efforts to restructure the public service. Instead she has worked with labour, albeit incredibly slowly, to implement a restructuring agreement signed last year.

The agreement is supposed to match personnel to the human resources and skills needs of the public service. The end result is supposed to be a smaller, more highly skilled public service.

Those officials who don't make the cut can either receive training and be redeployed in other positions in the public service or apply for voluntary severance packages. The agreement has stabilised the public service and provided a framework for its restructuring, but it is still overstaffed, underskilled and expensive to maintain - there are about 1,06-million national and provincial public servants in South Africa who cost the country R111-billion in salaries last year.

However, as things stand, the public service is a harbinger for employment equity - 68% of its management is black and 26% are women. About 0,1% are disabled. Fraser-Moleketi has set a target for 2005 of 75% black management, 30% women managers and 2% disabled people.

A blotch in her copybook is that 20% of the vaunted Senior Management Service failed to declare their financial interests under asset register requirements. The minister is now trying to extend this service to middle management.

Fraser-Moleketi has been an ardent anti-corruption campaigner in the public service, although the National Anti-Corruption Forum, established to weed out the bad apples among civil servants, has been described as "a singular failure".

Anti-corruption interventions that have been approved by the Cabinet for implementation next year include a national public service anti-corruption hotline and procedures for all departments to deal with corrupt officials.

The interim management team, which Fraser-Moleketi, among others, sent to the Eastern Cape to sort out corruption and maladministration in the provincial government has achieved notable successes.

Fraser-Moleketi has also moved swiftly on Mbeki's promise in his State of the Nation address in February that the "government will create a public service echelon of multi-skilled community development workers" by implementing a skills programme called the Community Development Worker Programme in four provinces - Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West and Limpopo - with the hope of rolling it out into other provinces later.

Dragging down her mark is the minister's continued heavy reliance on outside consultants, at great cost to the state. After 10 years of capacity development programmes the minister needs to take a close look at why the public service still cannot take care of its own needs.

Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry -- Grade: C+ (2002 B)

Despite continuing the drive to provide millions of South Africans with access to clean water and proper sanitation with as much energy as ever, the minister's grade has slipped because of the sloppy way his department has handled the political controversy and popular confusion around charges and payment for water.

Kasrils is committed to providing poor South Africans with a basic water supply, but in many communities people have not realised that there is a limit to the free water allowance. The minister, perhaps correctly, insists that people who use more than their free basic allowance have to pay - and if they don't, they will face restrictions.

However, in communities like Soweto people are angry and confused about the costs of a privately operated pre-paid water system. The confusion has opened the door for organisations such as the Anti-Privatisation Forum to win popular support and gain political capital by insisting that the government provide the country's poor with clean water at no cost.

Five million people in South Africa still need access to a basic water supply and about 18-million people live without adequate sanitation.

But Kasrils gets good marks for dealing with the difficult task of transferring responsibility for the provision of services, like water, to local government. The ministry had to improve the efficiency of water and sanitation services in many municipalities. To smooth the transition the minister oversaw the drawing-up of a White Paper on Water Services, which outlines the changing role of local and national government in the provision of water over the next 10 years.

Perhaps his tenure has been too "water heavy" and not enough attention has been given to the forestry portfolio. However, Kasrils has highlighted the need to protect indigenous forests and the importance of urban greening.

Mosiuoa Lekota, Minister of Defence -- Grade: D (2002 D+)

Regrettably, Lekota's grade has slipped in the past year. Whatever public relations successes he has achieved this year in relation to the arms deal (at least the navy's first corvette has finally arrived) has been offset by his personal woes.

Lekota is, of course, the minister discovered by the M&G to have neglected to declare his personal interest in two Free State businesses, a fuel retailer and a wine co-op.

However, the open and honest way he dealt with the revelations has helped his grade defy gravity. Once his interests had been revealed he admitted fault and submitted himself to Parliament's admittedly lenient discipline.

The fundamental problems with the Department of Defence identified last year have not really been addressed in any vigorous way -and may even have gotten slightly worse. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is probably even more overstretched and under-resourced than before, notwithstanding a modest increase in the defence budget. The deployment of troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Burundi continues to drain military resources, with only roughly a third of the cost being refunded to the SANDF. The squeeze on spending is likely to remain critical, given the complementary needs to retrench those who are too old or unfit for active service, and to bring in significant numbers of young soldiers.

The new weapons systems that are starting to arrive are also likely to bring unbudgeted operating costs. And the vital importance of peace and stability to any prospect of success for Nepad means the peacekeeping and peacemaking demands on the SANDF are likely to increase. In the face of these problems, Lekota has remained rather detached from the department. One of his few interventions - to back Secretary of Defence January Masilela in a turf war against SANDF chief Siphiwe Nyanda - is regarded as counter-productive.

Military analysts say the balance of power between the SANDF and the civilian defence secretariat has swung too far in favour of the secretariat. "Masilela doesn't have the necessary leadership and management skills," said one. "There urgently needs to be a new White Paper on defence and a new Defence Review so that the department can refocus."

Coordination between the Department of Defence and the Presidency as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs could still be improved. However, on the positive side, Lekota has strengthened South Africa's military relations with the Southern African Development Community and a mutual defence pact was signed this year. Progress, at least at the policy level, has been made with regard to the establishment of an African Standby Force. While Aids activists have squawked about it, Lekota's new stance of rejecting HIV-positive recruits to the defence force is regarded as bringing a welcome injection of realism and resolve into defence policy.

Penuell Maduna, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development -- Grade: C (2002 C+)

Any assessment of Penuell Maduna is overshadowed by his announcement earlier this year of his intention to quit active politics after the coming election.

If some reports are to be believed, Maduna's departure as a career politician was largely precipitated by his fallout with Zuma and his support for Ngcuka over the investigations into the alleged shenanigans with regard to the country's multibillion-rand arms deal. If that is so, the minister deserves an A for standing up to the political powers that be, and for defending institutions under his department. It was refreshing to have a senior politician sticking to his guns in defence of what he believed was the right thing.

Maduna is not an angel, though. His having called his Deputy Director General, Mike Tshishonga, a "dunderhead inherited from the bantustan" says much about his tendency to shoot his mouth off when decorum befitting a man in his office would have been more appropriate. Tshishonga had accused Maduna of "undermining the rule of law" by intervening in favour of his friend Enver Motala in certain liquidations, notably the messy winding-up of Retail Apparel Group. Tshishonga later backed down.

On the plus side, some devastating straight talk from the justice minister when he tackled criminals appealed to many South Africans fearful of the felons apparently intent on undermining the rule of law in the country.

Maduna has also proved himself capable of more than talk. While the justice system in general continues to creak and totter and generally be inefficient - causing much unnecessary pain to those victims, criminals and innocents it grinds - specialised courts, such as those dealing with commercial crime and domestic violence, are achieving relatively impressive conviction rates. However, the massive weaknesses in South Africa's justice system make these achievements pale into insignificance.

A blot in what has generally been a good year for the ministry was that not enough attention seems to have been paid to making some courts more accessible to the public. For example, the equality courts are still relatively unknown despite [theoretically] being in operation for six months. And another year will end without the promised, and legislated, unit that will trace fathers who default on maintenance payments.

Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance -- Grade: A (2002 B-)

Trevor Manuel used some of the goodwill he has built up in recent years in 2003. He shrugged off three setbacks that would have meant disaster for many other ministries.

First, the strengthening of the rand meant the erosion of company profits and thus tax receipts for the Treasury. Then the government had to admit that the proceeds from privatisation will be nowhere near what was initially anticipated. Finally, the department lost a star performer in director general Maria Ramos, who left to take up the position of Transnet CEO.

Through all this Manuel was unfazed, and instead took calculated gambles.

Unveiling the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, he showed a change in thinking on economic management. The budget deficit will be allowed to grow to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), after years of tight control, and funds will be made available to strengthen the country's social security and development programmes. The government has reduced its dependence on privatisation proceeds and will now instead go to the bond market and borrow R23-billion more in the next few years. A successful $1-billion bond issue followed last year's similar exercise on the European market and showed continued international approval of the country's economic management policies.

On the domestic front Manuel chose his battles carefully. Last year he clashed continually with Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni over banking supervision, which Manuel wants removed from the central bank and brought under a single super-regulator. This year the issue of a single regulator was kept off the agenda, and Manuel and Mboweni were comrades in arms, defiantly refusing to intervene to weaken the strengthening rand.

Yet Manuel had a few interesting skirmishes this year. Former Registrar of Banks Christo Wiese blamed the collapse of Saambou partly on the Treasury. Manuel also has frequent court dates with Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, who recently accused him of misleading a court by stating that loan agreements he signed were not related to the arms deal. Continued...

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