The hunt is on for a director-general (DG) at the National Treasury following the departure of Dondo Mogajane.
They are big shoes to fill — over the years those who have held the post include Lesetja Kganyago (now governor of the SA Reserve Bank), Maria Ramos and Lungisa Fuzile. Progressive academic Andrew Donaldson was deputy DG from 2001 to 2017.
While it has been argued that a politically astute appointee is required, the Treasury’s political leadership — finance minister Enoch Godongwana and deputy minister David Masondo — are more than capable of handling that aspect.
What is needed is a steady, experienced hand to steer the crucial government department through turbulent times. This will be easier said than done, given the turmoil in the institution in recent years and the failure of the current administration to fix the damage.
During the tumultuous tenure of former president Jacob Zuma, the intent was clear: to bring the Treasury to heel. We now know why. Control of the state’s purse strings was crucial to the state capture project, as was made abundantly clear when parliamentary backbencher and Gupta lackey David Des van Rooyen was appointed finance minister late in 2015 — mercifully just for the weekend.
His appointment was preceded by the Project Spider Web smear campaign against such people as Ramos and former long-serving finance minister Trevor Manuel.
Aside from fiddling with ministers to have a Gupta-controlled puppet at the helm of the Treasury, Zuma also weakened the Treasury’s central role in setting economic policy. At one point, Zuma appointed the then minister of rural development & land reform, Gugile Nkwinti, to chair the economics cluster.
Sadly, President Cyril Ramaphosa has done little to undo the damage — he has not moved to restore a cohesive government core for formulating economic policy
There was a deliberate fragmentation of economic policy-making, which had under Thabo Mbeki been centralised in the presidency and the Treasury. Recall the attempt, under Zuma, to bring the budgeting process under the control of Jeff Radebe, who was minister in the presidency at the time. Zuma effectively reduced the role the Treasury played in steering economic policy.
Sadly, President Cyril Ramaphosa has done little to undo the damage — he has not moved to restore a cohesive government core for formulating economic policy.
Independent economist Thabi Leoka says Mbeki understood the importance of economic policy as central to growth. An economist himself, he centralised it “almost to the point of encroaching on it”. But that was not necessarily a bad thing.
Since then, there has been no effort to co-ordinate economic policy across the various departments: finance, trade & industry, labour, agriculture, telecommunications. There has to be a concerted effort to do this, says Leoka.
“We are not getting that or seeing that. There is a loose unco-ordinated effort everywhere … the fragmentation results in an economy that is not co-ordinated in terms of moving forward,” she says.
“Things are falling apart because there is no co-ordinated economic policy or strategy … and this leads to so many more failures. It pushes policymakers to adopt haphazard policies with little or no long-term gain.”
While this is a problem with the government as a whole and Ramaphosa in particular, it still requires a strong Treasury to help turn the ship around.
But the Treasury of 2022 has lost much of the institutional knowledge and depth it once had, thanks to Zuma’s machinations. These culminated in the appointment of fashionista and alleged Gupta enabler Malusi Gigaba, who pranced into the Treasury with an entourage of 16 people when he replaced Pravin Gordhan in 2017.
There was an exodus of skills and experience at the time and while insiders say the incumbent officials are bright, committed and talented, the experience deficit compared with the Treasury’s heyday is obvious.
For instance, when Fuzile was appointed DG in 2011, he had already been with the Treasury for nearly 13 years after joining in 1998. When deputy Bank governor Kuben Naidoo was appointed as a deputy DG of the Treasury, he had already worked in the institution for 11 years.
Even the captured Brian Molefe was a strong Treasury hand, until his Guptafication under Zuma
Young Treasury officials back then benefited from the mentorship of the likes of current acting DG Ismail Momoniat — who himself has a wealth of experience — Kganyago, Donaldson and many others. Even the captured Brian Molefe was a strong Treasury hand, until his Guptafication under Zuma.
Now, however, other than Momoniat — who only has a few years left before retirement — there are few who can provide that sort of mentorship.
In addition, since Manuel ended his 13-year tenure, the turnover of finance ministers has been rapid. And Godongwana’s predecessor Tito Mboweni was seen by many as aloof and absent.
Godongwana and Masondo should ideally be allowed a good few years in office to grow the institution’s capacity and ensure that the store of knowledge once held by the Treasury can be rebuilt. But for this to happen, Ramaphosa has to re-establish a central core of government economic policy-making.
The Treasury remains a long way from rehabilitation; appointing the right DG will represent a strong start.
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