ZUMA TO MAKE HUGE CHANGES IN HIS CABINET

President Jacob Zuma is set to make a number of cabinet changes following the endorsement of his leadership by ANC branches this week quote Zuma, who was perceived to have lost support within the ANC ... turned the tables on his biggest critic, Julius Malema quote


He is expected to hold individual meetings with ministers when he returns from a visit to Brussels next month.

Zuma has consistently refused to say whether he is planning to make changes to his executive, but in his closing speech to the ANC's national general council meeting in Durban he indicated that changes were in the pipeline.

"We emphasise that laziness, lack of commitment and failure to deliver by those entrusted with serving our people will not be tolerated," he said.

Among those who might be axed or moved are:

ýMinister of public service and administration Richard Baloyi - for his mishandling of the public sector strike;

ýMinister of intelligenceSiyabonga Cwele. Although no reason has been given for Cwele's possible removal, a number of ANC leaders believehe would be better suited to a different ministry;

ýMinister of women, youth, children and the disabled Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya - who is said to have failed to provide political direction to her ministry. The ANC Women's League is particularly unhappy over her failure to consult them; and

ýMinister of correctional servicesNosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. The consensus is she has been unable to turn around the troubled department.

Top officials in the government and the ANC say Zuma has been planning a reshuffle for some time, but first wanted to gauge the mood at the Durban meeting.

Yesterday the spokesman for Baloyi, Dumisani Nkwamba, said: "Cabinet reshuffles are a prerogative of the president. The minister can't know. He therefore cannot comment on speculation."

The spokesmen for Mapisa-Nqakula and Cwele were not available for comment at the time going to press, and a spokesman for Mayende-Sibiya was also unreachable.

Zuma, who was perceived to have lost support in the ANC before this week's meeting, turned the tables on his biggest critic, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, who failed to win support for a new leadership platform and a commitment to the nationalisation of mines.

Delegates called on Zuma and the ANC's national executive committee to be more decisive in dealing with issues of discipline in the party and service delivery by the government.

In his closing remarks on Friday, Zuma promised delegates he would act against non-performers. Quoting a speech he made on January 8, Zuma said: "Where people are found to be incapable of performing the tasks assigned to them, we must work with speed to either capacitate such people or replace them with more capable people."

Minister of monitoring and evaluation Collins Chabane, who is based in the presidency, told the Sunday Times the president would soon hold individual meetings with ministers to discuss performance issues.

Chabane said ministers had signed performance agreements with Zuma in June and some had also signed delivery agreements with his ministry.

Hesaid the agreements were based on 12 priority outcomes on service delivery.

The president said on Friday that the national general council had helped him understand where the weaknesses in government lay, and "strengthened our resolve to improve the performance of the state".

While the Durban meeting was a victory for Zuma, it was disastrous for Malema and his bid to have the deputy minister of police, Fikile Mbalula, appointed the party's secretary-general.

If a proposal made at the council is acted upon by the ANC NEC, Mbalula may soon be forced to publicly distance himself from the youth league's campaign to have him replace Gwede Mantashe.

The party is working on a code of conduct compelling NEC members to denounce those who campaign for positions in their name. (See page 4)

Although the youth league did score some successes - forcing the ANC to put the nationalisation issue on its agenda ahead of the 2012 national elective conference - its members met with general hostility.

A heated debate on nationalisation on Thursday night almost resulted in Malema and other league members storming the stage because they were unhappy with the summary by the minister of justice, Jeff Radebe, of a resolution on the issue.

The league felt Radebe had "watered down" the agreement, and charged, singing and pointing fingers at ANC leaders, towards the stage, causing pandemonium among security personnel and party chiefs.

It took deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala to calm Malema and his supporters.

Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile apologised on behalf of all the provincial chairmen to ANC leaders on Friday.

Although the apology was accepted by the house, delegates shouted down youth league secretary-general Vuyiswa Tulelo when she asked that the league be allowed to address the gathering on the issue.

Youth league spokesman Magdalene Moonsamy denied that the league had stormed the stage, saying the group had simply "approached" the stage to raise their concerns about Radebe's summary.

She said what the league did was not "abnormal" and that "the stage is not off limits".