Derek Hanekom

Minister of Science and Technology

Grade: Too soon to grade

Naledi Pandor left big shoes to fill, but for once the reshuffle went the path of continuity and a man who has been in the department for nearly a decade was picked for the top job.

Even though Derek Hanekom took over the department - one of the smallest but most vibrant portfolios - just a few months ago, he appears to be doing a great job.

His biggest task occurs behind the scenes where his department runs pilot programmes - such as cutting out books by giving students tablets - that he then champions to bigger departments, such as basic education. Similar interventions are being run with all delivery-orientated departments that might otherwise not have the skills and funding to run pilots. With his nearly two decades in powerful positions, Hanekom has the political acumen for the job.

With Pandor securing the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and overseeing the all-important ministerial review into the science, technology and innovation landscape, it will be hard for Hanekom to grab the headlines the way she did. But he has to ensure that the work continues. The first phase of the SKA is on track, but he will have to work hard to ensure the required international funding comes in for the bigger stages.

His department also needs to push further into the realm of education. Hanekom`s ferocious public appearance schedule does show that he is out there championing science in education. And a plethora of bursaries are giving critical opportunities to students. But his department - and the country - desperately needs quality science and mathematics education.

Hanekom has several pet projects in the department. None is more important to him than palaeontology. Officially, palaeontology resides under other departments, but Hanekom has given it the love and attention it needs in South Africa`s fossil-rich landscape. And he needs to keep championing this heritage.

However, because Hanekom only recently assumed the post, it is probably too early to rate his performance.

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This year's grade: N/A
Last year's grade: N/A

Richard Baloyi

Minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs

The only reason Richard Baloyi should not immediately be frogmarched out of his office is the traditional affairs part of the job. At a time when traditional leaders are keen to reassert themselves and being frustrated in their ambitions, he has quietly managed to keep a lid on things.

We may also have been tempted to give him extra credit for having only been in the job for little more than a year - in a position in which things move slowly - but Baloyi brought his problems with him. While in charge of the public service he magnificently bungled negotiations with government workers` unions, saddling the treasury with a wage bill it can ill afford. In his new position it is the employers rather than the employees who are out-manoeuvring him, allowing the South African Local Government Association to block long-planned initiatives.

Baloyi`s delays in finalising regulations and his broken promises in doing so have prevented two critical changes from taking place in local government: blocking political party office bearers from running municipalities and demanding minimum standards of training and experience of those who do manage local �governments. Those changes may not fix the many, many things that are broken at local government level, but they would be a start. Allowing those who fall under his oversight to prevent implementation has instead marked a bad start to Baloyi`s tenure.

While the minister fiddles, municipalities continue to decline. It is best evidenced by the number of service delivery protests versus audit reports - although neither is pretty.

At provincial level, things are no better. Limpopo is not so much co-operating with the national government as fighting a low-level war with what parts of the provincial government view as an occupying force. The relationship between the national executive and the Western Cape also deteriorated over the past year as the ANC and Democratic Alliance fought their political battles, and we have little faith that Baloyi can keep the two in a working relationship.

Our suggestion: let him look after the traditional leaders and give the important part of the job to somebody with the necessary qualifications and experience and without political baggage - the same requirements he is supposed to impose on municipal managers.

This year's grade: F
Last year's grade: F

Collins Chabane

Minister in the Presidency, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

This department was established by President Jacob Zuma in 2009 after an ANC resolution taken in Polokwane to hold the government to account and ensure it met targets of the five key priorities of government: education, rural development, housing, job creation and crime.

It falls under the presidency and helps the executive to monitor and evaluate itself.

Since its inception in April 2010, the department has put in place a number of monitoring and evaluation processes. Despite this, Collins Chabane has been criticised for failing to ensure that ministers and departments perform to their expectations. He has also been criticised for not properly communicating the government`s service delivery record and successes.

However, it has become evident that the department does not have a mandate to sanction ministers and departments and is limited to identifying areas in which government programmes are working or failing.

There is no legislation for performance management provisions for the executive and it remains the prerogative of the president and the premiers, who appoint MECs.

The department`s mechanisms are opaque and include implementation forums in which ministers and senior officials discuss quarterly reports that examine data across the government to identify bottlenecks. Senior officials believe it will take time for the culture of monitoring and evaluation to take root in the government.

One tool the department uses is unannounced visits to government departments. They are aimed at demonstrating to departments that on-site monitoring should be used to inform improvements. Repeat visits are carried out and in some cases there have been marked improvements. The department published a mid-term review of progress in 2012.

The department also manages the presidential hotline, which it says has an 87% case-resolution rate.

Chabane`s department submits its reports to the Cabinet once a year, but there is still a sense that, despite all this work, we see little in the way of results from it.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: E

Siyabonga Cwele

Minister of State Security

Perhaps this minister should get some credit for not being Cecil Burgess, chairperson of the joint standing committee on intelligence.

Burgess attempted to infuse the practice of intelligence oversight with some kind of paint-on patriotism �- unpleasantly sticky, but thin and unable to hide the decay under the superficial brushwork.

Given that Siyabonga Cwele was catapulted from the same position of relative obscurity - he held the position Burgess now occupies - to take over one of the most powerful positions in Cabinet, we can be thankful that he continues to enjoy the confidence of President Jacob Zuma.

There is not a lot else to celebrate.

The Protection of State Information Bill rumbles on. The most contested piece of legislation of the democratic era, its gradual, if flawed, improvement has been achieved despite the obduracy of the ministry.

The "technical amendments" of the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill have been recognised, even by the minister`s own MPs, for the far-reaching power shifts it entails. For now, the legislation is stalled.

After a year, the abrupt departures of the country`s top three spies �- the director general of the State Security Agency and the heads of its domestic and foreign branches - have been neither explained nor remedied. All three positions remain filled in an acting capacity, although it should be acknowledged that ministerial adviser and acting director general Dennis Dlomo appears to be energetic and professional.

It is clear that the main security threats to South Africa are those that require political acknowledgement and response.

Given that, it is worrying that the agency appeared so unprepared for the platinum-belt revolt and the minister has done nothing to address the concern about the politicisation of the service.

On the contrary, there are indications that the agency`s cadet programme is being abused by a kind of Zulufication effort.

This year's grade: E
Last year's grade: F

Robert Davies

Minister of Trade and Industry

Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies has had a fair amount to deal with in 2012.

Firstly there was the matter of dealing with Consumer Commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala, who was determined to fight against being replaced even though many saw her as a divisive figure.

Then there was the controversy over labeling legislation for Israeli products from occupied territories, which caused an expected stink.

Another major challenge was the debacle surrounding the Estate Agency Affairs Board.

Some stakeholders feel that Davies was not decisive enough when dealing with these problems in 2012, however others were more satisfied with his performance.

One insisted that unlike Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, "he actually lets his DG [director general] do his job".

Another stakeholder pointed to the decisive action he took around the Consumer Tribunal where he appointed a full time Tribunal chair, which gives the organisation stability.

Regulations to deal with BEE fronting were seen as another positive step in 2012.

A look at the trade and industry department`s targets for 2012 in the Budget Vote from the Medium Term Budget suggests that the department is not having problems exceeding targets set for it.

In 2012 the department was meant to provide R20-million to 20 industrial innovation projects, it ploughed R49.9-million into 26 projects, in just the first six months of the financial year.

The department has also already offered support to 38 of its targeted 40 technology incubators in 2012.

However support for black business supplier development and export market businesses are way behind targets and both are areas where the department needs to pull up its socks.

On the international front trade missions and government-to-government platforms are also well ahead of target in 2012, with both the minister and deputy minister playing very active roles.

However there have been constant criticisms that South Africa`s industrial policy is not adequate and that often there is very little political will to deal with obvious interventions that target bottlenecks and could substantially impact on job creation.

One key challenge that Davis will have to deal with next year is getting South Africa`s special economic zones working as they were conceived, with all three SEZ`s performing very badly at present.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: C

Bathabile Dlamini

Minister of Social Development

Minister Bathabile Dlamini hardly needs a report card to reflect her performance: this year many charities reduced services or faced closure because of funding shortages. These included well-established organisations such as Rape Crisis.

The cash strapped organisations deliver services the government is legally and constitutionally bound to provide, including services to children, women, the elderly, those addicted to substances, the disabled, and those affected by HIV and Aids.

Reacting to the funding crisis, Dlamini`s department held provincial road shows culminating in a national summit in August. This cost R1.6-million.

Two major representative bodies for welfare organisations were sceptical: the National Coalition for Social Services, which represents over 3 000 organisations, and the National Association of Welfare Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations, with 800 member organisations, doubted the effectiveness of the department`s campaign. It is understandable, since both organisations have been lobbying the department without success for years to improve funding for non-profits.

The summit produced a string of resolutions and plans for a task team to develop an action plan. The fruits are yet to be seen. Money is being spent to find out what we already know: Dlamini`s department needs to provide welfare organisations with more money. She however appears incapable of lobbying Treasury for more funds. This would explain why the Treasury has now approached the National Coalition of Social Services to assist with its own research into the funding crisis.

On the bright side, the South African Social Security Agency - responsible for dispersing social grants - paid grants to 15.6-million people in the 2011/2012 financial year, up 4.42% from the previous year. This was despite the North Gauteng High Court ruling in August that Sassa illegally awarded the R10-billion tender to deliver these social grants to Cash Paymaster Services.

Even though the grant system is working well, it is not a replacement for non-profit organisations who deliver specialised services to those in need.

This year's grade: F
Last year's grade: D

Malusi Gigaba

Minister of Public Enterprises

Malusi Gigaba was always going to be proactive regarding the state-owned enterprises, and he is developing a reputation as a hard taskmaster. But there are concerns that his department lacks the skills to oversee the very large organisations in his portfolio, contributing to an already extensive bureaucratic burden on these companies.

The majority of the SAA board members quit under a cloud, complaining about a lack of shareholder support. They were followed rapidly by its chief executive officer and two other senior executives. SAA`s �subsidiary, SA Express, received a qualified audit and its financials, which were incorrect, had to be retracted from Parliament. This resulted in its board being replaced as well.

Following the SAA fracas Gigaba made the questionable appointment of Dudu Myeni, as chair of the new board. Myeni is a known Jacob Zuma ally, who was reinstated in her position at the Mhlathuze Water Board, despite a divisive record at the institution.

The largest state-owned enterprises and those most integral to the government`s infrastructure ambitions, Transnet and Eskom, are for now running relatively well. But Eskom is losing its finance director, Paul O`Flaherty - another high-profile exit at a critical time - although he will remain with the company until July next year.

Despite capacity constraints, the department maintained its record of clean audits.

It is establishing a unit to oversee very large capital expenditure projects run by the state-owned enterprises and provide additional oversight. This is largely a reaction to the shambles linked to Transnet`s new multiproduct pipeline and follows a ministerial review that found many "systemic failings" in the project. The full report, which explained why the cost of the pipeline more than doubled in recent years, was not made public in a bid to protect Transnet`s reputation, but it has only served to raise more questions.

A firm believer in using the entities to lead state development, Gigaba has been actively involved in the presidential infrastructure co-ordinating committee, which is streamlining the planning of government projects. It has been sorely needed, but the private sector is complaining that the rolling out of new infrastructure projects is proceeding too slowly.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: C

Pravin Gordhan

Minister of Finance

Pravin Gordhan has managed to maintain fiscal discipline and inflation-targeting in the midst of tough global conditions, which is impressive. He has also earned praise for his measures to clamp down on public debt in his medium-term budget policy statement, sending a message to investors and credit-rating agencies that South Africa intends following a prudent fiscal path, which includes reducing the government`s debt.

Unfortunately, the treasury`s downward revision of South Africa`s gross domestic product growth rates, to 2.5% from 2.7% on his watch, raises concerns about the country`s long-term growth.

Gordhan continues to take a strong stance on corruption. His intervention in some provinces has exposed weaknesses in the government`s supply chains and sent a strong message to officials about the national government`s intolerance of corruption. Whether the intervention will address systemic problems remains to be seen.

Gordhan`s serious weakness has been his inability to influence economic policy,

particularly in terms of economic and regulatory reform. This raises questions about who is in the cockpit of the economy.

Gordhan has been seriously hampered by ideological battles in the Cabinet and noticeable differences of opinion with tripartite alliance partners around policy. This is demonstrated by the minister`s calls for regulatory reform and the reduction of red tape for small businesses, which have largely been ignored.

The Gauteng e-toll dispute and opposition by Cosatu to Gordhan`s calls for labour market reforms to increase job creation are also cases in point, as is his failure to implement the youth wage subsidy in April as planned, again because of opposition from Cosatu.

Adverse findings by the auditor general with regard to the treasury`s audit outcomes over the past four years continue to be an embarrassment. It means the treasury is not leading by example with regard to reporting to the compliance framework it set up.

On a positive note, the minister`s banking regulatory model has been well received and is expected to be implemented in the next year and a half.

This will result in separate institutional and consumer regulations with the treasury retaining responsibility for overall policy implementation.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: B

Tina Joemat-Pettersson

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Tina Joemat-Pettersson is on a mission to uncover corruption in fisheries and it could turn out to be an unhealthy obsession because proof of malfeasance still has to be unveiled. In the meantime she has lost many of her staff, who have either resigned or been suspended, and the bitter disputes seem to be impacting on delivery. It still remains to be seen whether a plan for the vital implementation of the long-term fishing rights allocation process in this sector will be timeously concluded.

Some of her decisions have been unpopular with marine experts, especially when she handed over the state`s marine patrol and research vessels to the navy after a wrangle over the tender process for the management of the boats. There was an outcry when there was an oil spill from a Turkish bulk carrier off Bloubergstrand in Cape Town and four of the vessels equipped to break up oil slicks were inexplicably found to be sitting idle without crew in Simon`s Town harbour.

While her department met only 20% of its set targets, yet managed to spend 99% of its budget, it also came under fire from the auditor general, who found that irregular expenditure amounted to R6.1-million and fruitless and wasteful expenditure to R12.2-million.

Although it is said that Joemat-Pettersson does not like to visit Parliament when summoned to appear, she seems to be happiest taking Parliament to the people. The minister regularly attends public engagements and imbizos with representatives from the fishing, forestry and agriculture department to try and understand their needs. Meeting with agricultural bodies and unions on how they can play a bigger role towards assisting government with eradicating food security in households has been on her list of priorities. And while some have accused her of political opportunism, she was not afraid to put on her jackboots and wade into the violent labour dispute in the wine and table grape farming areas of the Western Cape, threatening to impose a new minimum wage structure for farm workers.

This year's grade: D
Last year's grade: E

Trevor Manuel

Minister of Planning

This is almost certainly the last report card we will ever write for Trevor Manuel, the Cabinet minister who has earned the most consistently high scores from us over nearly two decades in government.

He has declined nomination for the ANC`s national executive committee and there wasn`t a single �senior government or party official at Mangaung who was prepared to bet that he would still be in government come April. The temptation, then, is to write a valedictory report on his career in office, from the rand-rattling days of his "amorphous markets" comment through the tough love (and tougher alliance politics) of the growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) years and the expansionary

drive of the boom years leading up to 2008. We would give him high marks for building the best department in the government by a country mile, for budgetary transparency and predictability, for creating the fiscal space that has helped South Africa to weather the worst of the global downturn and for protecting the Reserve Bank`s independence.

But we would call him on some of the unanticipated costs of Gear, notably the late decision to invest in electricity infrastructure, hospitals and schools. The report card isn`t a place to do that analysis in detail, but it is worth a brief reflection because Manuel`s signature tune as finance minister is echoed in his work as the minister in the presidency in charge of the national planning commission.

To be fair, assembling a team of crack, broadly ANC-aligned brains to deliver a vision of the road to 2030 is an easier (and no doubt more enjoyable) job than fixing broken schools or parastatals, but Manuel has had to do hard political work to make the plan the centre of ruling party policy while also getting it adopted by the business community and the opposition.

The plan is the most credible one on the table, offering open, flexible and competitive policies with strong social protections and a large investment in human capacity. Although it has been somewhat diluted by political horse-trading, it still offers a clear way forward. We`re sorry that Manuel won`t be around to ensure it gets more than lip service from those in the government and the ANC who have reluctantly accepted it.

This year's grade: A
Last year's grade: C

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

Minister of Defence and Military Veterans

Grade: Too soon to grade

A little more than six months ago, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula inherited a desk that must have been groaning under the weight of unresolved issues left behind by Lindiwe Sisulu. She has not made great strides in resolving many of those issues, but her approach shows promise.

VIP flights continue to haunt defence, but Mapisa-Nqakula`s willingness to feed Sisulu to the parliamentary wolves on her extensive use of luxury jets worked out well for her. It established her as tough enough for the job (sadly still a test that a woman in charge of the military must pass) and as willing to be responsive to Parliament (something her predecessor notoriously was not).

The cancellation of the procurement of a new aeroplane for use by President Jacob Zuma technically did not come under her watch, but sorting out the mess that is VIP aeroplanes and their use will be entirely up to her - and may come to define her term, unfair as that would be.

However, her grade here is determined by her actual performance to date, and that has not been sparkling. Mapisa-Nqakula has been treading water, showing little sign of having solutions for anything from infighting at board level at the state-owned Armscor to the fundamental dysfunction of the military. When the department of defence itself admits that redeploying soldiers to borders has left the army unable to adequately protect the country against attack, we would hope for a minister with a clear plan - and the ability to get her troops to fall in line behind it.

Her handling of a defence review that painted a grim picture of the state of readiness of the defence forces also falls short. If she has been advocating and lobbying for the increase in military spending required to plug the holes - an increase that will be unpopular, to say the least - she has managed to keep it remarkably well hidden.

But the most disappointing part of her tenure has been the panicked response to an announcement that axed ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema would speak to a small group of disgruntled, suspended soldiers. A minister of defence who shows little faith in her commanders` ability to maintain discipline in the face of a labour dispute is worrying. One who subsequently does nothing to improve that discipline is worse.

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This year's grade: N/A
Last year's grade: N/A

Dikobe Ben Martins

Minister of Transport

Grade: Too soon to grade

Dikobe Ben Martins was thrust into the fire as the thorny issue of e-tolling reached a climax. A mid-year Cabinet reshuffle hoisted Sibusiso Ndebele out of the hot seat at the transport ministry and Martins, a poet and artist, into it.

Martins, a former deputy minister of public enterprises, did manage to bring the legislation required for the implementation of e-tolling to Parliament. On December 13, the North Gauteng High Court ruled against an application to have the decision to implement e-tolling reviewed and set aside.

In other areas, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa made strides when awarding its first major tender for the manufacture of new commuter rolling stock (about 7200 new coaches to modernise the country`s commuter rail service).

Another increase in airport taxes caused an outcry while the Airports Company South Africa`s profits continued to soar.

The high taxes also added to the cost of doing business in the airline industry and 1time airlines was forced to file for business rescue.

Several setbacks were identified in the department`s budget vote: the Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system in Johannesburg is unlikely to reach its target of 100 000 passengers for 2012 to 2013 because of delays in negotiating contracts. Similarly, the MyCiTi system in Cape Town is only expected to meet its annual estimate of 112 000 passengers by March 2014.

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This year's grade: N/A
Last year's grade: N/A

Paul Mashatile

Minister of Arts and Culture

Like his sector in general, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile has had an interesting year. Two landmark occurrences influenced public perceptions of the arts and officialdom in South Africa - one positive and one negative.

The first was the opening of the cutting-edge Soweto Theatre, the first world-class venue to be built in a township. In May, Mashatile �presided over the opening of this state-of-the-art, state-sponsored playhouse in what was widely considered a triumph for post-apartheid culture.

Less impressive was the official response to artist Brett Murray`s depiction of President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed in The Spear painting that was exhibited at Johannesburg`s Goodman Gallery, also in May.

It was through pressure from the ANC that both the Goodman Gallery and City Press removed images of Murray`s artwork from public view after the party encouraged its members to boycott the gallery and the newspaper. Not a shining moment for freedom of speech, regardless of the quality of Murray`s art.

Yet as the furore ensued and ANC stalwarts terrorised both the gallery and the artist, Mashatile did appeal for greater dialogue around the rights of artists versus the right to dignity of those portrayed. Observers have pointed out that Mashatile`s response was probably in step with his place in the anti-Jacob Zuma camp; at Mangaung he supported Kgalema Motlanthe for the ANC presidency.

That aside, the powers that be did use the fracas around The Spear to launch the social cohesion summit that took place in Kliptown, Soweto, in June. Its theme was "Creating a caring and proud society". Critics have claimed that the initiative served little purpose and had no real follow-up or tangible consequences. In early December, however, Zuma did receive a report and declaration on the summit from Mashatile in Pretoria.

Most damning of the minister was a spate of qualified audits in October by the auditor general regarding many of the arts and culture department`s entities. Officials were condemned for not attending to their jobs with diligence and the department was criticised for lacking strong leadership and discipline.

Among them, the South African Heritage Resources Agency was found to be in financial disarray. And when millions of rands worth of art was stolen from the Pretoria Art Museum in November, the department and the heritage agency were damned for not adequately protecting South Africa`s heritage assets.

Otherwise, the suave minister and Gauteng ANC chairperson was a key player in the power-jockeying in the lead-up to Mangaung. But that only served to detract from, rather than enhance, his treasured position in the arts.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: N/A

Fikile Mbalula

Minister of Sport and Recreation

Fikile Mbalula has had a terrible year in terms of his political career in the ANC, but his performance in government has been stellar.

His first effort that deserves commendation is his plan to revive sport in schools, which has been on the back burner for the past 18 years as the education department focused on developing new curriculums and getting the system to work.

This year 10 000 of South Africa`s 27 000 schools participated in the first school championships, which comprised 16 sporting codes. The department said its long-term vision was encapsulated in the national sport and recreation plan - a blueprint for the development of sport over 20 years - and was awaiting Cabinet approval.

Encouragingly, next year will see the establishment of a full-time professional netball league with players receiving salaries. Netball is the most popular sport among South African women, but it has been in the doldrums for years.

There were also efforts to revive basketball. The minister and basketball professionals visited the National Basketball Association in the United States and its stars and coaches came to South Africa to generate interest in the sport.

Mbalula did not shy away from controversy and appointed a commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of problems in the governance of cricket.

Largely, because of vested interests, the matter has become a legal conundrum with some of the parties going to court, but cricket does need some housekeeping. Mbalula would do well to turn his attention to football and athletics, both of which are engaged in perpetual conflicts and face financial problems. It would appear that good governance in these codes is sorely lacking.

In rugby, transformation continues to be an issue and the R35-million allocated to start academies for the development of black players in the Eastern and southern Cape is a positive step.

Although Mbalula wanted 12 medals at the Olympic Games in London, our athletes did not disgrace themselves and delivered six. Also, the women`s football and hockey teams participated in the Olympics for the first time.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: B

Edna Molewa

Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs

Edna Molewa actually runs two separate departments - environmental and water affairs. But for political expediency the two, which exist independently and have their own offices and huge problems, have been brought under her sole control. This stretches her thin, which she seems to take in her stride with a ferocious schedule.

In water affairs, she has finally embraced the idea that South Africa is facing a severe water crunch and has proposed public-private partnerships to bridge the more than R500-million funding deficit she needs to keep the water flowing. This is problematic, given that water in private hands is dangerous, but without it the funding is just not there.

She has to champion this, otherwise the country`s current creeping water crisis will make Eskom`s issues look easy to manage. If she gets it done, she will have to find a way to force local government to take up the slack and start spending some of their budget on infrastructure. She gets the water to places, but municipalities have to get it to people. They are not.

On the environment side her biggest issue is with mineral resources. Mines are going ahead in a piecemeal manner and are destroying environments and water sources. People are already writing off the whole of Mpumalanga as a collapsed system, thanks to mining. The departments keep saying they are making a plan to work together, but Molewa has to be vocal and gain parity for her department with regard to mineral resources. And if water affairs keeps granting licences to mines, the future costs will be spectacular.

She has done a great deal to save rhinos and has finally got Vietnam to sign an agreement to work together. But where there is demand there will be supply.

The one serious concern comes from allegations that she interfered with water licences for some of Cyril Ramaphosa`s mines. If it is true, it could undermine the critical work that her enforcement arm, the Green Scorpions, has been doing. Molewa denies the allegations.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: N/A

Kgalema Motlanthe

Deputy President

This was a tricky year for Kgalema Motlanthe, who had to work with President Jacob Zuma, although it was clear they were always set to go head to head for the ANC`s leadership. But the two behaved like gentlemen, hiding any public discomfort with each other.

This changed in October when they both attended a function to pay homage to former ANC president Oliver Tambo at Johannesburg`s international airport. Only Motlanthe had been billed to attend, creating the impression that Zuma had planned to steal Motlanthe`s limelight.

Zuma this year charged Motlanthe with co-ordinating the political processes and challenges that arose from opposition to e-tolling on Gauteng`s highways. Although it appeared that Zuma was presenting Motlanthe with a poisoned chalice, it was a necessary move - the transport department and South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) mishandled the tolling issue and the government was forced to put the plan on hold after a court interdict.

The government`s poor handling of the situation resulted mainly from a fight between the department and Sanral, which led to the resignation of Nazir Alli, the Sanral boss.

E-tolling was supposed to have been operational by April 30 this year, but the squabble also led to delays in its implementation and a failure to submit the necessary legislation to Parliament to implement it.

The treasury was the first to raise the alarm about the paralysis, because Sanral would not be able to pay its creditors. This led to the establishment of the interministerial task team headed by Motlanthe.

First he recalled Alli and prepared a proper legal case, leading to a victory in the Constitutional Court. The task team then continued with consultations on the project.

But all the work was undone when Parliament could not be persuaded to table the Bill before the end of the year, which would have allowed the government to proceed with the implementation of the e-tolls.

Meanwhile, Cosatu has vowed to force the government to abandon the plan.

Motlanthe`s other responsibilities relate to the fight against HIV/Aids. He heads the South African National Aids Council, which was expanded this year and the place where the government and civil society have long found common ground. Government officials even boast that because of their success in this field, civil society organisations turned their focus to education and, for example, the non-delivery of textbooks.

Motlanthe`s style is to keep a low profile, but there were times after several crises when some wished he would state his views plainly. There was even greater frustration in the ANC with his supporters wanting him to state whether he would stand against Zuma or not.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: C

Angie Motshekga

Minister of Basic Education

This was the year of the textbook, of litigation for basic education rights and of Angie Motshekga`s disgrace.

Contrary to her and her spluttering spin meisters` more puerile public pronouncements, civil society organisations do not turn to the courts on a whim or in a rush, or to embarrass the government or beef up their donor funding.

They do, however, resort to litigation when basic education`s leadership vacuum becomes as acute as it incrementally has since 2009 when Motshekga joined the Cabinet.

Finally, the lethargy to which our past three report cards on this most ineffective of ministers have drawn attention blew up in her face as civil society organisations and others moved to fill the leadership vacuum.

The Limpopo textbook debacle was only the most prominent in a catalogue of ministerial and bureaucratic bumbling, partly because it was the easiest to understand amid the often obscure debates on education standards: books are either in classrooms or they are not. In this case they weren`t, as two court judgments in rights organisation Section27`s favour unequivocally showed.

No amount of official spin could blur that simple reality, much as it tried to do so in an orgy of buck-passing. On the continuing scandal of inadequate school infrastructure, Motshekga`s last-minute capitulation, when she settled with non-governmental organisation Equal Education in November instead of trying to argue in court why she should not prescribe minimum standards, was welcome. But why did it take two years of Equal Education`s pleading to get her to this point?

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan also lost patience with Motshekga`s lethargy: his October mini-budget reallocated R7.2-billion earmarked for backlogs in school infrastructure because of "slow spending". Rubbing salt in that wound, Gordhan gave nearly R2.5-billion of this grant to Blade Nzimande for his two new universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.

Is there any conceivable reason why Motshekga should remain in her post? No.

This year's grade: F
Last year's grade: E

Aaron Motsoaledi

Minister of Health

It is ironic and anomalous that someone considered to be an upstanding character and a competent state official by a majority of diverse players in South Africa`s health sector presided over the further breakdown of its public healthcare system in 2012.

This year, the health departments of the Eastern Cape and Limpopo were placed under national and provincial administration for reasons including massive overspending that was incongruously accompanied by complete dysfunction, non-payment of suppliers resulting in drug stock-outs and equipment shortages, and staff not receiving salaries for months on end.

Health activists and policymakers, even those opposed to some of his plans and policies, continue to praise Motsoaledi`s undoubted determination to repair South Africa`s broken public health system. But they are concerned that his vision is undermined and ultimately paralysed by supremely incompetent administrators and MECs who he cannot fire because of their political value (read: vote-pulling clout) to the ruling party in certain provinces.

But the septic tsunami has not yet drowned some of Motsoaledi`s major achievements in 2012: he maintained South Africa`s - and indeed the world`s - largest antiretroviral treatment programme. In the midst of considerable obstacles, he advanced a male-circumcision programme that will significantly slow the spread of HIV. He pushed strongly for sex education and the availability of condoms in primary schools. He launched 11 National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot sites. He made R48-million available to triple the number of doctors trained in South Africa from 1200 to 3600 annually.

Motsoaledi also plans to send hospital managers back to school. Current and future hospital chief executives will have to be trained in how to run public facilities at the health minister`s newly established Academy for Leadership and Management in Healthcare.

He is praised as industrious, dedicated and extremely accessible by health sector players, but criticised by the same people for apparently failing to consider how certain policies will be implemented before announcing them.

Rural doctors, for example, are confused about how the minister`s new "one team per district" health groups will operate next year. And his exclusive breastfeeding policy has led to problems in the supply of free formula milk for HIV-infected mothers who are unable to exclusively breastfeed their babies.

Some in the private healthcare industry brand Motsoaledi`s disapproval of rising private healthcare costs as "superficial criticism" that bluntly disregards the factors that influence price and ignores research from outside his department.

Also, many policymakers are critical about the long-awaited NHI white paper remaining unreleased more than year after the green paper was published.

The halo is fading.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: A

Nathi Mthethwa

Minister of Police

The presence of Nathi Mthethwa was not felt when South Africa faced one of its biggest crises this year. Following the police`s tragic massacre of 34 miners in Marikana, the country appeared rudderless. And it felt that way again when violent labour unrest flared among farm workers in the Western Cape, drawing eerie parallels with the mining strikes.

The appointment of Riah Phiyega as national police commissioner did little to restore public faith in the police, because President Jacob Zuma appointed yet another civilian after dismissing Bheki Cele.

With protests on the increase around the country, Mthethwa should have moved to reintroduce the disbanded public order policing units that are trained to deal with unrest.

Police accountability under his watch has fallen to an all-time low and claims of police torture of suspects in custody are on the rise.

Mthethwa lost credibility when he retained crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli instead of heeding calls to suspend him while he faced serious allegations of murder and looting from his unit.

The minister seems to have no appetite for open and transparent policing. When Mthethwa and other police top brass gathered in Parliament to release South Africa`s crime statistics for 2011-2012 and revealed a 3.1% decrease in murder, the credibility of the figures was questioned.

Even if the figures are to be believed, with 15 609 murders from April 1 last year to May 31 this year, the murder rate is still one of the highest in the world.

To cap it all, Mthethwa pulled a political stunt when he went to court to force the commission of inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha to come to a halt just as it was about to start its public hearings. Social activists say the breakdown in trust between the police and community led to a rise in vigilante killings in Khayelitsha. Yet vigilantism is not restricted to Khayelitsha and Mthethwa should not have tried to downplay the rule-of-mob law, or the reason it is prevalent in crime-ridden townships.

This year's grade: F
Last year's grade: C

Sibusiso Ndebele

Minister of Correctional Services

Sibusiso Ndebele has been at the helm of the correctional services portfolio for only six months. He was moved from the transport ministry in June at the height of the e-tolling saga. It is widely believed it was because of his poor handling of the matter, which resulted in an interdict being granted against the implementation of the controversial project.

But Ndebele inherited another hot potato. In his first week in office he had to announce the release from prison of the disgraced former police boss Jackie Selebi, thanks to a new government policy on medical parole for terminally ill prisoners.

Granted, Ndebele has nothing to do with who qualifies for parole, but considering how the system was abused before by those politically well connected, the public and opposition are scrutinising it closely.

Under the new framework, drastic changes have been made to the conditions under which the department grants medical parole. A team of medical practitioners must now decide on the medical condition of prisoners, but critics say the new policy will open the gates to a stream of unwarranted applications.

During the past six months, Ndebele has made a great deal of noise about overcrowding, alternative sentencing and empowering detainees with skills to ensure that once they leave prison they do not resort to crime again. But he has not been big on detail.

In November, he warned about overcrowding in South Africa`s jails and said it could be the consequence or lack of adequate infrastructure, or a result of the overuse of imprisonment in the penal system. Among his proposals to combat the problem was the introduction of penalties other than imprisonment for first-time offenders.

Earlier in the year, Ndebele announced that it would be compulsory for all inmates to complete an adult basic education training programme. This was widely welcomed, but it is still not clear how it will be implemented.

We say it`s time Ndebele walked the talk.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: N/A

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation

With Maite Nkoana-Mashabane at the helm, South Africa`s foreign policy has made some solid gains internationally.

The department is administratively sound and has had clean audits for the past three years.

A diplomat in the department, who has closely watched Nkoana-Mashabane since she took over in 2009, told the Mail & Guardian: "Minister Nkoana-Mashabane`s key mandate after the 2009 elections was to sell [Jacob] Zuma and South Africa to the world, especially given the circumstances under which he came to power. Looking back, it`s a mandate that has been successfully executed. Zuma is today well respected. He sits with peers in the G20, Brics, G8 and now the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc). He chairs several panels on conflict resolution and education with the UN secretary �general and has been appointed by his peers in the African Union to champion infrastructure development in Africa."

Nkoana-Mashabane successfully lobbied for the country`s inclusion in the powerful Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) formation and helped South Africa to secure another term on the UN Security Council.

Under her leadership as president of the UN climate-change conference, COP17, the event not only secured a second commitment period to the Kyoto protocol, but the Durban outcome has been hailed by many as having restored trust in the UN climate change convention process.

But perhaps her major achievement in 2012 was to mobilise �support for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to become the first woman and the first Southern African candidate to be elected chairperson of the AU Commission.

Last month, South Africa was overwhelmingly elected by the members of the UN General Assembly to the global body`s 47-member Ecosoc. In July the country became the joint chair, with China, of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation for the next six years.

In the area of conflict resolution, Nkoana-Mashabane has made sure South Africa was a major contributor to the UN and AU peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Burundi and Nepal.

South Africa has also been involved in trying to find a political solution in Zimbabwe. After taking over as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community`s troika on politics, defence and security, the country has taken a tougher stance that has resulted in an increased focus on implementing Zimbabwe`s global political agreement, particularly the drafting of a new constitution, the holding of a referendum and the formalising of a road map towards envisaged elections in 2013.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: D

Gugile Nkwinti

Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform

The spotlight moves to Gugile Nkwinti next year as the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Land Act approaches.

Among long-awaited decisions from the government is whether the land claim process will be reopened and whether those who lost their land before the Act was passed will be allowed to claim it back.

Nkwinti referred these two proposals to the Cabinet months ago. Perceptions of an unstable �property market can only be bad for investment.

He has also not shown much leadership or provided clarity on the willing buyer, willing seller policy.

It is also not clear how the office of the land valuer general will fit into the picture. In November, the Cabinet approved its establishment, which was proposed in last year`s green paper on land reform. It will be an independent statutory body and assist in establishing a value for land without relying solely on the private sector. It will also keep records of the value of land.

It has been three years since Nkwinti took the reins of the department and it appears that he is slowly turning it around. Its recapitalisation and development programme, through which the government intervenes to rescue failing restituted farms, has been lauded. In the 2011/2012 financial year, 83 farms were placed in the programme.

Under Nkwinti, the department has also undertaken to compile a state land register and 98% of state land has now been verified.

This year's grade: D
Last year's grade: F

Thulas Nxesi

Minister of Public Works

When Thulas Nxesi inherited this department a year ago, his predecessor, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, had just been sacked for her role in the police leasing scandal.

The public protector and the Special Investigating Unit revealed depressing levels of graft there and the auditor general had handed the department an audit disclaimer.

Senior management was in a mess. Nxesi said: "[In seven years] there have been nine different directors general and acting directors general and five different ministers. Currently we sit with a suspended director general, a suspended acting director general and an acting director general."

But he has made a credible start at cleaning up the mess.

First, he publicly acknowledged the problems: poor management and weak controls were fuelling corruption, 35 000 properties were unaccounted for and 3 000 poorly managed and expensive leases were draining public money.

He instituted a "turnaround strategy", including a core team reporting to the director general�s office to address his "paradox" � how to fix the department�s deep faults without interrupting services. Indeed, mid-year figures suggested that the expanded public works programme job creation targets were not being met while Nxesi steered his new course.

Topping Nxesi`s hit list is �corruption. He publicly detailed �disciplinary and criminal cases against officials and irregular leases referred to courts. The minister also bemoaned the glacial pace of justice.

To the Mail & Guardian, the turnaround team detailed various �"stabilisation" initiatives, �including the "removal and transfer" of �certain top managers for "underperforming" and a number of other successes.

But the minister`s much needed attention has been diverted by the high-profile Nkandla scandal. He referred the matter to the auditor general and set up (another) task team to examine the situation, but his hiding behind an apartheid era Act � built into a long story of the state`s ducking and diving � has unnecessarily compounded public mistrust.

Sadly, in the case of Nkandla, Nxesi appears to have chosen secrecy and political expediency over transparency.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: N/A

Blade Nzimande

Minister of Higher Education and Training

The populist politician and the principled educationist have always coexisted uneasily within Blade Nzimande, but this year the former won hands down in an explosion of self-serving crassness.

The spectacle of his marching on an art gallery in May and calling for a painting - Brett Murray`s The Spear - to be burned clashed horribly with his championing of the humanities at universities.

But, in a larger sense, the obscene Fahrenheit 451 moment also once again raised a long-standing worry about this enigmatic figure. How safe is education in Nzimande`s hands when the political chips are down - as they have been with the endless pre-Mangaung jockeying - and he leaves far too much of his portfolio to non-educationists such as his director general and other comrades?

On the credit side, he has stuck to his guns in his skills development focus on South Africa`s three million "neets" (those not in education, employment or training). His substantial green paper on post-school education and training, released in January, was the year`s most prominent demonstration of his consistency in trying to both multiply and improve the options of those 18- to 24-year-olds whom the schooling system has failed.

His department also ticked over logistically with an efficiency all the more striking for its absence in basic education and again achieved clean financial audits.

But 2012 again demonstrated this minister`s alarmingly autocratic impulses. He is, for instance, driving a little-noticed amendment to the Higher Education Act that will essentially make it far simpler for the government to intervene in a university`s governance.

That he is doing this in the year he got his nose bloodied when yet another university he placed under administration, the Central University of Technology in the Free State, challenged him in court - and won - seems far from coincidental.

Nzimande might still win that one on appeal, but the larger question remains: Why tamper so crassly with delicate institutions that his own green paper says remain the strongest features in South Africa`s bleak education terrain?

This year's grade: D
Last year's grade: D

Mildred Oliphant

Minister of Labour

Mildred Oliphant appears to have turned the tide at what used to be one of the worst performing departments into an effective organisation, the main priority of which is to deliver services to all. Under her leadership the department has posted a clean bill of health for the second year running, reversing the record of six successive years of negative audit findings.

The department has attributed the auditor general`s positive finding to it dealing successfully with financial management, accountability and supply-chain management processes. The department has also managed to reduce the high level of vacancies to 7.2%.

Its inspectorate performance has improved drastically in the past two years since Oliphant was appointed minister. During the past year, the department has managed to carry out inspections at 139 150 workplaces throughout South Africa. Also, 35 327 notices were issued to ensure compliance with labour laws and 1 023 prohibition notices were served on companies not complying with labour laws. Her hands-on approach ensured that Oliphant led some of these blitzes in eight provinces in the agriculture sector.

The recent wildcat strikes in the farming and mining sectors appears to have been beyond Oliphant`s control, but she worked tirelessly with stakeholders to find solutions. But she sometimes appears to lack urgency, often arriving late to volatile situations such as the strikes. However, this does not mean she is not paying attention. For example, her department is reviewing the sectorial determination for farm workers. It has also held discussions with stakeholders around the facilitation process that may lead to a centralised bargaining arrangement for the mining sector, which may avoid another Marikana tragedy in the future.

Oliphant has also been working hard to push for the promulgation of the Labour Relations Amendment Bill and the Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill, which are aimed at enhancing protection to cover temporary, part-time and fixed-contract workers. It has been estimated that the number of atypical employees grew from 1.5-million to 3.89-million between 2000 and 2010.

This year's grade: B
Last year's grade: B

Naledi Pandor

Minister of Home Affairs

Grade: Too soon to grade

In October, Naledi Pandor took over home affairs, a department historically plagued by corruption, skills shortages and incompetence. But her predecessor, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is now African Union Commission chairperson, successfully implemented a turnaround strategy, ensuring effective control measures in finance and supply-chain management.

Dlamini-Zuma also appointed appropriately skilled individuals and made sure that frontline offices had enough staff to serve the public well.

And, for the first time in 16 years, the department was awarded an unqualified audit from the auditor general last year. But it regressed this year, receiving a qualified audit.

Next year, Pandor will oversee the launch of the smart identity card, which has been piloted among 100 staff members for its durability and security features. The smart ID card will be introduced to all South Africans then.

Pandor will further oversee the department�s information technology modernisation project, which will also be implemented next year. The project will launch live capture for IDs and passports, thus reducing service turnaround time.

Since her appointment, Pandor has already conducted two unannounced visits to Cape Town and Johannesburg offices to assess service delivery levels. She has also visited ports of entry and other offices to engage with the public and officials.

Pandor will have to fix strained relations with the refugee community and human rights activists after Dlamini-Zuma shut down refugee centres in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

Another test for the new minister will be to deal with visa applications, including those of controversial �figures such the Dalai Lama. Her predecessor came under fire for delaying his visa application. Last month, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the government had acted unlawfully in delaying its decision on the matter.

But Pandor�s biggest challenge in 2013 will be to make sure her new department gets another clean audit.

N/A

This year's grade: N/A
Last year's grade: N/A

Ebrahim Patel

Minister of Economic Development

The greatest achievement of this �department was to hold a �successful �economic indaba that brought together labour, �government and business following a crippling strike season that was the worst in years, a downgrading of South Africa`s �economic rating and the near-�collapse of the mining sector.

The indaba produced a �comprehensive battle plan to �regenerate confidence in the economy as well as obtain �commitment to and define ideas to promote economic growth, create jobs and ensure general stability.

The presidential infrastructure co-ordinating commission was launched this year following the president`s State of the Nation address, in which it was punted as the new big idea for the economy.

The department also believes that the opening of a new taxi assembly plant in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, as well as other similar ventures will lead to thousands of jobs being created. The taxi plant created an initial 470 jobs.

Although critics question its impact on future investment, the department believes its appeal to the Competition Appeal Court to force Walmart to set up a R200-million supplier development fund as a condition for acquiring Massmart was a great victory in protecting local industry.

Patel continues to punt the new growth path, released in December 2010, with the aim of creating five million jobs by 2020. But it is clear that the ANC and the government are moving towards supporting Trevor Manuel`s national development plan.

The question about the exact role of the department in relation to economic development is still unanswered. Essentially, the story is about Patel`s upbeat pronouncements about future job prospects against the reality of increasing unemployment and the question of what exactly he does for a living.

This year's grade: D
Last year's grade: D

Dipuo Peters

Minister of Energy

It is three years since the department of energy was divorced from its bigger, sexier government partner, the department of mineral resources. This year, to her credit, Dipuo Peters successfully launched the renewable energy �independent power procurement programme, reaching financial close on its first phase. Sourcing independent power is something the department could never do, despite decades of talk. But her team leaned heavily on the treasury to pull it off.

Peters`s department is responsible for driving policy, something it is failing to do. Much promised reform in the electricity sector contained in two critical Bills - the Independent Systems and Market Operator Bill and the Electricity Regulation Second Amendment Bill - has been substantially delayed. Critical policy documents important for energy planning, such as the integrated energy plan and an energy security master plan for the liquid fuels sector, have not been produced. The failure to review South Africa`s 20-year electricity road map, known as the integrated resource plan, leaves electricity planning blind to new developments such as the potential to produce electricity from abundant and relatively cheap natural gas. Without these policies in place, industry development is hampered.

Her department`s unqualified audit report, an achievement that most of the entities reporting to her also managed, is a feather in Peters`s cap. But, despite filling many vacancies, it is way behind on its electrification programme and the roll out of solar water heaters. The department is also struggling to audit local refinery capacity, which is supposed to provide clarity on the need for PetroSA to go ahead with it mega-refinery project, Mthombo.

Despite the national planning commission`s call for a thorough, transparent review of the financial implications of a nuclear procurement programme, her department supports it without openly revealing whether there would be cost benefits to the country. But this is a Cabinet-led initiative, so her political colleagues carry some responsibility for this too.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: D

Dina Deliwe Pule

Minister of Communications

It has been a turbulent year for Dina Pule. She has been accused of nepotism, she had to implement the government`s plan for Telkom - which the financial markets are still unclear about - and she has been taken to court by e.tv over the migration of digital terrestrial television, which has caused further delays.

There has also been constant speculation about her alleged romance with businessperson Phosane Mngqibisa and how he might have benefited financially from the relationship.

When the Mail & Guardian spoke to Pule earlier this year, she maintained that she had done nothing wrong and refused to comment on the nature of the relationship. She hinted that a vendetta was being waged against her to embarrass her and, by proxy, President Jacob Zuma, a key political ally of hers.

The ministry of communications is a key portfolio and if the minister is having to put out political fires there is less time for her to focus on the key challenges in the ministry and in the information, communication and technology (ICT) sector.

Some of the pressing challenges include the allocation of spectrum, the unbundling of the local loop to allow operators access to the part of Telkom`s copper network that delivers services to homes and businesses, addressing low broadband penetration and the switch-over to digital terrestrial television.

According to the 2011 census, 64.8% of South Africans had no access to the internet. But six months into the year the department of communications had not met its target of a 7% increase in broadband penetration for the financial year.

The department was also meant to have established 60 e-co-operatives in the current financial year to enable youth-owned small enterprises to enter the ICT sector. Six months into the year, none had been established.

It`s clear the department is failing to make progress with key projects.

Added to this, it has massive staff shortages, must manage problem institutions such as the SABC and Sentech and has to deal with an underresourced regulator. One can see why its hands are full.

Several stakeholders blame Pule for Telkom losing more than 47% of its share value in the past year because of the government`s scuppering of the KT Corporation deal and the resignation of Telkom`s chief executive, Nombulelo Moholi.

But the delays of key projects are not all of Pule`s making. The fact that she was the third communications minister in less than a year also created major disruptions. But some stakeholders still claim that the sector remains rudderless under Pule.

This year's grade: E
Last year's grade: N/A

Jeff Radebe

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development

For a minister specifically tasked with upholding the Constitution, it was a serious blow when the Constitutional Court ruled in October that Jeff Radebe, in advising the president on the appointment of a new prosecutions head, acted "inconsistently" with South Africa`s fundamental law. The court ruled that President Jacob Zuma`s 2010 decision to appoint Menzi Simelane as prosecutions chief was irrational.

This was one of many controversies in the justice portfolio this year, most of them concerned with transparency and perceived political meddling. And, despite a promise last year of better governance, the department received a qualified audit. Auditor general Terence Nombembe found that it had met just 28% of its own targets for the 2011-2012 financial year.

Radebe also faced questions in Parliament about the number and selection of acting department heads. Particularly contentious was the choice of Simelane`s replacement, Nomgcobo Jiba, who has faced a stream of criticism, notably over the National Prosecuting Authority`s decision to charge striking Marikana miners. Earlier, it was revealed that in 2010 Zuma expunged the criminal record of Jiba`s husband, a former lawyer and Scorpions member, after he had stolen money from a client`s trust fund.

The suspension of a senior NPA advocate, Glynnis Breytenbach, in April also raised eyebrows. The NPA insists she had an inappropriately close relationship with a lawyer involved in a case she was investigating. But Breytenbach claimed there were ulterior motives for it that were linked to her determination to prosecute former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli for fraud and corruption after the NPA controversially withdrew charges last December.

The Special Investigating Unit, which also falls under Radebe, has been in the spotlight too. After its acting head, Nomvula Mokhatla, controversially reinstated a senior manager, Miseria Nyathi, it was revealed that the former had ignored the advice of two external advocates to the contrary. Nyathi`s reinstatement followed a marathon battle over her dismissal by Willie Hofmeyr when he was still head of the unit, after she refused to take a polygraph test.

This year's grade: E
Last year's grade: F

Tokyo Sexwale

Minister of Human Settlements

Before 2009, Tokyo Sexwale was known as housing minister, but his post was renamed human settlements so that he would have the power to plan integrated settlements and be responsible for sanitation and electricity. In reality, he does not have these powers or he has not exercised them, leaving his role similar to that of the old housing minister. He has not been seen to be working with ministers whose portfolios deal with water, electricity, sanitation and the identification of land. A lack of policy direction and legal uncertainty caused this failure. There is still no legislative framework to fill the lacuna, which seems incredible for a department now four years old.

Two of Sexwale`s ambitious ideas are a state housing construction company and state housing bank, but these plans remain unrealised.

Sexwale dealt with the long-standing problem of the M2 Gateway housing problem by relocating 10 000 shack dwellers to housing units.

He similarly dealt with another explosive situation in Lenasia where the Gauteng provincial government was demolishing houses, leading to clashes between the occupiers of the houses and the nearby residents. After his intervention, the bulldozers stopped and public bickering came to an end, although the matter has not been laid to rest.

His department has recognised that in some cases it cannot just remove people from shacks and has pledged to provide them with water, sanitation and electricity through the national upgrade support programme.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: D

Susan Shabangu

Minister of Mineral Resources

This has been a disastrous year for South Africa`s mining industry, particularly the platinum sector, which has been hurt by market conditions and strikes.

Although Susan Shabangu cannot be solely blamed for events beyond her control, there are some issues that fell directly within her sphere of influence that could have been handled far better.

One example is her department`s failure to flag the emergence of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) when it began mobilising miners in February during strikes at Impala Platinum. This contributed to the misjudging of the initial unrest at Marikana as nothing more than a labour matter. Instead, it quickly spiralled into a national crisis that made headlines around the world.

Her move to set up a task team to address the issues facing platinum mines before Marikana occurred has been criticised for failing to face the real problems head on, because to have done so would have been politically unpalatable. These problems include high labour costs and the flagging profitability of a number of unproductive shafts, which, analysts have warned, means that retrenchments are imminent.

Despite almost two years of promises to amend the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, changes have only recently been endorsed by the Cabinet for submission to Parliament. Change is critical to combat the administration of a mineral rights regime that is perceived as arbitrary, lengthy and corrupt. Combined with the policy uncertainty over the role of state intervention in the minerals sector that prevailed ahead of Mangaung, it has eroded investor confidence.

Shabangu has, however, continued to reassure investors that nationalisation will not happen.

The electronic mining rights �application system, a necessary improvement, continues to �experience teething problems.

Her department also tackled the controversial issue of fracking in the Karoo. It delivered a much-anticipated report that will hopefully inform the development of a well-regulated, properly administered industry.

Shabangu`s department also achieved an unqualified audit, but it continues to battle with recruiting and retaining technically qualified and experienced staff. The onerous task of rehabilitating ownerless and derelict mines continues to be a struggle and only two of a targeted 10 rehabilitations have been completed.

This year's grade: D
Last year's grade: D

Lindiwe Sisulu

Minister of Public Service and Administration

Grade: Too soon to grade

Lindiwe Sisulu started off her new job on a high note. Not only did she save President Jacob Zuma the embarrassment of a massive strike by more than one �million public service workers a few months ahead of the ANC`s electoral conference in Mangaung, but she also managed to convince public sector unions to agree to a single-digit salary increase and a multiyear wage agreement.

Sisulu is known to be hostile towards unions: in 2009 she fired more than 1 000 soldiers who embarked on a strike over poor �living conditions. But her relations with public sector unions, particularly those affiliated to Cosatu, appear to have changed. Sisulu believes the multiyear wage agreement was important for business planning and the stability of the economy. She has also been working hard to improve poor performance in the government and has in the past few months instructed her department to conduct a comprehensive skills audit in the public service and develop tools to monitor performance.

She also wants the public service commission to play a more meaningful role and become a policy developer, monitor and enforcer.

"She wants the commission to have powers like the auditor general - to be able to take an accounting officer to task if service delivery is not happening. She has also indicated that the commission must also cover the local government and all who are paid with public money. The commission must ensure that senior managers perform," said Sisulu`s spokesperson, Ndivhuwo Mabaya.

"A special unit is being set up to work with all levels of government to deal with systemic administration challenges and ensure that challenges related to administration and service delivery are addressed before they become crises."

Sisulu appears to be on track with her public service turnaround, but reports that she used a Gulfstream jet for more than 200 trips between Pretoria and Cape Town - at R200 000 a throw - while she was still defence minister could damage her reputation. She has vehemently rejected the allegations.

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This year's grade: N/A
Last year's grade: N/A

Marthinus Van Schalkwyk

Minister of Tourism

Having been in the same cabinet shoes for the better part of a decade, Marthinus van Schalkwyk has the immediate advantage of continuity. As a result, he has a good grasp of his product, is relatively popular and knows what makes the industry tick.

He has established good interdepartmental relations, which allow him the leverage of minimising bureaucratic red tape where necessary, easing relations with the private sector.

The Tourism Indaba, however, which remains the main platform for burgeoning SMMEs, could do with a bit of a facelift. SMMEs in this sector contribute more to the GDP than big business. Although it remains a pivotal showcase for the South African brand and the key host city of Durban, its resources could be better spent by paying more attention to the sustainable incubation of handpicked enterprises that display either potential for growth or the most urgent needs. Otherwise, the Indaba is doomed to become a revolving door showcase of companies with no potential for growth.

Those in the know point out that the ministry could do more with marketing South Africa to the rest of Africa, but for that to be achieved, the air travel industry would have to be a lot more competitive.

Domestically, the total tourist spend went up from R9.2-billion in 2011 to an estimated R10.2-billion in 2012. This was due to an increase in average expenditure per trip. The persisting problem, however, is the creation of sustainable jobs. While the department intended to create over 5 000 jobs through the extended public works programme, only 762 full-time equivalent jobs had been created within the first quarter of the financial year.

Realising the importance of transformation and skills development in the sector, a career expo and road shows were conducted in Tshwane, Ermelo, Middelburg this year.

However, a secret weapon to boost traffic since the World Cup remains elusive.

This year's grade: C
Last year's grade: C

Lulu Xingwana

Minister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities

First the good news: according to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the sector, the department has become more visible and effective in co-ordinating and getting other national departments and spheres of government involved in programmes that are trying to get the rights of the most vulnerable in society into the mainstream.

The bad news is that, following its ineffectiveness in the previous year, it is coming off a very low base - but it is a start.

The department remains weak on the monitoring and evaluation of important issues, targets and programmes in and beyond the government that pertain to the vulnerable. One of the main concerns in the sector is its inability to assert itself, whether in monitoring, co-ordinating or pursuing outcomes such as the 2% target set in 2005 by the government for the employment of disabled people in the public service by March 2010. According to the most recent employment equity report, this is at about 0.9%.

The national strategic plan is short on how to address these oversight and monitoring problems.

The department`s budget, increased from R143.1-million in 2011-2012 to R172.2-million in this financial year, is still woefully low. Seen in the context of the R240-million being spent on President Jacob Zuma`s personal home and that the department`s current budget represents 0.01% of the national fiscus, it would seem to be insulting to women, children and people with disabilities, particularly in a country with extremely high rates of gender-based violence, child abuse, entrenched patriarchy in both the workplace and broader society, and a structural disregard for people with disabilities.

It is also staggering that the department`s current budget allocations for travel and subsistence surpasses its total allocation for disability programmes.

The long-awaited Women Empowerment and Gender Equity Bill has finally been approved by the Cabinet, gazetted and is now available for public comment. But NGOs have criticised it for being too wide-ranging in the areas it covers and for duplicating existing legislation.

The department has also been weak in overseeing and reporting on the implementation of existing legislation, including the Domestic Violence Act and the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act.

If the minister can impress on the Cabinet the need for more money and can use it better, the perception that the government pays only lip service to the rights and needs of the most vulnerable in society could change.

This year's grade: E
Last year's grade: F

Jacob Zuma

President

On December 7 the Mail & Guardian published a long-supressed forensic report by auditing firm KPMG that lays out, in staggering detail, President Jacob Zuma`s financial incontinence and names arms companies, banks and business people who were his willing enablers.

On December 18, 2983 delegates at the ANC`s Mangaung elective conference voted for him to stay on as president of the party - a 75% majority over Kgalema Motlanthe that powerfully consolidated his relatively narrow Polokwane victory.

It has been that kind of year for Zuma. Scandal, drift and failure at every turn, offset by an increasingly determined grip on the most important levers of power: the ANC and the alliance, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), intelligence services, public broadcaster and parastatals.

Clobbered in the Supreme Court of Appeal for appointing the gravely compromised Menzi Simelane as chief prosecutor, Zuma left the NPA in the hands of the even more problematic Nongcobo Jiba. She, in turn, presided over dropping corruption charges against presidential allies in the sprawling "amigos" case involving allegations of systematic tender rigging in the purchase of medical equipment.

The NPA also played a critical role in frustrating another Supreme Court of Appeal judgment: the one that appeared to order that the "spy tapes" - which Zuma had dubiously managed to get himself off the hook for in 2009 - be handed over to the Democratic Alliance.

Similarly, the sidelining of Richard Mdluli in the police`s crime intelligence division has barely slowed the creation of a new praetorian guard out of a unit that should be focused on organised crime.

And at the SABC evidence of a broadcast agenda designed to shield the president from criticism is now overwhelming. It is coupled with a regulatory agenda - from print media regulation to the Protection of State Information Bill - designed to limit the ability of the raucous private media and activist groups to expose malfeasance.

All this represents a sustained assault on critical institutions of democracy in the interest of one man and those around him in the ANC and government - whose response to declining popular legitimacy is increased authoritarianism.

So much for the things Zuma has done.

His real m�tier is inaction.

In some instances, this is a good thing. A refusal to choose between the competing visions of his economics departments creates damaging uncertainty, but the basic fiscal framework has been left alone, as has the Reserve Bank under the formidable Gill Marcus. It has helped South Africa to muddle along in the 2% growth band through brutal global conditions. It is far too slow, but given some of the pressures in the alliance, it could be much worse.

Of course, if the minerals sector (to pick the most obvious example) was not badly regulated, prone to corruption and beset by fears of nationalisation - all of which Zuma has consistently refused to soothe - it could be much better.

Zuma has also been unwilling, or unable, to articulate a response to the Limpopo textbook crisis and, more damagingly, to the killing of 34 miners by the police in Marikana.

The violence in the platinum belt, and later across the mining sector, demanded leadership. By taking a stance Zuma could have addressed the extraordinary breakdown of basic social and political arrangements that have contained South Africa`s yawning divisions over the past 18 years.

Of course, a commission of inquiry was necessary, but to refuse to answer in any way to the rage, bewilderment and sadness sparked by Marikana is perhaps Zuma`s most telling failure.
The "pro-poor" man from Nkandla has presided over the widening of our Gini co-efficient to a world record of 0.7 and faith in the democratic deal is fraying badly.

Nothing exemplifies his blindness to the problem as much as the appalling R250-million spread he has built in Nkandla - mostly with taxpayers` funds, the rest with a pot of mystery cash - in one of the poorest parts of the country. Look out of the window this Christmas, Mr President -you are about to see a rebuke.

This year's grade: F
Last year's grade: D


A	Take a bow. You are doing an excellent job
B	Good, but room for improvement
C	You're okay
D	Get your act together
E	Do yourself and the country a favour -- resign
F	You're fired
G	Gone

Cabinet Report Cards: Year of disappointments

Derek Hanekom

Minister of Science and Technology

Richard Baloyi

Minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs

Collins Chabane

Minister in the Presidency, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

Siyabonga Cwele

Minister of State Security

Robert Davies

Minister of Trade and Industry

Bathabile Dlamini

Minister of Social Development

Malusi Gigaba

Minister of Public Enterprises

Pravin Gordhan

Minister of Finance

Tina Joemat-Pettersson

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Trevor Manuel

Minister of Planning

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula

Minister of Defence and Military Veterans

Dikobe Ben Martins

Minister of Transport

Paul Mashatile

Minister of Arts and Culture

Fikile Mbalula

Minister of Sport and Recreation

Edna Molewa

Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs

Kgalema Motlanthe

Deputy President

Angie Motshekga

Minister of Basic Education

Aaron Motsoaledi

Minister of Health

Nathi Mthethwa

Minister of Police

Sibusiso Ndebele

Minister of Correctional Services

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation

Gugile Nkwinti

Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform

Thulas Nxesi

Minister of Public Works

Blade Nzimande

Minister of Higher Education and Training

Mildred Oliphant

Minister of Labour

Naledi Pandor

Minister of Home Affairs

Ebrahim Patel

Minister of Economic Development

Dipuo Peters

Minister of Energy

Dina Deliwe Pule

Minister of Communications

Jeff Radebe

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development

Tokyo Sexwale

Minister of Human Settlements

Susan Shabangu

Minister of Mineral Resources

Lindiwe Sisulu

Minister of Public Service and Administration

Marthinus Van Schalkwyk

Minister of Tourism

Lulu Xingwana

Minister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities

Jacob Zuma

President