Cape Town - On May 23, two weeks after the May 8 elections, newly elected Premier Alan Winde announced his provincial
cabinet, “to execute on the vision we have put forward to the residents of the Western Cape”.
We take a look at five of the
10 MECs, with a rating of their
performances since they took office.
Transport and Public Works MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela:
Madikizela came to the portfolio after a stint in Human Settlements. While he had been very keen on the increasing use of technology in the transport sector, he had been less fortunate with the issue of trains, an alarming number of which had been set on fire and otherwise vandalised during his term.
Madikezela has, however, had success with the taxi industry. In the legislature he had been attacked by the opposition, but paid little attention to this, preferring to concentrate on his positives instead.
6/10
Bonginkosi Madikizela
Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz:
Fritz, who in the previous government had served as MEC for Social Development, had a baptism of fire in his new post. Within days of taking office, there was a spike in crime across the province, with attacks on farmers and farmworkers hitting the headlines. There were also several murders every week on the Cape Flats.
Fritz referred to the province as a “war zone”. He took to the role with aplomb. He was vocal in the legislature and despite having little more than an oversight role over the police in the province and a formal dispute with SAPS, worked with the premier, the City of Cape Town and municipalities to get a grip on the situation.
7/10
Albert Fritz
Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo:
Carrying on in the same portfolio, Mbombo promised she would concentrate on strengthening and upgrading programmes she initiated during her previous term to ensure access to quality health services through the implementation of programmes such as Universal Health Coverage (the DA’s akternative to the ANC’s National Health Insurance scheme).
Meanwhile, the Observatory Forensic Pathology Services at Groote Schuur Hospital is running several months behind schedule and is likely to experience even more delays. How she deals with this in the new year will determine her score next time.
7/10
Nomafrench Mbombo
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer:
When she came under attack from the ANC on the issue of school safety, Schäfer hit back, citing the ANC’s “abject failure to ensure adequate policing in the Western Cape, and a failure of the criminal justice system in general”.
However, while the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) was awarded its fourth consecutive clean audit during the 2017/18 financial year, it was not without criticism from the auditor-general (AG).
One of the AG’s criticisms was that WCED management “did not have appropriate record-keeping processes in place to ensure that reported
performance information was supported by credible supporting
evidence”.
6/10
Debbie Schäfer
Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer:
Meyer took over the portfolio at a time when attacks on farms and farmworkers were at a high and the province was fighting to recover from the drought. He scored big with his farming constituency in October when he managed to secure the release of R50 million in emergency drought relief to assist farms.
