Ramaphosa’s centralisation of power is an effort to help the state run efficiently: Analyst

Political Analyst, Susan Booysen says she believes the centralisation of power by President Cyril Ramaphosa is simply an effort to help the state to run efficiently.

In his State of the Nation Address last week, Ramaphosa, announced that he’s appointed former mining boss Sipho Nkosi, in his office to cut the red tape that hampers the setting up of small businesses.

He had previously announced that the Minister in the Presidency would also be in charge of the State Security Agency.

Dr Booysen says that this is a long-standing phenomenon – even with previous presidents.

“It has been and continues to be to try to get operations to run more efficiently and to fast track certain functions. We can argue that we have often not seen the effect, but these are serious efforts by presidents, and including now president Cyril Ramaphosa, to get faster action, because the South African state is notoriously weak and slow.”

Video: Prof. Susan Booysen looks at Ramaphosa’s movement of government’s key functions into presidency

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the 2022 State of the Nation Address