Brave decisions taken in stride deserve recognition, well done Mr President, writes our award-winning columnist Bhekisisa Mncube on energy deregulation moves.

Dear Comrade President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa. The SA first citizen. The Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The official resident of Mahlamba Ndlopfu. The head of the SA family. uBaba ka-Andile. The leader of the “Thuma Mina” ANC faction. I forgo my customary formal salutation because I want to speak to you from the heart. This is from one comrade to the other.

I am honoured to announce that the unilateral cessation of hostilities has been extended by a week. It is now on alert level 3 of the Risk-Adjusted Differentiated Strategy during the 3rd wave of Covid-19, stage 3 of Eskom load shedding, phase two of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign so on and so forth it goes. But I digress.

This week, I am all lovey-dovey. I am overwhelmed by gratitude. It hasn’t sunk in yet. Last week news broke that South African Airways (SAA) has a new strategic partner that will own 51% of the airline. I was shit scared that the Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, aka PG, would convene a presser the next day and say he was misquoted when he unveiled the SAA equity partner. I anxiously waited for Luthuli House to issue its own press statement. I was relieved that it didn’t contradict the PG’s announcement. As a shrewd political operative, PG didn’t utter the swear word “privatisation.” He avoided the term like the suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule would avoid playing Hugh Masekela’s hit song, Thuma Mina. Wow! At long last, 51% of the SAA woes are no longer for the account of the long-suffering taxpayers. Well done, comrade!

In other news, in one fell swoop, Cde President, you lifted a beast of the burden off our shoulders in a true commander in- chief of the state affairs style. There was no room for doubt. No manga manga business. My educated guess is that that old windbag Carl Niehaus is frothing at the mouth whenever he busies himself with borrowing money since Loot- House is broke.

The RET forces remain as quiet as the landmines after the war. The South African Communist Party (SACP) issued a lame (I don’t know by whose standards?) statement decrying your bold decision. The SACP said it has consistently worked alongside SAA employees and trade unions to prevent liquidation and privatisation of the airline. RET forces 0 – SA Taxpayers 2.

I have consistently said that the best state decisions are imposed on society, not negotiated with non-State actors. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, His Excellency President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa.

In the same week, you announced major structural reforms in the energy generation sector. In a massive breakthrough for private electricity provision in South Africa, businesses will now be allowed to generate power of up to 100 megawatts without a licence. In your televised address, you avoided another swear word, “liberalisation” of energy. Eskom’s mandate remains to provide power for all. Sadly, Eskom’s massive debt remains on our balance sheet, but the lights are going up in two years. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Samson Gwede “Tiger” Mantashe 0 – Ramaphosa 2.

This masterstroke decision on energy reforms alone will turbocharge business confidence and add another 0.5% to the GDP by conservative estimates. We need growth; any growth will do at present. Since 2009 coinciding with the ascendency of uBaba to the Union Buildings, our GDP has been as elusive as the #Tembisa 10 decuplets.

As if you were on service delivery steroids, you jetted off to Britain for a photo-op with the presidents of the wealthiest countries (G7). While busy chewing on a piece of eye fillet steak, washing it down with the best of Scotch whiskeys, during the barbecue held by the beach, you still managed to charm the US President Joe Biden to include South Africa on the vaccines donations bonanza. Well done!

You pulled off these significant structural reforms in seven short days, all in June. This marks a critical turning point in the policy trajectory of our country. You have fired the first shot, but what we really need is the rapid, friendly fire of structural reforms to power the economy to dizzying heights. But what do I know? Ah, I know I should quit prattling on about the government because, according to the Witness reader Sarah Pennington of Hilton, I don’t know the first thing about governing a country. Perhaps she has a point. Perhaps. Till next week my man. “Send me”.

This Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu is written by Bhekisisa Mncube a former senior Witness political journalist, the 2020 regional winner in the Opinion category of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award, and author of The Love Diary of a Zulu Boy, a memoir. This opinion piece was first published in the Witness/News24.