LETTER: Why Shivambu will be South Africa’s best finance minister

During a radio interview with JJ Tabane, EFF president Julius Malema stated that the EFF would agree to a working relationship with the soon-to-be electorally defeated ANC if EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu is appointed finance minister and head of the National Treasury. In response, reactionary and right-wing semi-literate opposition political leaders, opinion makers and opportunists objected on ideological grounds and with a lack of comprehension of the role of the Treasury, with some wrongly suggesting Shivambu doesn’t have the capacity to lead the Treasury.

Shivambu is the most suitable and relevant candidate. However, he will be guided by the collective leadership, in line with the principles of the EFF, because no-one becomes an executive authority alone and for their own sake.

As the longest-serving member of the standing committee on finance over the past 10 years, over two terms of parliament, Shivambu has been instrumental in overseeing significant financial sector reforms.

Throughout this period, he has contributed to substantial legislative submissions. These include policy submissions on illicit financial flows, which led to the establishment of the inter-agency working group on illicit financial flows — a group originally proposed as the cross-agency task team by the EFF. And he’s contributed to submissions on the Banks Act of 1990, which paved the way for the Financial Matters Amendment Bill, which allows for state-owned companies to apply for a commercial banking licence.

In addition to parliamentary responsibilities, Shivambu is head of the governance task unit in the EFF, which provides oversight of more than 1,200 EFF representatives in provincial legislatures and municipal councils across the country, including those deployed as members of mayoral committees and chairs of oversight committees. This gives him exposure to and knowledge of the functioning of government at provincial and municipal levels.

As far as academic credentials are concerned, he has an honours degree from Wits University and [wrote] a dissertation that surveyed the differences between the growth, employment & redistribution policy and the accelerated & shared growth initiative for South Africa); an MA in development studies, with a thesis that examined the extent to which factions of capital influenced South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy; and an MSc in development studies from the School of Oriental & African Studies at University of London.

While Shivambu’s individual attributes are beyond question, what should convince people, including doomsayers, are the EFF’s key fiscal and monetary policy proposals. These include: aggressively combating tax avoidance, curbing illicit financial flows, expanding the tax base and implementing a wealth tax. Additional measures include funding infrastructure, prioritising maintenance and improving municipal revenue collection.

In essence, the EFF is uniquely positioned to bring about change. It would be unusual not to appoint a qualified and experienced individual under the guidance of progressive leadership to lead the Treasury. The doomsayers and reactionaries will obviously not appreciate this inevitable reality due to their subjective private interests of keeping the stagnant economy, inequality and poverty status quo intact.

Gumani Tshimomola
EFF senior researcher in the parliamentary caucus. His PhD thesis focused on the Treasury’s role in South Africa’s political economy

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