Ramaphosa and Mashatile both step back from duties on doctors' advice

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been booked off from public engagements on the advice of his medical team, and Deputy President Paul Mashatile is resting after a minor medical procedure. Neither man has stopped working entirely. Both have handed their scheduled public duties to others while they recover.

As the Mail & Guardian reported on 16 September, the Presidency announced on Wednesday that Ramaphosa had been advised to rest after returning from the BRICS summit in India on Monday. Mashatile disclosed his procedure in his own statement on Tuesday.

What the Presidency said

The Presidency said the President had been booked off from public engagements and had asked ministers to represent him where possible.

“Where possible, the President has asked the respective Ministers to represent him at scheduled public engagements,” the statement read.

That is how the arrangement is meant to work. A President who cannot attend a scheduled event does not leave the seat empty. He asks the minister whose department owns the subject to stand in for him, and the work of the state continues through the Cabinet.

Mashatile’s own account

Mashatile said in his statement that he had recently undergone a minor medical procedure and that his recovery was progressing well.

“On the advice of my doctors, I will continue resting until advised otherwise while work and delegated responsibilities continue to be undertaken by the capable team in my office, together with other stakeholders in government, business and other sectors,” he said.

He thanked his family, his medical team, his office, colleagues in government and the ANC, and Ramaphosa, along with South Africans who had sent messages of support. He said the messages had been a source of strength and that he looked forward to returning to his duties in full.

Mashatile has been ill for some time. No date has been given for his return to full duties.

What South Africans will notice

Two of the six offices at the top of the executive are being covered by deputies and ministers at the same time. The practical effect is limited, because the Constitution and the Ministerial Handbook already provide for a minister to act in the President’s place and for the Deputy President’s responsibilities to be delegated. The public engagements that get cancelled or reassigned are mostly ceremonial and representational. The decisions that require a signature still get signed, by whoever is designated to sign them.

What a reader should watch for is not a gap in the administration but a change in the diary. Summits, site visits, launches and keynote addresses will be delivered by ministers rather than by the President or his deputy. Those appearances are where policy is often announced and where journalists get to ask questions. Fewer of them means fewer opportunities to put a question to the top of the executive, at least for now.

The BRICS summit and what came before it

Ramaphosa returned from the BRICS summit in India on Monday. South Africa is a founding member of the group alongside Brazil, Russia, India and China, and the summit is one of the fixed points in the diplomatic calendar. A President who travels to it and then comes home to a doctor’s note is not unusual. Long-haul travel, a compressed schedule and a heavy bilateral programme are hard on anyone, and the Presidency has not said anything beyond the advice to rest.

Mashatile’s procedure was described by him as minor. He has not said what it was, and the public is not owed that detail. What he has said is that the work of his office continues.

The institutions that carry on

The Deputy President’s office is a standing structure with a staff, a diary and a set of delegated responsibilities that include work on the country’s social and economic programmes. When the principal is away, that structure keeps running. The same is true of the Presidency itself, which is a department with a Director-General, a policy unit and a communications office, not a single person.

South Africa has been here before. Presidents have been hospitalised, have taken medical leave and have returned to office, and the constitutional arrangements for acting in the office have been used without controversy. The system is designed for it.

What happens next

Ramaphosa’s return to public engagements will be announced by the Presidency when his medical team clears him. Mashatile has said he will rest until his doctors advise otherwise, and no date has been set for his return to full duties.

Source: Mail & Guardian, House to Let: Ramaphosa and Mashatile both off work due to Ill health.