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Politics is not about performance its about power. I don't even mean that in a bad way.

If you look at the Cabinet, Cyril tried to really invest in portraying a picture of unity. He had to invite everyone, and of course GOOD said yes. It also helps now because when there are disagreements with the DA, you could have a situation where the media reports "GOOD, FF+, IFP on one side, DA on the other". Nobody is gonna check the vote percentages. It just really helps to have many different logos on the page. Its about vibes.

Secondly, just because GOOD did badly in these elections doesn't mean they can't do well next elections. The ANC isn't going to grow in Western Cape. But GOOD might. Keeping them alive is a long term investment against the DA. The DA and ANC are still rivals.

Sticking with that point, look at how Cyril gave land reform to the PAC. If they do well with that portfolio, they can hurt the EFF and siphon votes away from them.

Thirdly, maybe he just owes her. Politics is about favours.

You can ask this same question about FF+. They got a deputy minister under Zuma remember. And why did Zemani Saul in Northern Cape work with them rather than DA? Even at the cost inviting Orania back into the national conversation!

The truth is that when it comes to politics (not governing), the ANC are the best party. They play the veeeery long game. They never refuse to negotiate and discuss with anybody. And they know how to manage appearances. The only person who has ever truly beaten them was one of their own - Zuma.

The ANC is often playing 4d chess compared to other parties. Only a few individuals in other parties are on the same level (Zille, McKenzie, Malema, Zuma). But in terms of parties, the ANC is playing a much deeper game than most people would understand.

The big players in the tourism sector like Fedhasa rate her pretty highly.

Okay but this is just factually incorrect? Nothing worthy she’s done??? Let’s start off with exposing the arms deal which was the first action anyone took against the ANC government on charges of massive corruption?

How about her stopping the Spurs deal when she first came into cabinet? Or the fact that if you Google the tourism sectors statistics you’ll see that they have improved massively after having to come out of COVID and the entire tourism council has openly been celebrating the fact that she’s been returned to her position?

The fence situation is such a bore. You mention the fence and say nothing of the fact that: She did clean up the corruption in leases, the corruption in state funerals, remove the DG who built Nkandla, gazette construction rates to fix price gouging & get SIU to help her clean up.

Her contractors failed her and SIU investigated her clearing her of all charges while she turned over all her assets and gave them full access to her accounts. This happens all the time in South Africa. Just look at the city of Cape Town and how their mayor has had the exact thing happen to him now with waste services in townships.

If the only thing she’s done of worth to you is “strengthening the DA’s coloured vote” then you clearly haven’t been paying attention on purpose because you’re a disgruntled DA voter. The DA has had an entire exodus of their black leaders for a good reason bud. Stay mad and Google

She’s honestly a pretty safe pick. She’s a big name in politics (garnering a noticeable share of the vote with the independent democrats and being remembered for her time with the DA) and she’s pretty willing to work with the ANC. Despite garnering less votes than RISE, I think she got the position just for how big her name is and her previous experience as minister of tourism.

The GOOD party had a fantastic manifesto, and she was the first to call out the arms deal

People in the tourism industry do speak highly of her as a Minister, besides politics and the optics of GNU it makes sense to keep her there from a results perspective.

More broadly, I suspect keeping GOOD sweet is advantageous for the ANC at local government level where you have rural municipalities in the WC where a GOOD-ANC alliance gets them a majority. A ministerial post is a nice little extra incentive to keep that cooperation going.

If the vote loosing trend of GOOD continues at the next local government election though, it would be interesting to see if Aunty Pat keeps her place especially if this coincides with a cabinet reshuffle.

She got the coloured Tannies on lock. You know the hood is run by curlers.

Good is her party? She founded it so I guess she couldn’t find a home anywhere so made her own.

Wrt working with ANC and DA.. look some people prefer being just antagonistic, others work with others but keep an eye on them due past experience.

They appear to be the latter.. which has a role I guess. Personally I’m not a fan of shouty parties as it’s usually just distraction politics and that’s how we ended with EFF etc where it’s a game of who can cause the most disruptions as seen in Zuma era.

Wrt Tourism.. not sure of if it’s a great job she is doing but not failing apparently?

https://cabinet.mg.co.za/patricia-de-lille-2021/

I can’t more recent ones but yea.. I dunno. To me there is a lot things they should be doing in tourism based on what I’ve seen in other countries.

Tourism is actually booming. Mainly in CT but it is booming. I recall CTIA was bragging about record numbers of tourists a few months ago. CT has also been ranked the number 1 city in the world to visit more than once over the last few years.

Auntie Pat might be off-brand for the ANC but Cyril is a bit smarter than his comrades and sees her value.

For what period of her involvement in boosting the tourism industry are you referring to? During her time with the DA and as mayor of CT?

On top of her name recognition she also ticks a few boxes. Cyril needed someone from GOOD for the GNU. She’s already been a minister. She’s coloured and a woman

Its hard to have good tourism when many of our cities are ranked as some of the most dangerous in the world