Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Trade, Industry & Competition, will leave the cabinet after next week’s election.
Patel, 62, joins Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan in announcing that he won’t serve in the next national executive.
The minister plans to spend more time with his family, he said in an interview with Business Day.
Patel, a former trade unionist, has run the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) since its creation under former president Jacob Zuma in 2009.
He is a rarity in that he has not been implicated in any corruption scandals during his lengthy tenure. Patel was considered hardworking and hands-on.
However, Patel has been heavily criticised by industry bodies, opposition parties and analysts for supporting centralisation, favouring big business, implementing trade policies harmful to small businesses, and for directing his Competition Commission powers at crucial industries, potentially hampering their capacity for growth and creation of employment.
One of his career highlights was implementing policies protecting the local clothing industry, which saved the industry and created employment locally.
Another high point was his support of employee share ownership schemes, which he felt had the potential to go some way to address inequality.
Others included the government’s black industrialist programme, South Africa’s role in setting up the African Free Trade Agreement during the Covid-19 pandemic, and introducing rooibos tea into the Chinese tea market.
Last year, Patel led a high-level delegation to smooth over relations with the US, after South Africa’s participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act came under threat due to the country’s partiality towards Russia, now at war with US ally Ukraine.
Patel will leave office on the eve of the presidential inauguration in about three weeks, when the whole Cabinet will be officially dissolved.
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