Cabinet would be greatly strengthened by a far more rigorous process of priority setting so that it focuses on doing fewer things well. The Cabinet needs a small number of clearly defined priorities or it will flounder. This requires leadership and discipline.

In this series for Daily Maverick, executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), Ann Bernstein, makes the case for a policy agenda that is substantially different from what we have seen over the past 15 years. It is drawn from Agenda 2024: Priorities for South Africa's new government, which is based on CDE's extensive policy work and recent collaboration with experts, business leaders, former public servants, and others across our society. The project sets out to answer the most important question facing South Africa: what can a new government do to get the country back on track after 15 years of stagnation and decline?

This second article in the series recommends ways to restructure Cabinet and the Presidency as the first step towards fixing our collapsing state. Read Part 1 here.

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What are the priority actions that a new government should take to get South Africa out of its crisis of stagnation and decline?

First, the government needs to fix itself.

The best governments are run by Cabinets full of talented, knowledgeable, hard-working and ethical political executives who can lead the agencies that report to them effectively, while ensuring that a wider agenda, led by...