We all know that situation. You are at a gathering, perhaps a braai or dinner party. It also happens on holidays with other couples. There is someone there you don’t quite gel with — they have an odd view on this or that issue of the day, they married that guy you can’t quite work out, they don’t cook their pap the way you would. Yet either because, of course, dearest gentle reader, you are the bigger person, or perhaps you are not, but under strict instructions from the matriarch not to create a scene — you all behave like grown-ups for the greater good and with some polite nods and small talk you bumble along. “Ah, this pap is lovely” you say through gritted teeth.

The cabinet at the moment perhaps feels a little like this. For the greater good (keeping the forces of populism and anti-constitutionalism at bay) and actually getting on and making a difference), everyone is saying they are getting on swimmingly — and indeed probably are behind the scenes albeit with some gritted teeth. There seems a concerted effort to be grown-ups (as opposed to politicians?).

Just like that other couple on holiday, however, with the better car or something that generates side eyes of envy, one can quite imagine President Cyril Ramaphosa is in something of a pickle with energetic newbies of all parties (even from his own), showing up some of the moribund elements of his past administration.

Whether it is Parks Tau and his deputy impressing in Washington DC, or Ronald Lamola striking a more mature and balanced tone in London, or Leon Schreiber gazetting things in days not months, or Gayton McKenzie actually showing a bit of passion as a minister — the president must be equally rather pleased his administration is doing things, but also slightly embarrassed about what came before.

Here mindset is all. Grown-ups can roll with problems and can take the bigger picture view. The attitude of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC has shocked people because there was seemingly a political puberty in a matter of days after the elections where they realised the need to work with the IFP and DA, to make changes in eThekwini and basically just grit their teeth and get on with it. As such they have been the poster child of the government of national unity (GNU) — with eThekwini on the naughty step. It wasn’t so much the actions of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC that have surprised as their mindset. (Quite a lot of the evidence before the elections did not point in this direction for sure).

This is important because there will be drama over the coming two years to the first major test point of the GNU in the 2026 elections. The wrong mindset will easily see it blow up.

Of course, just as with that awkward dinner party — some accepted norms are helpful. Better still in coalition to write them down. I am slightly concerned that the informality, almost the bumble along without strict rules, suits the president’s risk aversion rather.

People seem to forget that the GNU does not have a coalition government agreement at present at all. The GNU statement of intent signed before the cabinet was formed is no such agreement, dealing with only the very highest level of principles and broadest brushstrokes of how decisions will be taken by a form of enhanced consensus. This is not how coalitions are run around the world — indeed was not the internal or external advice to the ANC before the elections.

Policy agreements are ongoing now in the weeds of cabinet subcommittees and will be relatively easier on the economic side, harder on hot-button issues such as empowerment, National Health Insurance and foreign policy. As such the issue then becomes if there is cabinet collective responsibility, if so how that works — on each issue or a carve out for parties (rather than ministers) on specific issues. These are crucial issues to bed down for the GNU to last five years not just two. Again a grown-up mindset prevailing can mean such agreements are formed, but equally a grown-up mindset should realise that a further stage of agreement is needed and bumble along cannot work in the worst of times the GNU might face.

The right mindsets, however, in the past two weeks have been sorely lacking at Eskom. Eskom Holding Company’s objection to trading licences runs completely counter to the reform mindset required to move the electricity supply system forward and is an unfortunate step backwards on an otherwise bumpy but forward-moving road the entity was assumed to be on. In objecting to Nersa on the new trading licences Eskom seemed to ignore that traders are a key part of government policy, that there are already six traders in place anyway and that their arguments sounded completely bizarre. Making things worse, the basic gist of their argument was that no-one else can do what they do — the classic monopoly mindset.

Eskom’s central point is that tariff unbundling and a variety of other things are not complete yet — which is true — but equally if we all waited for every sequential step to complete on reforms then nothing would ever happen. Nersa rightly caught the entity in the act with (virtual) raised eyebrows at the arguments being offered and we shall see the outcome of Nersa’s deliberations. The regulator might well end up — now outside the protective “get out of jail free card” oversight of Gwede Mantashe — being like the KwaZulu-Natal ANC and knowing which way the wind is blowing — take the necessary step up.

Still the case highlights the monopoly blob mindset is still alive and well and the “onion” problem of reform and so many layers of complexity that keep needing to be dealt with. Eskom’s response was not “OK this will create a problem for us, but the electricity reform winds are blowing this way so how do we square the circle” it was instead to throw up the monopoly walls. I also highlights why the National Transmission Company of SA — which has its own fights between its management and board about “mindset” on the future of the system — needs to be fully spun out from under Eskom Holdco.

Transnet is continually at risk of the same — though on the issue of rail access tariffs its admission in recent months that it had set these too high in draft rules, and so would see what the regulator would come up with — showed certainly a degree of maturity.

Ironically, deputy president Paul Mashatile rather showed he did get it in the weekend papers talking on the sale of SAA, while supposedly SOE-responsible minister Maropene Ramokgopa’s recent comments on SOEs and the developmental state role on ownership was rather of the old-school flavour. Clarity on SOEs is still not present two months post elections despite recent speeches and needs to be urgently corrected.

Herein is the key thing for the president, for ministers and for SOEs especially — someone has to set to top down mood music and the sense of unstoppable momentum in key directions. In the last administration that momentum was started but contested and contradictory at times. Last week’s excellent Presidential Climate Commission report on climate progress made such contradictions clear as one example. The recent opening of parliament address set some mood music and had a ‘Dragi-esq’ line of “whatever it takes” to unblock growth blockages. This should be warmly welcomed, though it is actually one of the least commented on parts of that speech.

Charging with a battering ram is not the president’s usual style — though he has reform-minded people around him who are more adept at this. New ministers of all parties — including new ANC ones — will find stasis, wrong mindsets and onion problems to batter through.

A grown-up “whatever it takes” mindset is surely the place to start, however. Follow the evidence and the data and charge forward.

• Peter Attard Montalto leads on political economy, markets and the just energy transition at Krutham, a SA research-led consulting company.