No Fear, Just Favour
Written by: Stephan Stringer
Since 2010, President Jacob Zuma has reshuffled his cabinet four times. And boy, he has made some changes.
With South Africa’s most anticipated general elections over, the ruling African National Congress’ (ANC) leader has once again reshuffled his cabinet. This time, it seems more based on favouritism than qualification. Let me tell you why…
If we take a step back and look at South African politics and the performance of each department, we can safely deduce that Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi (PW) and Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities (WCPD) Lulu Xingwana should’ve been the first to go. Yet things get rather interesting quickly.
From 30 of the 42 scorecards that assessed the performance of national departments, WCPD,PW and Military Veterans Departments sit disgustingly at the bottom of the pile.
Now I’m not saying that Communications Minister Dina Pule, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Richard Baloyi are worthy of any accolade when considering their past performances,yet they were axed while Nxexi and Xingwana managed to ‘dodge the bullet’.
So did Zuma axe them based on their performances or on whether he liked them more and saw how beneficial it would be to have them on his team?
So what’s the beef? And why them rather than the other under-performing ministers?
Dina Pule
Probably one of President Zuma’s biggest mistakes was his trusting her to give her all. What I’m saying might be harsh, but this is perceptual validation. Here’s the reason: Pule, who served as Deputy Minister of Communications when President Zuma took office in 2009 and then became Minister of Communications after the passing of Roy Padayachie, was seen by many political analysts as being ‘rewarded’ for her loyalty. And in turn he saw her abuse the position and trust that he invested in her by her not living up to her mandate.
Although she had fought a desperate and almost convincing rear-guard booting (not only to protect herself as Minister of Communications but as a political player), she failed. This was primarily due to rumours of her personal life being splashed on every newspaper’s front page.Investigations into her administrative capabilities (and whether or not she’s a force to be reckoned with) were closely followed by those in the political sphere and the general public alike.
This in turn embarrassed the ANC and Zuma and it questioned whether or not he was able to hire competent staff. Essentially, her mistakes and failures were his and as such he would be seen as being ineffective. So she had to go- and fast!
Tokyo Sexwale
Described as a ‘heavyweight’ within the ANC, Sexwale might be the biggest loser in Zuma’s reshuffle. As Gauteng’s first premier in 1994, Sexwale was even considered alongside the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa to spearhead the presidential candidate position when Nelson Mandela stepped down in 1999. Yet he was embroiled in a soup of maladministration when he held the post of Human Settlements Minister. This was in spite of his department having an ever-cumulative budget.
But what could’ve been his greatest failure was his being infamously accused of being part of the ‘Forces of Change’. The ‘Force’ had resisted the re-electionof President Zuma as the ANC’s President at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung last year. This was probably the tipping-point where the mistrust and deception boiled over for Zuma, allowing Sexwale to go from being a heavyweight and respected Apartheid veteran to being cast out as ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘traitorous’ to Zuma and his followers.
Richard Baloyi
From one problem to the next. Crisis to crisis. This was the life of Richard Baloyi during his not-so-spectacular brief term as Minister of Public Service and Administration. There was no gap to breathe. It all started with his department not being able to produce clean audits (clean opinions) for two consecutive years. This in turn led to his department not exercising their ability to intervene in municipalities, which needed their support most with regards to financial management. It was just never MrBaloyi’s day - many analysts would agree that he was doomed from the start. Let’s not even get started with the media frenzy created once it was found that Mr Baloyi had been behind the chaos South African municipalities found themselves in.
Yet the question still stands: was the sacking of the aforementioned a pre-emptive decision on behalf of the presidency… or was it based on who would stick to the National Executives’ ‘Number One’ when the paw-paw hit the fan? Favouritism perhaps?
Fikile Mbalula
But what worries me the most is that, irrespective of comments made at the Mangaung conference last year and his being ‘anti-Zuma’ at the time, Minister of Sports Fikile Mbalula survived the axing. He did so by simply getting a ‘slap on the wrist’. This was most likely due to his being one of the key figures in getting Zuma into power. So once again we question the favouritism factor. Does Mbalula come across as being the ‘Judas’ who will ultimately be the cause of his leader’s fall through betrayal?
Angie Motchekga
If I were to start discussing the shock I experienced when it was announced to me that Minister of Basic Education Angie Motchekga had ‘dodged the bullet’, we would be here for a while.
But if we were to quickly summarise why her head should’ve rolled, Minister Motchekga failed to head the processing of textbooks and the delivery thereof with efficiency. Many remember the Limpopo textbook scandal when students were left ‘intellectually abandoned’ for months on end. ‘Til today, thousands of text books have not been delivered.
When the Basic Education Department was questioned on the matter, Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga simply replied by saying that ‘textbooks have indeed been delivered to all the schools in Limpopo, owing to the credibility of the available data and a lack of co-operation from some school principals who elected not to report shortages to the department’.
So my question is: why had Mrs Motchekga’s administration been so careless in verifying the efficiency of school principals on a regular basis? Surely the understanding should be that if you’re not co-operating and/or being efficient, you should go! This is a slap in the face to aspirant students whose rights have been violated simply because their ‘superiors’ can’t manage themselves. Why should the students suffer?
You may look at this as ‘not being her fault’ but the basis of power comes from the top. If there’s no stronghold at the top of the power pyramid, the result for those underneath will be crippling.
It’s absolutely shocking that someone who blurts out statements like: “I’m not responsible for delivering Textbooks in Limpopo; I can’t be blamed for that,” and “I don’t even know what is happening in classes,” during an interview with the public broadcaster can be trusted to ensure the well-being of a department that affects the future educational enrichment of South Africa.
One has to question whether these new cabinet changes are actually credible and whether those who have been reshuffled into positions are there based on credentials and not preference. It is clear that the preferentialism factor cannot be taken out of the equation. It sticks out like a stubbed toe on a cold day.