In 1994, when Madiba was cobbling together a government of national unity (GNU) , his position was unenviable. No matter which way he played it, it was clear he could not please everybody. Through his reconciliatory offensive he was able to allay white fears around the trepidation of a swaartgevaar that supposedly wanted to grab white-owned land and drive the ‘settler’ back into the ocean. On the flip side, the majority had spoken. Out! with minority rule and apartheid; thusly voted the previously marginalized. For all the ANC’s Struggle campaign and sacrifice, there it was; 62.65% of the national vote – their starting block to wedge forth on a mandate to right the wrongs of the erstwhiles.
And, it all fell into place at the right time, a time where apartheid’s most craven supporters weren’t really sure anymore, with 68.6% of them voting ‘yes’ in the famous referendum of 1992. Where, in the face of the Berlin Wall crumbling down to signify the end of that other ideological war, the domestic armed struggle had no idea what to do with the Makarovs and Molotovs. Throw them into the sea along with the pangas as Madiba had instructed? Or deploy them to their logical conclusion: to slash the throats of the former oppressor as retribution and to forcefully reclaim the land? Sadly, some of those weapons wound up in the bloody tribal wars that flared up in the years leading up to the nation’s first democratic election.
More than anybody, this must’ve weighed heavily on the old man. Faced with a militant and conspiratorial far-right, an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) hellbent on usurping the role of the Mass Democratic Revolution (MDR), Madiba himself desperate not to seem like a deferential housen****r on his unpopular crusade to extend an olive branch to the Afrikaner. To lift up the William Webb Ellis trophy in a Springbok jersey that invited ire in some parts of black SA, this as he proudly told everybody that he read Afrikaans literature – a language that many found synonymous with ‘the oppressor’. To make a national hero of the ‘white Afrikaner woman’ who alerted authorities when Janusz Waluś had just pumped several bullets into the late SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani, killing him in cold blood. To allow for the ‘sunset clauses’ which guaranteed white civil servants a stake in the new South Africa, [and] helped to break the deadlock in the negotiations process,’ according to the Apartheid Museum website.
For these concessions, Madiba found his credentials challenged amongst hard-line comrades particularly in the PAC as some talked of as a ‘sell-out’, a tag that populists and those who claim extreme leftism continue to hurl ad nauseum. The EFF’s Julius Malema, as well as Andile Mngxitama, formerly of Black First Land First (BLF) and now kowtowing alongside Jacob Zuma’s MKP – in a bid to cast themselves as those whose birthright it is to unshackle the downtrodden from the bondage of white monopoly capital have nursed a particular obsession with such narratives. ‘It’s not an exaggeration, Mngxitama once wrote,’ to say Mandela’s leadership style, characterized by accommodation with the oppressors, will be forgotten, if not rejected within a generation.’
Comes now Cyril Ramaphosa the billionaire president who finds himself in Madiba’s shoes and recently appointed his motley GNU Cabinet. Probably more than his predecessor, he will find the criticism harsher, given that through Mbeki and Mandela, his antagonists have had enough practice to sharpen the diss, popularize it, with the hope of making it stick. In their arsenal, they will whip out how, even during apartheid, Ramaphosa, then serving as secretary general of the Union of Mineworkers had it far easy than most anti-apartheid activists. Already they are casting him as a *chizboy who got insanely wealthy even though, according to Malema, he doesn’t produce anything and has apparently relied on government business and smiling with white capitalists to accumulate his fortune.
Just as the latter part of Zuma’s presidency was characterized by ‘pay back the money’ in regard to the undue state-sponsored alterations to his Nkandla homestead, Ramaphosa will likely find that the ad hominens seek to portray the ‘ANC of Ramaphosa’ as one of unadulterated elitism which doesn’t mind selling the revolution to the highest bidder. Ramaphosa therefore would’ve had to be surgical when deciding who would constitute his Cabinet: too many DA ministers in critical economic portfolios and he’s pandering to the Stellenbosch money men. Not enough of them and he’s not playing fair and is operating in bad faith.
Analysts on various publications have said as much, feeling that the DA has gotten a bad deal in as far as proportional representation goes. But I’m not sure if they are being fair themselves given the maturity that, for the most part, the ANC has shown towards the formation of this government. No matter the optimism or cynicism towards the GNU, it’s clearly all touch-and-go and even the DA has seemingly come to terms with the fact that on some previously contentious issues it’ll have to learn to put the gloves away and to bite its tongue.
The new Cabinet has ballooned from 61 to 75 and requires a budget estimated North of R1billion annually whilst flying against previous government commitment to trim it down. This stands contrary to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s criticism against the Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers who’d recommended a 3.8% increase for all office bearers last year. If it’s any consolation they’d eventually bag a 3% hike, itself a slap in the face of the poor not to mention the scores with no work to turn up to.
But nobody in the GNU, not least the DA’s John Steenhuisen, for years harping on that the Executive were little more than a pack of incompetents simply there to play Candy Crush on state-sponsored iPads whilst chowing dik on the sly, has said much. Or perhaps he’s experienced a Damascus moment now that he’s been rubbing shoulders with the fat cats of the ‘broad church’. We understand conversions are not an uncommon thing along the hallowed pews of power. One moment the oke is known to knock back Klippies and Coke and talk cricket, next he’s swirling potstilled single malts and asking how Sundowns are doing on the log. Objecting points of order … dololo! No hand raised on the part of our man to say; Thanks but no thanks Comrade Cyril. You know mos we don’t roll like that here in the DA … the cadre deployment thing, for us it’s merit; certificates, experience, you know – or the highway.
But looking obviously pleased with himself on the day of the swearing-in such an objection would’ve been the furthest thing on his mind. Not to make a meal of it but aside from just holding a Matric certificate, Steenhuisen comes across as the sort of bloke who’d rather pay somebody than to get his hands dirty planting so much as a bed of potatoes. In which case, he’s in luck. The guys he’s been pointing fingers at for the same sins will likely advise him to worry not! What does he think the army of support staff – never mind that they’re a burden on taxpayers – are for? Duh!
First impression I got is that, for the most part, the Executive appear a ceremonious entity; more anodyne beaurocrats than punctilious know-hows. If not, then explain why is it that the skills that some of them have are inconsistent with the portfolios they command. Or why a Minister who performed dismally in one portfolio would be recycled to another – usually one more demanding than the one she failed in? The appointment of the PAC’s Mzanele Nyhontso to Land Reform and Rural Development is instructive. Ramaphosa swiftly cleaved land reform from Steenhuisen and put it in the hands of a party whose rallying cry is ‘izwe lethu’ – our land – to give the impression that the ANC is still committed to land reform. A white face from a party that some accuse of being an advocate of private property rights at the expense of ignoring to address the land question would not have done the president any favours.
The goal, it would appear, is to keep it business as usual, just fronted by different faces on the government website. In this GNU, seemingly said faces fulfill a two-pronged purpose: 1) to keep President Cyril Ramaphosa’s friends close enough as to shield him from a possible mutiny; 2) to facilitate the sort of GNU that will be amenable, compliant and not prone to outlandish outbursts and conspiratorial power plays. The last thing the ANC needs is a coalition partner who starts asking about Marikana, the sealed #CR17 campaign reports, accuses the IEC of vote-rigging and challenges the Public Protector’s report on Phala Phala.
Unsurprisingly, leftist quarters have been sulking but a defeaning silence rings loud from our friends in the liberal press. By the look of things, to them, previous talking points like ‘merit’ and ‘scraping race-based laws’ have taken the backburner now that the calamity in the form of an ANC-EFF / MKP coalition has been evaded. Rather the not-so-exceptionally-educated Steenhuisen in a ministry that he might not be clued-up on than the toy?-gun-toting Julius Malema getting anywhere near the levers of real power. Don’t even get us started on that guy who’s always singing about being handed his machine gun.
From the onset, this is the outcome liberal entities have been stumping for: the DA getting a swing on the wicket of real decision-making powers. These pundits use the DA’s governance record as validation that it is probably the only party that could improve the nation’s moribund economic prospects. The ANC, however, doesn’t appear to be thinking governance; on its mind is the more primal desire to consolidate and survive. Hence, having been MIA a while, I had to scratch my head going over the new Cabinet days after the official do.
Man! Angie Motsekga, the Minister who leaves the basic education department almost literally in s**t. Kids drowning in s**t in rural schools. Stuffy, overcrowded classrooms manned by incompetent teachers, who oversee the s******t literacy and numeracy levels on the planet. Thought the lady would be advised to rekindle her teaching career, instead Ramaphosa figured she would do better taking charge of the troops. Gwede Mantashe, seen as the gruff-voiced barrier to renewable energy is also back in the minerals and energy sector sans electricity, despite being heavily criticised for what some see as a stubborn and backward attitude towards coal. More than any other, his appointment illuminates the true nature of the GNU. Gwede is card-sharp. An eloquent man of words who commands substantial sway within the trade union movement and SA Communist Party. He is not the sort of guy you can simply get rid of and live to see another day in the hot seat. And he’s also not one you want to agitate by demotion.
As these guys settle into their roles, one can’t dispel the whiff of impunity and unaccountability that reeks in the echelons of power. Clearly the whole notion of promising to fire non-performing ministers in previous years was a ruse to quiet down detractors. Ramaphosa’s concern is more ANC / self-preservation than to jack up his underlings. That the DA has gone along with some of these appointments suggests that they’ve gone from an active opposition government into pliable partners. Take the National Health Insurance Bill, for example, which the party had said it would challenge in court. In an about-turn they have put their desire to litigate on hold, preferring instead to find a solution through the GNU. I’m not sure what this would mean for SA but one is tempted to hope that in the absence of a people-centred government, the next port of call would be our Chapter 9 institutions, especially the Office of the Public Protector. But given her report on Phala Phala, there are those who might not be sure exactly on whose side she’s on.
*Chizboy is township slang for a spoilt brat or someone who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth.