A cabinet reshuffle is on the cards after home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba’s resignation, a day before the deadline set by the public protector for President Cyril Ramaphosa to take action against him for lying under oath.
Business Day understands that more changes to the executive are expected, although Ramaphosa has not decided on the timing, with elections, likely to be followed by a wholesale reshuffle, due in about six months.
Other factors under consideration are understood to be the court processes around minister in the presidency Bathabile Dlamini, who was also found to have lied under oath when dealing with the SA Social Security Agency grant-payment fiasco during her tenure as social development minister.
Gigaba is the second minister to resign since Ramaphosa took office in February.
He was found by the courts to have lied under oath in the Fireblade Aviation matter, a dispute with the Oppenheimer family over whether he had given permission for the opening of a private terminal at OR Tambo International Airport.
One of the more controversial ministers, he was also found to have violated the constitution and the executive code of ethics.
An ally of former president Jacob Zuma, Gigaba was identified in a report by the Public Affairs Research Institute as a central figure in the re-purposing of the country’s state-owned enterprises to enable state capture. He also faced criticism for enacting visa regulations that the tourism industry blamed for damaging a sector that accounts for more than 10% of the economy and is one of the biggest sources of employment.
Former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene resigned in October after he admitted at the Zondo commission into state capture that he had failed to declare meetings with the Gupta family, associates of Zuma who have been accused of using connections to the former president to channel government resources to their various business interests.
Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane gave Ramaphosa until Wednesday to take action against Gigaba, whose portfolio will now be temporarily taken over by transport minister Blade Nzimande.
A statement from the presidency on Tuesday said Gigaba was "stepping aside for the sake of our country and the movement to which he belongs".
It has been a difficult two weeks for Gigaba, which saw the Constitutional Court dismissing an application for him to appeal a judgment, which found he had lied under oath, and the public protector’s finding against him.
Gigaba suffered another blow from the court on October 29, when his application for leave to appeal was dismissed on the grounds that it ‘‘bears no prospects of success’’.
That judgment was handed down two days before Mkhwebane, herself facing a court challenge to her fitness to hold office, ruled against Gigaba.
Mkhwebane investigated a complaint laid by DA parliamentary chief whip John Steenhuisen after the High Court in Pretoria found in December 2017 that Gigaba had told "untruths" under oath in the matter between him [in his capacity as home affairs minister] and the Oppenheimers’ Fireblade Aviation.
Mkhwebane said that Steenhuisen’s allegation was substantiated, and she gave Gigaba an opportunity to respond, but he failed to do so.
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