Mathume Joseph Phaahla assumes the mantle of health minister at a crucial time. Not only does he become the public face of the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, he will also be responsible for driving the ANC’s plans for national health insurance, the most sweeping and ambitious health reforms attempted in post-apartheid SA.
Phaahla was appointed deputy health minister in May 2014, a relatively low-profile role in which he was largely eclipsed by the energetic and prominent ministers who led the portfolio. He first served under Aaron Motsoaledi, who was appointed by former president Jacob Zuma and, more recently, under Zweli Mkhize, who was assigned the job by President Cyril Ramaphosa in May 2019.
Born in Ga-Phaahla in rural Limpopo in 1957, Phaahla’s long career in politics has given him the skill to deftly steer clear of the controversies that tainted Mkhize’s tenure. He avoided getting drawn into his predecessor’s public row with Medical Research Council president Glenda Gray over her forthright critique of the government’s lockdown regulations. He also appears untainted by the Digital Vibes scandal that has engulfed Mkhize and several senior health department officials. Mkhize was placed on special leave in June after it emerged that the little-known Digital Vibes, a company run by two of Mkhize’s close associates, had irregularly been awarded a huge communications contract that saw it rake in R150m.
He is well versed in the problems confronting both the national health department, which has suffered an exodus of top civil servants, and the health sector as a whole. To many he is the safe choice among the front-runners tipped for the post, who included parliament’s health committee chair Sibongiseni Dhlomo and Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba. Dhlomo was MEC for health in KwaZulu-Natal during a catastrophic crisis in oncology care, while Ramathuba alienated doctors with her heavy handed approach to forced quarantine at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Like his predecessor, Phaahla is a doctor, a non-negotiable requirement for any health minister serving in Ramaphosa’s cabinet. He studied at the University of Natal Medical School, now the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As one of the few tertiary institutions to admit black students at the time, it was home to intense political activism against apartheid and the crucible in which many of today’s senior health leaders were forged. Mkhize, Motsoaledi, Discovery executive director Ayanda Ntsaluba, National Health Laboratory Service CEO Kamy Chetty, and Dhlomo all attended the university’s medical school during this era.
Phaahla held leadership roles in a host of political organisations that took on the apartheid state, including the Release Mandela Campaign, the Azanian Students Organisation and the United Democratic Front, before becoming a member of the ANC’s provincial executive committee in Limpopo in 1991.
After graduating, Phaahla worked at various hospitals in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga, before his appointment as Limpopo’s first MEC for health and social development from 1994 to 1997. He then held a variety of positions in the world of sport, ranging from director-general in the department of sport and recreation to CEO of the SA Sports Commission. He also helped organise the 2010 Fifa world cup.
Phaahla was elected to the ANC’s national executive committee in 2007, paving the way for him to become deputy minister of rural development and land reform in May 2009, a position he held only briefly before being moved to the position of deputy minister of arts and culture in November 2020, and then to health in 2014.
Soft-spoken, with an understated demeanour, Phaahla has a reputation for being a calculating and talented strategist. He will need to bring all those skills to bear in drawing public and private sector players together to complete the government’s ambitious Covid-19 vaccination drive, while not losing sight of the reforms required to give patients across the board a better deal.
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