It was a devastatingly sad week for SA with the passing of Jackson Mthembu, the ANC’s warmest and most universally liked public figure. President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers many eulogies but his tribute to Mthembu came from deep within: “I have lost not just a dependable colleague and a comrade. I have lost a dear friend, and it is a loss I feel most keenly.”
Mthembu’s untimely departure underlines in Ramaphosa what is true of many leaders, but particularly of him as he sits at the apex of a fractured ANC: it is lonely at the top.
On Sunday, hours after Mthembu’s funeral, Ramaphosa gave his closing remarks to the ANC’s national lekgotla, its planning session for the year, committing to the urgent private procurement of electricity generation from outside Eskom and the urgent freeing up of broadband spectrum.
These were the same priorities articulated at 2020’s lekgotla and they were a central pillar of the state of the nation speech a year ago. That Ramaphosa should again be committing his government to doing things while the responsible ministers look on is an indication of the extent to which he is able to galvanise their support. While quick progress here is vital to the overall success of Ramaphosa’s presidency, the ministers concerned — Gwede Mantashe and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams — are invested in doing things at their own pace, with the outcomes subject to the interests of whoever they are lobbied by and their personal political careers.
This is true for all but a small handful of people in the cabinet. Each has their own immediate financial interests and political career top of mind. This is an environment in which commercial interests are lobbying intensely. It is also one of shifting personal political alliances and allegiances. Their eyes are fixed on their political future, not so much on the economic priorities.
There are also two big problems: the deputy president and the finance minister. They are important to the support of the president. In a well-functioning administration, together with a few other senior cabinet ministers they should form the core of strategic thinking and planning. But both are largely and frequently absent.
Tito Mboweni believes — unlike any finance minister who has gone before him — that he should “stay in his lane”. It is not his business to argue the case against a bailout for SAA in the cabinet, he believes. It is also not his business to jump into the vaccine-funding debate when it is abundantly clear things are going awry and health minister Zweli Mkhize is begging the Solidarity Fund for a donation.
All of this is not helped by Mboweni’s halfhearted commitment to the job. He frequently shows signs of wanting to resign, but stays on as possible replacements are thin on the ground.
DD Mabuza is an enigmatic figure. In charge of all the interministerial committees in the government, he is an absolutely central cog in the administration, heading up energy and Eskom issues and now the rollout of the vaccine. But his capacity to deliver is unclear, as few results are ever seen and his health status is also a mystery. His relationship with Ramaphosa was never one of close comrade, but — along with ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile — he was the kingmaker who put Ramaphosa in power through some audacious machinations.
The hole Mthembu leaves as “faithful and loyal” will indeed be keenly felt. Mthembu was not a saint — he was frank about his failings in his personal life. And he may well have found himself politically compromised had he got the position he had wanted — communications minister — in the second Zuma administration in 2014. Fortunately, he did not, as that became a cesspool under Faith Muthambi and he may well have emerged tainted.
His exclusion situated him in the Ramaphosa camp when the fight against Zuma began. As chief whip he was in a particularly strategic position. One of his achievements at this time was shepherding the Political Party Funding Act through parliament — at the insistence of former ANC minister Valli Moosa and with the help of MP Vincent Smith — almost unnoticed by most of the ANC caucus, which was preoccupied with infighting at the time.
The day after Mthembu’s passing Ramaphosa gazetted a starting date for the act, which has been on his desk for more than a year. It is the most crucial piece of anticorruption legislation ever passed by parliament and will have a material impact on the corrupting force of money in party politics. It is also Ramaphosa’s best way to keep his ministers honest.
• Paton is editor at large.
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