Pemmy Majodina, the new minister of water affairs & sanitation, is a breath of fresh air who has done a great job of hiding her management skills and policy know-how. From the OR Tambo school of humility, she doesn’t go around bragging about her water policy or economic management — so long as her boss knows that under her colourful hats lies a world-class brain.
That is why, when Ramaphosa needed a water affairs minister, Majodina was the best candidate. I am surprised the apartheid government did not send her to Robben Island, as I can imagine she must have been one of the brains behind various stages of the struggle.
Until recently, she was the ANC’s chief whip in parliament, in charge of the ANC caucus. When she became chief whip in 2019, the caucus had 230 members. Each parliamentary seat comes with at least R1m a year in constituency office fees. In effect, she was in charge of a R230m a year budget.
Being the streetwise restructuring officer she is, she worked with her Luthuli House bosses to rightsize the caucus. They thought 40% of the vote or 159 seats was a more strategic position from which to run South Africa. Voila, Majodina has been rewarded with the water infrastructure ministry when everyone sees water as the next Eskom.
It’s all a bad joke; when the DA fails, 'Cyril's economy' will have failed too
Majodina has been famous and prominent for as long as I can remember. Having first met her in 2000 — she was a member of the NCOP — I have been struck by her lingering positivity and effusive personality. I am looking forward to the day she decides to ditch her conservative nature and let the whole world see her true talent so that we can all dip into her well of wisdom. She could not have become so prominent by simply being a colourful empty vessel. It’s sexist, condescending and counterrevolutionary on my part to even think she could be anything but a bright spark. I apologise.
Majodina and her boss mean serious business. Ramaphosa’s cabinet will fill Patrice Motsepe with envy. Since they are married to sisters, the next family gathering will be interesting. Ramaphosa may even brag about his cabinet being bigger than Sundowns’ fan base. Sundowns has only 57 supporters. Ramamphosa could host his cabinet meetings at Loftus Versveld and take up a bigger part of the stadium than Motsepe’s Sundowns fans do for home games.
There is a sense of toxic comedy in the cabinet’s design. The worst, or the best, is the pairing of DA ministers with ANC deputy ministers. The best, or worst joke was reserved for the DA’s Solly Malatsi, the new communications minister, who has the ANC’s Mondli Gungubele as his deputy.
Gungubele was the actual minister of communications. He was, therefore, in charge of the department, supervising the director-general and deputy director-general until last month. In a politicised environment, civil servants may trust him more than Malatsi out of party allegiance. On the policy front, the officials will probably seek to resist change, which is a natural phenomenon. It will be worse in the case of a new party they do not trust or support.
The same situation of designed misalignment will probably play itself out in all the six ministries the DA is in charge of. Ramaphosa would have done this on purpose, as a way to limit the DA’s ability to wield serious political power. In basic education, for example, Makgabo Reginah Mhaule, previously the speaker of council at the Mbombela legislature, is deputy minister. This could be a poisoned chalice for new minister Siviwe Gwarube, considering the bureaucratic problems in primary education.
Also, the DA has a historically hostile stance towards the education union Sadtu, which it identified as the single biggest obstacle to improvement. Sadtu is already raring to have a go at Gwarube. Sadtu, more out of party allegiance than the politics of education, may seek to make Gwarube’s life difficult. If she is to settle in the role, she will need to create new relationships with existing education stakeholders.
It’s all a bad joke; when the DA fails, “Cyril's economy” will have failed too. The loser here will be Rampahosa himself (and the economy of course) unless the cabinet and the government of national unity front in parliament is designed to ward off difficult moments for the Buffalo himself — just in case something like the Phala Phala scandal rears its head again.
Ramaphosa has exercised great foresight. The GNU makes it easy for this network of 11 parties to protect him against any insult to his power. Wise guy! Even if we become truly waterless, his well will never be dry, politically speaking.
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