Kameraad Mhambi

Kameraad Mhambi – for the most part – likes the look of the new ANC cabinet. I have a feeling it has a higher competency quotient than Mr Mbeki’s had. I particularly like the cerebral Jeremy Cronin and will watch him closely.

And Baleke Mbete did not make the cut.

Mbete had of course obtained a drivers license fraudulently and had fought for the Travel Gate fraudsters to be let off the hook.

This anti-social behaviour was unfortunately most probably not the reason she was left out however. Says the Mail and Guardian:

…former deputy president Baleka Mbete, who overplayed her hand in trying to force the ANC to re-appoint her as deputy president. She was unceremoniously sent back to Luthuli House where a role for her is yet to be defined, given that the national chairperson of the party has never been outside of Cabinet.

So there you have it. She was uppity. The ANC hates uppity.

Which is probably why Winnie Mandela and Pallo Jordan did not get the nod either. They are likely to speak their minds. But Barbera Hogan, another MP with principles have made it. Firing her would have created a lot of ill feeling. And it would have incurred the wrath of Zackie Achmat and the well organised Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).

But what about Johnny de Lange? Fiery yes, but the ex deputy minister knew his place. He had been tasked to reform the criminal justice system, something he immersed himself in. And according the the Mail & Guardian was considered a shoe-in for justice minister.

But – he also was the man behind the concept and inception of the elite Scorpions Investigation Unit. Yes that Unit that was so successful in investigating high level corruption and crime, AND that was apparently abused by ex-President Mbeki to settle political scores. The unit that the Zuma ANC hated and shut down. So no real surprise here.

Which brings me to two brand spanking new members of the cabinet that caught my eye. Geoff Doidge and Andries Nel.

Johnny De Lange did not become justice minister AND he lost his deputy post to Andries Nel.

I previously blogged about Doige and Nel, once described by Andrew Feinstein as ultra-loyal members of the ANC. Kameraad Mhambi suspects they were not only chosen for their steadfast loyalty, but also because they are good at what they do – in the operational sense of the word.

You will remember that Mr. Doige and Nel were flown in by the ANC to chair Scopa (Parliament’s committee that was tasked to oversee public spending) when it became clear that fellow ANC member Andrew Feinstein – then the chair – wanted to give the matter of the arms deal procurement an impartial hearing.

Things were threatening to go pear shaped for the government.

The ANC had already put out public statement contradicting most of Feinstein’s Scopa’s findings before Doige and Nel came to the rescue.

This is of course according to Mr. Feinstein. But nobody has sued Mr. Feinstein over his allegations, so Kameraad Mhambi must assume they are still true.

The rest is history.

Parliament was emasculated and the arms deal has not under Doige or Nel – nor to this day – been investigated fully.

Now Mr Doige and Nel has been promoted to the cabinet as Minister of Public Works and Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development respectively.

Kameraad Mhambi wishes them the best of luck. I hope that next time round when they are presented with a moral choice of some import they wont keep their powder dry and speak out. And so they can prove us naysayers wrong.

PS: Perhaps I am wrong about the reasons for Mbete being given the boot. Perhaps Zuma is serious about cleaning up public life.

See Ngconde Balfour who has been linked to corruption in his Correctional Services department did not make the cut either. Or perhaps it was because his bungling of the Shaik (found guilty of a fraudulent relationship with Mr. Zuma) release.

That bungeling put extra pressure on Zuma and the ANC at a crucial moment before the election and perhaps that cost him his job.

Related deployments:

1. Let bygones be bygones Kameraad Nel? (Part 4)
2. Kameraad Mhambi responds to Kameraad Nel (Part 3)
3. BAE and arms deal perhaps in the dock at last
4. Kameraad Mhambi responds to Kameraad Nel (Part 1)
5. Kgalema Motlanthe’s elevation signal divided coalition against Mbeki