Kader Asmal and Mac Maharaj are being mooted as replacements for ailing Housing Minister Joe Slovo. Drew Forrest reports
CANCER-stricken Housing Minister Joe Slovo has taken a turn for the worse, giving sudden urgency to the question of who will replace him in his vital portfolio.
Slovo was this week confined to his home in Observatory, Johannesburg, where he was still mobile and in daily contact with his staff, said spokesman Stephen Laufer. His retirement was not currently on the cards, he added, but there was “no prognosis” as to when he would return to his office.
A friend, who asked not to be named, said Slovo was very ill. Observers had detected a visible deterioration in his health between the National Housing Summit in October and last month’s ANC conference.
Last week, President Nelson Mandela paid him a visit “to cheer him up”. ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa has also reportedly been to see him.
Because the Housing Ministry is central to the reconstruction and development programme, commentators are unanimous that Slovo’s successor will have to be a political heavyweight drawn from ANC ranks.
The ANC faces mounting pressure to deliver on its socio-economic pledges, and failure to do so in the months ahead could damage its showing in local government elections scheduled for October.
To minimise disruption to other key ministries — the new executive has been operational for only nine months — it would be logical to transfer a competent minister from a minor portfolio, the commentators said. Recruitment from provincial government was unlikely because the various MECs had not yet proved themselves.
Two possible replacements are being mooted in political circles: Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal and Transport Minister Mac Maharaj. Both have grassroots support – – Maharaj registered the fourth- highest vote in the national executive committee election at the ANC conference, while Asmal came in 19th.
Constitutional Development Deputy Minister Mahomed Valli Moosa, who was also mentioned, was generally discounted on grounds that the ANC requires him as a counterweight to his National Party minister, Roelf Meyer.
Mandela is known to admire Maharaj’s strategic cunning, but Asmal has made more impact as a minister, winning accolades for his decisive intervention in water disputes, as well as for his dynamism and consultative approach. Water and Housing are development portfolios and it is significant that Asmal attended the housing summit.
Weighing against him, commentators said, were his 27 years as an academic in Dublin while in exile. “Housing is a hands-on ministry which requires a lot of wheeling and dealing with diverse constituencies: civics, finance houses, the construction industry,” one said. “Slovo has the common touch — Asmal may be too highbrow, too urbane.” In addition, a major overhaul of the Water Act is planned for the coming session of parliament, and Asmal is known to be keen to pilot the legislation through.
Slovo was diagnosed as having bone-marrow cancer shortly after his return from exile four years ago. An oncologist, who asked not to be named, said it was a slow-acting disease which generally resulted in death through infection or renal failure in less than three years.
Friends say the minister has been “in crisis” since he was hospitalised in Cape Town in August after an allergic reaction to new treatment. Last month he suffered another setback, when he broke his shoulder in a fall.