When Tokyo Sexwale looks back on his tenure as premier, he will have few regrets, writes Charlene Smith
When Tokyo Sexwale delivers his last speech before the Gauteng legislature, he will take responsibility for all the successes and the failures of the Gauteng government. He will also, privately, reflect on what he calls the complex world of government politics and his relief that he has made a decision “to live my life. I want to make the best of life”.
Colleagues say he became unhappy about the plots and counter-plots in the African National Congress.
“It would be grossly erroneous to say that one can serve the nation and the country only from inside government. If anything, I have served people more for 28 years without being in government. I am sure there are those who can do better within government structures. “
Sexwale (44) denies what many believe: that Deputy President Thabo Mbeki shifted him to one side when his popularity was escalating and it was possible he would be chosen as a successor to Nelson Mandela.
He says: “We must back Thabo to the hilt. If the roof comes down, it comes down on all of us – that is why we must work with him and build the nation together.”
On why he is taking responsibility for failures in the Gauteng government, Sexwale says: “The challenge of leadership is to claim not just success, but even more the failures. I had an excellent legislature and a fantastic Cabinet. I admired the opposition – I did not always agree with someone like Peter Leon, but a vigilant opposition keeps a government on its toes.”
Sexwale is pleased too at the maturation of debate in the Gauteng legislature. “At first it was as though we lived in two different worlds. The opposition used a shotgun approach criticisng everything African National Congress, but now there is a greater sense that we have a common destiny and debates are now issue- specific.” Certainly Gauteng thrived under Sexwale. His mistakes were few. The rest of the provinces can make no similar claims, however.
Gauteng, a recent goverment report noted, is the best-managed province in the country, generating 40% of the economy. A cold in this province gives the nation pneumonia.
Sexwale believes the government needs to give more authority to the provinces. “It is sheer political aggression that has allowed us to have any influence. Jessie [Duarte, MEC for Safety and Security] works so hard, yet we do not have any control over police and can only monitor, criticise and congratulate them.
“Before we took office, Gauteng was the province of massive township violence, of right-wing bombs – Susan King was the first Member of the Gauteng Parliament to be killed by a bomb even before she took her seat. But those battles have been overtaken by the battle against crime. That is where the challenge is, but I don’t have any authority.
“I have sat here like a domestic worker incapable of making any impact on crime. I don’t have the authority to control police, not even a constable. All the direction comes from the national headquarters. If we could exercise greater authority, we would also have to be more accountable and work harder to end the problems of our provinces.”
When Sexwale entered office in 1994, he had no physical office, and a government that existed in the minds of planners only. He held his first interviews with the media in a Transvaal Provincial Administration office in Pretoria, decorated with a Bette Cilliers Barnard tapestry, oils of past provincial administrators, red velvet curtains and ashtrays made out of elephant feet.
One of the first tasks Sexwale set the new administration was a move to Johannesburg. Gauteng government offices are far less ostentatious. Sexwale’s office is adorned with photographs of him in the cockpit of a MIG-29 – flying is his passion – and a Madonna-and-child watercolour he had in his Robben Island cell. The only political leader adorning his walls is a tapestry of his beloved friend and comrade, the late Chris Hani.
The office is magnificent only for its view over Johannesburg. His desk is small and simple and he interviews guests in an unadorned enclave with comfortable furniture.
He won’t give details of his new job, other than to say there have been many job offers and he has merchant bankers scrutinising them all for him. Details of his new career will come late in January after his last day in office, January 19, almost a month ahead of the date when Mathole Motshekga, his successor, opens the 1998 session of the Gauteng legislature.
He says that what he enjoyed about his job as premier was “the challenge to build something new. In the beginning there was nothing except an entity with an acronym, PWV. We had to build a new province, a new capital city, to virtually create a new public service, a new government, a new Cabinet.
“We don’t own our buildings, we rent them very cheaply in the centre of Johannesburg. I have no state house. The home I live in is mine and is bonded to First National Bank. We have had no time to worry about fancy accoutrements; we had too much work to do.”
And although he won’t speak about his new job, what’s the bet he will be building something new and probably large again?