Who is . . . Paul Mashatile?
Mukoni T Ratshitanga
Way back in 1987, while in detention at the small Jeppestown police station, Paul Mashatile never imagined that his jailers would one day have to account to him.
Nor did the police themselves in those turbulent days think of being led by a township activist.
Today the office of the new Gauteng MEC for safety and security in downtown Johannesburg is not far away from his place of incarceration 11 years ago, and he commands the respect of his former jailers.
“Mashatile appeared a very collected prisoner. He refused to be broken by prison.
“Although I do not want favours from him as my MEC, I am happy to have smuggled newspapers to him during that time,” says a policeman who guarded him at Jeppe.
At first glance, Mashatile comes across as a stern school principal obsessed with results from teachers and students alike.
But he is unlikely to shout in anger, much less to wield the rod commonly associated with principals of old.
“He makes decisions that are carefully thought through and has the ability to come down to people,” says a senior Gauteng bureaucrat.
Evidence of this, say his supporters, is how he ran the transport portfolio, which he will be vacating when he takes over from Jessie Duarte.
Mashatile is widely held to have run the most efficient provincial transport department in the country.
“He was able to unite the various warring factions in the taxi industry. That for me is one of his greatest successes,” said the bureaucrat.
Mashatile says he believes in hard work, patience and perseverance.
“I would like to be remembered as a person who believed in the power of the collective.
“That is one of the things that sustained us even in prison – to build a community of political prisoners.”
Mashatile cut his political teeth as a student activist with the Congress of South African Students in the early 1980s.
He rose quickly in community structures, becoming the first president of the Alexandra Youth Congress in 1983.
In the same year, the young Mashatile represented this body at the launch of the United Democratic Front in Cape Town.
Two years later, he succeeded Valli Moosa as regional secretary of the UDF’s Southern Transvaal region.
Says a close friend and former activist: “If ever there is someone with very good struggle credentials, then it is Mashatile. He literally grew up in the African National Congress.
“At a time when the ANC’s base was in the doldrums in Alexandra, he, Obed Bapela [now provincial ANC secretary] and a few others took it up.
“That was the time when they were still wearing shorts.
“That’s how young they were. But they were incredibly mature and very eager to learn.”
And so came prison under the emergency regulations in 1985.
Mashatile became one of the country’s scores of political detainees, spending more than three years at Jeppe police station and in Johannesburg’s “Sun City” prison in Diepkloof.
During this time, the police tried to woo Mashatile into testifying against fellow prisoners in a desperate attempt to break the UDF.
“They said if you don’t testify against them, you will die in Robben Island.
“But I thought then that they would only sentence me to between 10 and 12 years and I would be released at the age of 36.”
Ironically, Mashatile is 36 this year. “We were convinced we stood for the right cause and could not betray each other.”
But what plans does Mashatile have for the province’s hottest seat, charged with combating crime in a province that may well be the world’s worst affected by crime – and with restoring the efficiency of a force dogged by low morale and problems of discipline?
“There is no Mashatile magic,” he said, but added he would be providing strong leadership.
Bapela says of his old comrade: “Management rests with the [provincial police] commissioner while Paul only manages the secretariat.
“His success in crime prevention depends on the extent to which he develops a good relationship with police management. I have no doubt he has that ability.”
If Mashatile’s skill in building relationships at Jeppe police station in 1987 is anything to go by, Bapela can’t be too far off the mark.
The police jailer recalls relations got friendly enough for him to smuggle Mashatile and his co-detainees a case of beer – not that he is trying to curry favour with his new master, of course.
Born: Gerhardsville Pretoria, October 21 1961
Defining characteristics: Workaholic, irreverent
Favourite car: He drives a Mercedes C-class
Passionate about: “He loves people; he just loves people,” says Obed Bapela
Hates: Lies and people who reason with lies
Likely to say: “Attention!”
Least likely to say: “I give up”