Jardine
Howard Barrell
There is growing concern in government circles over the extraordinary public attack this week by the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Lionel Mtshali, on his Director General, Roger Jardine, who recently announced his resignation.
In a statement from abroad on Wednesday, where he is on a visit, Mtshali implied that Jardine was part of “a cabal lurking in the wings” in his department, bent on frustrating Cabinet policy and legislation on national heritage.
Mtshali said it was only because he had “exercised the test of rationality and steered a middle course” and because of his own “insight and judicious intervention” that the “cabal” and an allied “coterie of interest groups” had been defeated.
Mtshali also alleged he had had to “salvage” plans for the centenary commemoration of the Anglo-Boer War.
Jardine, who has declined to discuss the reasons for his resignation, said on Wednesday night that he had “no desire to engage in a public debate” with Mtshali.
But last week, arts and science circles, as well as sources in the department, spoke of rising tensions between Jardine, on one hand, and Mtshali and one of two deputy director generals, Musa Xulu, on the other.
The sources alleged that the origin of the tension was that Mtshali, a senior member of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and Xulu, a former music academic from KwaZulu-Natal also closely associated with Inkatha, had been pushing a party political agenda in the department.
They said there had been no such difficulties under Mtshali’s predecessor, Ben Ngubane, another Inkatha leader who is now premier of KwaZulu-Natal.
The sources charged that a planned memorial for the Battle of Blood River was being exploited to fit in with Inkatha electioneering in KwaZulu- Natal, and that Mtshali’s department planned to spend almost R1-million on the day of the unveiling alone.
Leading members of the arts and science communities have praised Jardine’s work as director general and expressed shock and dismay at his resignation.
At a gala dinner of the National Science and Technology Forum in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Jardine was given a special award for his contribution to science.
Speaking at the function, Ngubane said it was “a privilege for me to have worked with [Jardine] both at a national and provincial level”. He added that he regretted Jardine’s resignation.