SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Thursday 8.00pm
JAY NAIDOO has quit as Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting and will be leaving parliamentary politics at the end of his current term of office, the African National Congress announced on Thursday.
The ANC said in a statement that Naidoo is leaving active political life due to personal and family reasons.
In March the Mail & Guardian reported that Naidoo could be an early casualty in the race for Cabinet seats after elections. The report indicated that relations between Naidoo and Director General Andile Ngcaba have been severely strained in a battle that has spanned all three of the portfolios which fall under their control, and one of them must go. Ngcaba, a former exile, is said to be a part of incoming president Thabo Mbeki’s inner circle.
Naidoo replied to the article at the time, vehemently denying his political career was under threat and that “ministers and their directors general disagreeing is a normal part of our democracy.”
Naidoo (44) rose through the ranks of the labour movement to become head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions between 1985 and 1993, carving out a political role for the group in opposition to the previous apartheid government.
After the first all-race elections of 1994, he was appointed a minister in the President’s Office with the task of implementing the new government’s reconstruction and development programme aimed at redressing social imbalances caused by white minority rule. In 1996, Naidoo was appointed minister of posts, telecommunications and broadcasting, a post he still holds.
Naidoo was elected to the number five position in the national executive committee conference of the African National Congress held in Mmabatho in December 1977 and subsequently placed number 16 on its election list.
Announcing his departure, ANC presidency head Smuts Ngonyana said that “the ANC is grateful for the sacrifices made by Naidoo and is appreciative of the contribution he has made in the struggle for democratic transformation in the country, ranging from his role as a leader in the labour movement; the formulation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme; as Minister for Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting; and during the entire process of establishing the new democratic government.” No comment was issued by Naidoo.