what in the ministries
Presidency
President: Thabo Mbeki
Deputy president: Jacob Zuma
Minister: Essop Pahad
Advisers to Mbeki: Mojanku Gumbi (legal), Titus Mafolo (political), Vusi Mavimbela (security and intelligence – on his way to head the National Intelligence Agency [NIA]), Moss Ngoasheng (economic), Charles Nqakula (parliamentary)
Advisers to Zuma: John Jeffrey (parliamentary), Jabulani Mzaliya (special)
Director general: Frank Chikane (presidency).
Chief executive officer: Joel Netshitenzhe (Government Communication and Information Service [GCIS])
Deputy director generals: Lucille Meyer (private office of president and corporate services). Pundy Pillay (policy co-ordination and advisory services). Anne Letsebe (Cabinet office). Dolana Msimang (Office of the Deputy President)
Comment: With its R70,6-million budget and 334 staff members, the reconstructed presidency has become a powerful co- ordinating structure for all government policy and action. It is far more hands- on and integrated than under Nelson Mandela. Nothing of significance in government is planned without its backing. With its own support and investigative structures, it is not dependent on other government departments, giving it a great deal of independence and control. It is the key to the Mbeki presidency.
Mbeki is definitely “the boss”, and is often called that by his staff. Director General Chikane is keeper of the keys to Mbeki. Head of the GCIS, Netshitenzhe is Mbeki’s political brains trust. The belligerent Pahad is Mbeki’s chief political enforcer. Something of a hole is about to open up with the departure of Mavimbela to the NIA.
The relationships between Pillay’s unit and Chikane’s core Cabinet secretariat still needs to settle down. Gumbi’s capacity to provide undistinguished legal advice has apparently been recognised – we understand the president’s legal team is about to be buttressed. Ngoasheng, who seems to spend an increasing amount of his time on his own business interests, appears irrelevant to Mbeki’s views on economics.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s importance is more party political and parliamentary -where he (not always smoothly) leads government business. The importance and influence of Nqakula, who besides being Mbeki’s parliamentary adviser is also the chair of the South African Communist Party, could rise in coming months.
Mark down Mbeki, Chikane and Netshitenzhe as among the 10 most powerful people in the South African government.
SOCIAL SECTOR
Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
Minister: Ben Ngubane
Deputy minister: Brigitte Mabandla
Advisers: Dean Goddard, Roy Marcus, Carol Steinberg
Director general: Rob Adam
Comment: Ngubane is the only Inkatha Freedom Party member of the Cabinet who has shown any vision and leadership in his ministerial portfolio. Ngubane runs the show, although insiders say he and his ANC deputy, Brigitte Mabandla, complement each other well.
New Director General Rob Adam, who has an outstanding academic record, tends to concentrate on science and technology, while his deputy, Musa Xulu, focuses on art and culture.
One of the department’s strategies – obtaining recognition and support for the cultural industries, such as art, music, film and craft – is beginning to take effect. The Department of Trade and Industry is starting to notice the potential of these industries for tourism and also at a broader economic level. Temba Makashe, chief director of arts, culture and technology, is a key figure in this success. On the science and technology side, Errol Tyobeka, responsible for outreach programmes, is also making an impact.
Education
Minister: Kader Asmal
Deputy minister: Smangaliso Mkhatshwa
Advisers: Tony Heard, Allan Taylor
Director general: Thami Mseleku
Key outsider: Ronald Suresh Roberts
Comment: One of the Cabinet’s most effective operators since 1994, Kader Asmal, is firmly in control of this ministry.
Asmal brought his advisers, Alan Taylor and Tony Heard, over with him from water affairs and forestry. Taylor has an academic background, but Heard has no experience in education. Both, however, have been effective figures in the Asmal operations. It looks as though Heard may be on his way to the presidency, so that team may be broken up, but it was certainly central to the first six months of the Asmal term.
The new Director General, Thami Mseleku, was previously the deputy director general and before that, special adviser to Bengu. Insiders regard him as good on policy and administration, and he is definitely a team player. There are three deputy director generals: Ihron Rensburg, Naseema Badsha and Trevor Coombe. Coombe, who had much influence over the development of education policy, is to retire next year.
But national education is fundamentally Asmal-driven. Major committees to implement his nine priorities made in his call for action on July 27 have been set up to ensure there is action on the ground. He has serious problems though, confirmed by his statement then that education was in a state of crisis.
Deputy Smangaliso Mkhatshwa is low-key but he has been given specific tasks and, particularly because of his sincerity, is well respected in the communities.
Health
Minister: Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Advisers: Ian Roberts, Patricia Lambert
Director general: Ayanda Ntsaluba
Comment: The ministry takes a strong lead in policy initiation and formulation, with the new minister playing a prominent role in policy initiation and development.
Tshabalala-Msimang, new in the job, has strong views on policy issues. But she is more likely to rely on her advisers than her predecessor, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. She is also more likely to weigh up issues before committing herself.
Ntsaluba is beginning to play a key role on policy. An interesting relationship will develop between the minister and the parliamentary portfolio committee. A large number of the current members of this committee served under Tshabalala-Msimang when she was its chair.
Public participation in policy-making on health has opened up under Tshabalala- Msimang. She has won respect for her willingness to reconsider some of the often ill-considered and rigid positions taken by Dlamini-Zuma on issues on HIV/Aids and treatment of it. This public participation tends to be dominated by large business interests. Pharmaceutical companies have been fairly successful recently in their attempts to block policy changes.
Housing
Minister: Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele
Advisers: None
Director general: Phumi Nxumalo
Key outsiders: Urban Sector Network
Comment: The key individuals with respect to the relationship between structures are the minister, the Director General, Phumi Nxumalo, and the chair of the parliamentary committee on housing, Nomatyala Hangana. The South African Housing Development Board has been established to advise the minister on any matter relating to housing development and to monitor the implementation. This board could be influential once it gets its act together.
Both the national departments and provincial departments of housing do use consultants to perform specific tasks as an additional capacity to the departments. These persons would be the only outsiders who contribute to executive decision-making.
Access to decision-making is extended to senior management level within the executive at the chief director level and above. Lower officials do not have much influence at the decision-making level. Participation by the various structures from national to project levels is prescribed or stated as something that should be encouraged. However, there is a perception that the civil service technical committees who forward findings to MinMEC (a meeting of ministers and MECs) dominate policy-making. The parliamentary committee in the legislature is the main channel for public participation. Yet NGOs are feeling marginalised from the policy- making process.
Sport and Recreation
Minister: Ngconde Balfour
Adviser: None
Director general: Enver Hendricks (acting) Comment: Although he has only been in office since the June election, Balfour is in control. The department has only an acting director general. There will be no director general once the chief executive officer of the national sports commission is appointed, and here Balfour will show his hand.
There is plenty of jostling for the position, with former director general Mthobi Tyamzashe and national sports council head Mavuso Mvebe the apparent front runners. But Balfour, who has re- advertised the position, may well opt for an outsider to bring new blood into sports administration. Among those who have applied for the position is Sydney Maree.
Water Affairs and Forestry
Minister: Ronnie Kasrils
Adviser: Janet Love
Director general: Mike Muller
Comment: Former military man Kasrils is clearly enjoying the challenge of a ministry he knew absolutely nothing about five months ago.
Kasrils quickly recruited ANC MP Love as his special adviser. Love, formerly chair of the portfolio committee on agriculture, water affairs and forestry, is now referred to in the ministry and department as the “deputy minister”.
Director General Mike Muller, who also comes from a struggle background, is one of the few director generals to hold on to his job since the election. This indicates he is working reasonably well with his new minister and “deputy”. There is talk of more departures. So changes in senior leadership in the department can be expected.
Welfare and Population Development
Minister: Zola Skweyiya
Adviser: Vivienne Taylor
Director general: Angela Bester (following the departure of Luci Abrahams)
Comment: Skweyiya has been so low-key since his sideways shift into welfare that it is difficult to assess his impact. The fact is that with his legal, struggle and, more recently, public service background, he has no experience in the demands of the welfare sector and the transformation of social welfare services in South Africa.
There have now been five director generals of welfare since 1994 – and the latest, Angela Bester, is director general of the public service commission, which in terms of welfare delivery is hardly a recommendation. Clearly, she got to know Skweyiya in that capacity and that could rectify things in a department that has lost direction. The minister’s part-time adviser, Vivienne Taylor, who is a development expert rather than a welfare specialist and who is a professor at the University of Cape Town’s School of Social Work, is very influential at present. Taylor, is, however, well respected in the NGO sectors.
ECONOMIC SECTOR
Agriculture and Land Affairs
Minister: Thoko Didiza
Deputy minister: Dirk du Toit
Adviser: Pinky Miles
Director general: Bongiwe Njobe (agriculture), Geoff Budlender (outgoing – land)
Comment: Didiza and Njobe, both powerful personalities, call the shots and are usually of like mind. They were too powerful a combination for former minister Derek Hanekom. Budlender, the former human rights lawyer, differs with the two strong- willed women on how things should be done, and he has decided to bow out gracefully.
Broadly, the senior blacks in the two departments tend to see their besieged white left colleagues as promoting the romantic and impractical objective of a whole lot of black peasants singing while they work their fingers to the bone on sub- economic land allotments. Many of the whites think their black counterparts are trying to foster a black farming bourgeoisie.
Du Toit is, you could say, an affirmative action appointment and window-dressing.
Communications
Minister: Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri
Adviser: Gladwin Marumo
Director general: Andile Ngcaba
Key outsiders: Ned Kekana (chair of the parliamentary committee on communications), Joel Netshitenzhe, Lyndall Shope-Mafole (government representative at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva) and Sebilitso Mokone-Matabane (chair of Sentech).
Comment: Matsepe-Casaburri was chair of the SABC for four years between 1993 and 1997 and in the process developed a thorough knowledge of broadcasting. However, she has come across as indecisive and tentative since taking over the portfolio. Her “unofficial advisers” are ex-Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) councillors Mokone-Matabane and Shope-Mafole. Marumo previously worked for Shope. Shope is the sister of Thaninga Shope, senior general manager (communication and marketing) at the SABC. Ngcaba, although closely linked to Shope-Malope and Mokone-Matabane, keeps the whole portfolio under tight control. He takes the lead on telecommunications policy, but his right-hand person on broadcasting is Joe Mjwara.
The SABC board remains weak, largely because the present chair, Paulus Zulu, and his board do not challenge the SABC. The SABC is, in effect, being run by Enoch Sithole, chief executive of news, Phil Molefe, head of TV news, Snuki Zikalala, deputy editor-in-chief, and Thaninga Shope.
A new board will be appointed on November 30. Far more significant, though, will be the implementation of the new Broadcasting Act which will divide the SABC into at least two divisions, commercial and public broadcasting, possibly with radio and television news forming a third division. Each will have a managing director.
A strong, new telecommunications and broadcasting regulator (the IBA and the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority will amalgamate) will challenge the policy hegemony of Matsepe-Casaburri’s “unofficial advisers”.
Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Minister: Mohammed Valli Moosa
Deputy minister: Joyce Mabudafhasi
Advisers: Didi Moyle, Patrick Fitzgerald
Director general: Chippy Olver (acting, following the departure of Fitzgerald)
Comment: Although in his post for just five months, Moosa has already instituted significant changes through the development of a chief directorate for tourism and a comprehensive integrated environmental management policy. The department has assumed an increasingly significant role in the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme and growth, employment and redistribution strategy initiatives. Tourism is seen as the sector best able to create many jobs.
Moosa has rather ruthlessly shunted Fitzgerald out of the director general post, making him an adviser for reasons of appearance rather than because he wants Fitzgerald’s advice. Moyle, however, is something different. She was highly effective as a troubleshooter and briefer of journalists alongside Mac Maharaj when he was minister of transport. Olver is too new in the post of acting director general to be assessed now. But former colleagues in the civil service say that if he can set aside some of the precious attitudes sometimes associated with comrades from the white left, he could be highly effective.
Finance
Minister: Trevor Manuel
Deputy minister: Sipho Mphahlwa
Adviser: Murray Michel
Director general: Maria Ramos (finance), vacant (state expenditure)
Commissioner: Pravin Gordhan (South African Revenue Service)
Head: Mark Orkin (Statistics South Africa)
Key outsiders: Applied Fiscal Research Centre (University of Cape Town); Bureau for Economic Research at the University of Stellenbosch;
Comment: Ramos is boss. Manuel is boss only when others need him to be. To his great credit, Manuel has not been afraid to surround himself with excellence – and to take the advice it produces. He and Ramos have developed a team of senior officials any treasury in the world would be pleased to have. Among them, Andr Roux, deputy director general and head of budget, is the most important. Like chief director Andrew Donaldson, Roux is regarded as a clever technocrat. Roux has been crucial to the fiscal discipline that has marked South Africa out as one of the stablest developing markets in the world. He has also led the way in making the budget-making process in South Africa a great deal more transparent and open to non-governmental input. One of the other main chief directors, Ismail Momoniat, has a rather patchier reputation, despite his perceived success in turning around provincial finances, whereas a third, Roland White, is said to be a “safer pair of hands”.
Two foreign consultants, Joel Friedman and Andrew Wren from the United States and United Kingdom treasuries respectively, have substantial influence over government expenditure planning. Outsiders with policy influence are the UCT-based African Fiscal Research Centre (Afrec). The Institute for a Democratic South Africa’s budget information service, headed by Warren Krafchik, is emerging as the foremost alternative source of budget information for Parliament and other stakeholders. The ubiquitous and highly capable Debbie Budlender is a leading lobbyist on certain sectoral budget issues, such as women.
Under its new chair, Barbara Hogan, the parliamentary finance committee seems determined to become more assertive in its oversight role.
Add Manuel, Ramos and Roux to the list of the most influential and powerful people in the South African government.
Minerals and Energy
Minister: Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka
Deputy minister: Susan Shabangu
Adviser: Nchaka Moloi
Director general: Sandile Nogxina
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Comment: Mlambo-Ngcuka makes the decisions in consultation with a management team of senior officials in the department, headed by Nogxina. She also relies on an advisory group composed of representatives from selected NGO research institutions. Moloi is stronger on minerals, but Rod Crompton, chief director of liquid fuels, controls policy formation in the energy sector. Mlambo-Ngcuka has taken a leadership role, separating herself from institutional issues in Eskom, unlike her predecessor, Penuell Maduna. Whoever Mlambo-Ngcuka appoints as chair of the Atomic Energy Corporation may be key to policy-making in this sector. Insiders suggest – can it really be? – that she is looking for a “a Peter Mokaba type”.
Nogxina has been placed in charge of developing an Energy Bill by the end of 2000 to give effect to the White Paper on minerals and energy. Smundo Mokoena, deputy director general in charge of energy affairs, is to head a team to manage the implementation of the White Paper.
Organised business in the minerals sector, particularly the Chamber of Mines, has influence here.
Trade and Industry
Minister: Alec Erwin
Deputy minister: Lindiwe Ngwane
Adviser: Zav Rustomjee (formerly the director general)
Director general: Alistair Ruiters
Comment: Erwin is boss. Anyone who observed him as a trade unionist in the 1970s and 1980s will know why and how. He is invariably on top of his subject, he makes allies of the best around him, he usually out-thinks others and he moves very cleverly to achieve his objectives. He has impressed immensely both at home and abroad among international trade bodies.
Rustomjee, a good industrial economist, has just moved out of the director generalship to become Erwin’s special adviser. We understand this is not a fig leaf for a dismissal. Rather Erwin wants to play to Rustomjee’s strengths – his capacity to give advice – while moving into the director general spot the managerially more adept Ruiters. Just below Ruiters is a group of talented young technocrats, some of them involved in the highly complex trade negotiations with the European Union. Recognition cannot be long in coming to them. Dave Lewis, another former trade unionist who has been associated with the department in various capacities in recent years, is intellectually influential.
It will take time for Ngwane, previously on the justice committee, to exercise influence.
Transport
Minister: Dullah Omar
Adviser: None
Director general: Vacant with Dipak Patel on the way out.
Comment: Omar has moved slowly since taking up his new position. He has appointed neither a director general nor any special advisers. This may be no bad thing. His predecessor, Maharaj, left behind a number of able officials who are ensuring that the policy momentum is maintained, and transport is not something about which the lawyer/politician Omar knows anything at all. But he had better not leave it too long.
One problem is that the obvious candidate for director general, Harold Harvey, currently the deputy director general, is white. Harvey, a former Transport and General Workers Union official, was responsible for the excellent R20-million Moving South Africa data-driven report on the country’s transport needs.
Another significant official is Karin Pearce, a general manager in Harvey’s section. She’s the driving force behind the recapitalisation of the taxi industry. Agreements have been signed for the manufacture of 250 000 new taxis, which should provide a major boost to the economy.
Lawrence Venkile, the department’s legman in the unification of the taxi industry, Laverne Shepperson, the manager of strategic support previously at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and Nazir Alli, CEO of the National Roads Agency, are all effective and influential operators recruited by Maharaj to the department.
INVESTMENT AND EMPLOYMENT
Labour
Minister: Membathisi Mdladlana
Adviser: None
Director general: Sipho Pityana
Comment: Mdladlana, despite his union background, is not calling the shots on labour. Employment policy is considered so central to the country’s economic fortunes and employment creation that he is really doffing his cloth-cap to what Mbeki, Manuel and Erwin suggest. He has been reduced to being a manager of a labour reform programme, overseeing a revision of the legislation and the adoption of a business- friendly Accord on Employment and Growth between the corporate partners of the National Economic, Development and Labour Council.
Pityana has indicated he wants to leave labour and is being tipped to replace Billy Masetlha as director general of the South African Secret Service (SASS). Whoever is appointed to replace Pityana will have to drive changes in the labour laws that are likely to meet strong resistance from some quarters in the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Who wants to do a job that will almost certainly mean they get to be hung out to dry? Les Kettledas, a deputy director general, has been suggested as a replacement, but his detractors say he is too weak. The other Deputy Director General, Rams Ramashia (internal management and operations), occupies more of an internal human resources post.
Public Enterprises
Minister: Jeff Radebe
Director general: Sivi Gounden
Adviser: Ian Philips
Comment: Radebe, accompanied by all his key personal staff from public works, including his influential and capable special adviser Ian Philips and media liaison officer Zaid Nordien, hit public enterprises like a bomb. Radebe ensured public enterprises was immediately upgraded into a full department with its own director general. And then, in September, he brought Sivi Gounden, previously at public works, with him to be public enterprises’s first director general.
By becoming a fully-fledged department, public enterprises now has an expanded mandate, and greater autonomy and power. Posts for three new chief directors have already been advertised.
Despite being a central committee member of the SACP, Radebe has been mandated by Mbeki to drive the privatisation process far more effectively than over the past five years. He and the team that has accompanied him – for a team it is – have, since June, shown themselves to be serious and effective strategists. They are determinedly accelerating the process, creating a policy and legislative framework and promoting black empowerment. Radebe also has balls, as was demonstrated when he refused to be bounced into South African Airways’s questionable deal to buy and close down Sun Air.
With state assets worth R170-billion, much of it likely to go on sale in the next few years, this ministry is going to be busy.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Defence
Minister: Mosiuoa Lekota
Deputy minister: Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge
Key advisers: Kevin Qhobosheane, Ian Steyn (outgoing)
Defence secretary: Mamapu Netsianda (acting)
Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF): Siphiwe Nyanda
Comment: Since Lekota became minister of defence, there has been a clean sweep of the old guard. The contract of special adviser Ian Steyn was not renewed at the end of October. Key figures in the ministry, Brigadier Ken Snowball and Colonel Graham Lennox, have been shifted out. Legal adviser Fana Hlongwane is no longer in such evidence. Pierre Steyn has not yet been replaced as secretary of defence.
Qhobosheane has been appointed as an adviser to the pacifist deputy minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, but so far that is the only new face around. So, the ministry has a new minister, who has no military background and an uncomfortable relationship with the president, and a Quaker deputy, who is pretty legless on the technicalities and strategies of armed forces. This leaves the professionals under Nyanda in powerful positions, even if they lost influence in the downsizing of foreign arms purchase contracts.
No doubt Lekota will be decisive when he is ready to move. But leaving it much longer could give the generals the impression that they can now run the show as they wish. Dangerous.
Foreign Affairs
Minister: Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Deputy minister: Aziz Pahad
Director general: Vacant (following the departure of Jackie Selebi to national police commissioner designate)
Comment: Selebi’s departure means the department is no longer headed by someone with patent force of personality and political status. There was never any doubt that Selebi could stare Dlamini- Zuma down in the event of her deciding, say, to spend R20-million of her budget on a musical educating us all on the tragedy in the Congo.
The favourite to take over from Selebi is his Deputy Director General, Welile Nhlapo. Like Selebi, Nhlapo once also headed the ANC youth section in exile.
CRIME PREVENTION AND INTEGRATED JUSTICE SECTOR
Correctional Services
Minister: Ben Skosana
Adviser: None
Director general: (Acting) Thami Nxumalo (following “resignation” of Khulekani Sitole)
Comment: The appointment of the Gauteng Provincial Commissioner of Correctional Services, Thami Nxumalo, as acting national commissioner, may stem the rot in this ministry and department. Nxumalo has been employed in the department for 27 years.
Leadership thus far has, by and large, been extremely weak. Former minister Sipo Mzimela (fortunately for the IFP, now with the United Democratic Movement) and the present incumbent, Skosana, have performed pitifully. Former commissioner Khulekani Sitole, who was allowed to run a professional soccer club and employ his players in the department, and who spent weeks overseas instead of running the department, was a disaster.
So Nxumalo faces an unenviable task. Decisive leadership is needed, but he can’t expect much help from Skosana. The way the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union was allowed to manipulate the department under Sitole also won’t help. Nxumalo has three deputy commissioners, Patrick Gillingham, Rapheng Mataka and Tony Esmeraldo. They will have to rally round the acting commissioner.
Mataka looks like the front runner to take over from Sitole. Skosana has yet to appoint any special advisers, though, on the evidence, he urgently needs some good advice.
Home Affairs
Minister: Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Deputy minister: Lindiwe Sisulu
Adviser: Mario Ambrosini (to Buthelezi), Elsabe Wessels (to Sisulu)
Director general: Khulu Mbatha (acting, following firing of Albert Mokoena)
Comment: Buthelezi is semi-detached. He is evidently more involved in party political matters. The controversial Ambrosini, sources say, is more IFP official on the government payroll than adviser on government business. A further complication is that Sisulu, from the ANC, is a proactive deputy minister. This unevenness has impacted on policy-making and follow- through.
A key development is going to be the extent to which the home affairs White Paper is or is not implemented. It argues for better enforcement procedures and capacity, which would in turn create a new investigative immigration “policing” unit, in keeping with the growing security concerns around home affairs. But it is doubtful the White Paper can be implemented under the current leadership.
Corruption and maladministration charges abound in the case of home affairs. Those around former director general Albert Mokoena (he resigned then withdrew his resignation) hampered policy implementation in the department. Billy Masetla, currently head of SASS, is being tipped to take over as director general.
INTELLIGENCE
Minister: Joe Nhlanhla
Adviser: None
Director generals: Sizakhele Sigxashe (outgoing NIA, soon to be replaced by Vusi Mavimbela of the presidency), Billy Masetlha (SASS), Linda Mti (national intelligence co-ordinating committee [Nicoc])
Comment: Intelligence may be a misnomer for this arm of government, to judge from insider accounts of goings-on there. One of the politer insider descriptions of Minister Nhlanhla is that he is “a huge buggeration – he stuffs up everything and everybody”. The inert (outgoing) Sigxashe (ex-ANC) has been a poor director general at the NIA; to get anything done, one apparently has to go through one of his two deputies, Mike Kennedy (ex-old regime), highly regarded by the major international agencies, and Peter Ritcher (ex-ANC) – provided, that is, they can circumvent the interfering Nhlanhla. Successful dealings with Nhlanhla depend on, among other things, your ability to follow his rather disconcerting conversational style. “You have to learn to interpret his grunts correctly,” said one source.
There are, therefore, big expectations of Sigxashe’s designated successor, Mavimbela.
SASS has been more fortunate than the NIA in the leadership it has had until now. Masetlha (ex-ANC) is serious and insists on discipline – along with his more significant lieutenants, who include Barry Gilder (ex-ANC). SASS was also fortunate in having got, in the main, the cream of recruits from both the former government intelligence agencies and the ANC. If Masetlha is replaced by former labour department director general Sipho Pityana, as rumoured, the reason will be the latter’s superior management abilities and the perceived need to move someone like Masetlha into home affairs to bring some order and security to its processes.
The Directorate of Military Intelligence is being downgraded. Nicoc, under Linda Mti (ex-ANC), is supposed to synthesise the intelligence product gleaned from the gathering agencies and present it to clients in government – very often the presidency. But Nicoc suffers from several weaknesses. One is the often poor quality of the intelligence reaching it.
Justice and Constitutional Development
Minister: Penuell Maduna
Deputy minister: Cheryl Gillwald
Advisers: Patrick Maqubela, Bonisiwe Makhene
Director general: Vusi Pikoli (acting)
Comment: Key players in the department are Deputy Director General Hassen Ebrahim and the acting director general Pikoli. Pikoli, however, has been acting director general since January and was not included in the recent appointments of director generals. Apparently Maduna is not convinced that he is up to the job and certainly has a low profile. It is said that what Pikoli needs is a “bit of a nudge to bring out the best in him”.
Maduna’s deputy, Gillwald, comes from a financial background. She is conscientious and hard-working – and is focusing on the delivery of justice to ordinary people.
The powerful link between the ministry and the parliamentary committee has not been lost despite the change in minister. Committee chair Johnny de Lange only narrowly retained his position, but has since re-established himself as a parliamentarian who actually writes – rather than tinkers with – the law. He now has a weekly meeting with Maduna, who is entrusting him and his committee with rewriting key legislation such as the Open Democracy Bill and the Administrative Justice Bill.
Hassen Ebrahim is a key bureaucrat in the department. Hard-nosed and bright, this former CEO of the Constitutional Assembly looks likely to continue his rise to the top in the public service. He is currently overseeing the re- prioritisation of spending within justice and the modernisation of the department. He is also central to policy- making around the future of, for example, the Heath unit and the Chapter 9 institutions, such as the public protector and the Human Rights Commission.
But the giant straddling this arm of government, safety and security, and intelligence is Bulelani Ngcuka, the national director of public prosecutions. His prominence reflects not only his close relationship with the Scorpions, the elite anti-crime unit now being formed, but the extent to which anti- crime strategy in South Africa is moving towards combining intelligence, investigative, detention and prosecutorial powers. Ngcuka also appears on our list of the 10 most powerful South Africans in government.
Safety and Security
Minister: Steve Tshwete
Deputy minister: Joe Matthews
Adviser: Lindiwe Mthimkulu
National commissioner of police: George Fivaz (to be replaced in January by Jackie Selebi)
Secretary/Superintendent general: Vacant following the departure of Azhar Cachalia
Comment: “Action Man” Tshwete has shown he has momentum when in full cry. But what’s he like when, like Jonah Lomu, he has to turn and chase an awkward bouncing ball? We don’t know. He talks like he’s in charge. But the real test is still to come: the police service’s capacity to resist change – even where this change may an improvement in morale or conditions of service – is legendary.
We expect Jackie Selebi (ex-ANC) to create elbow room for himself very quickly, and to be considerably more aggressive and innovative than the outgoing, emollient Fivaz. Selebi carries none of Fivaz’s baggage and has no hang- ups about giving subordinates (or superiors, for that matter) hell or appointing able non-Africans to senior posts, as he showed at foreign affairs.
Natural attrition means Morgan Chetty will soon be the only one of four deputy national commissioners remaining. Watch for the replacements. In particular, watch Andre Pruis, operational chief of the South African Police Service and the organiser of the Richmond, KwaMashu and Good Hope operations. The quiet Tim Williams (ex-ANC, duskily hued despite his name), who has brought great improvements to crime intelligence, is also influential and one to keep in view. The influence of the secretariat, formerly headed by lawyer Azhar Cachalia and supposedly the guarantor of civilian control over the boys and girls in blue, is in steep decline.
Mthimkulu, a former Pretoria attorney, could prove influential down the line as, sources say, she clearly has Tshwete’s ear.
The priority and resources now being given the fight against crime put Tshwete in the select 10. Selebi is there on his own recognisances.
GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
Provincial Affairs and Local Government
Minister: Sydney Mufamadi
Adviser: None
Director general: Zam Titus
Comment: Mufamadi has limited control over provincial government. The national Department of Finance – and the Fiscal and Financial Commission – largely determine provincial budgets. Most provincial ministers liaise directly with their national counterparts.
In late October, Mbeki further downgraded Mufamadi’s role in provincial affairs, when he established a permanent forum to bring the ministry and the nine premiers together to discuss issues relating to all three levels of government. Mbeki will chair the forum.
It is, therefore, not surprising that Mufamadi has not made any major policy announcements on the provinces.
The parliamentary committees on provincial and local government of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) have strong relationships with the department. Here the roles of Mohammed Bhabha in the NCOP and Yunus Carrim in the National Assembly are particularly important.
It is at local government level where the ministry is driving reform. Here, Mufamadi is continuing where Mohammed Valli Moosa (his predecessor) left off. His policy pronouncements include the megacities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria and the East Rand, as well as the nodal points (the centres) from which the Demarcation Board will decide on the outer boundaries of metropolitan areas.
However, in a recent Constitutional Court decision, the powers of the minister and the MECs to declare metropolitan areas were ruled invalid. The Act must now be amended to vest the authority to declare metropolitan areas with the Demarcation Board. The Demarcation Board, chaired by former KwaZulu-Natal ANC MPL Mike Sutcliffe, and the South African Local Government Association, chaired by Colin Matjila, remain influential.
Public Service and Administration
Minister: Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi
Advisers: None
Director general: Robinson Ramaite
Key outsiders: Consultant Mark Swilling, Wits University’s School of Public Management, mediator Kathy Albertyn and Barbara Adair.
Comment: Fraser-Moleketi likes to centralise decision-making in the department and is hands-on. She has sidelined official organs and works through her ministry team, among whom the able Gonda Peres is prominent. Under her the Public Service Commission (PSC) is being increasingly reduced to a body that merely sets service conditions as the government attempts to cut down the wage bill. Professor Stan Sangweni, head of the PSC, is little more than a figurehead.
Fraser-Moleketi relies on Ramaite and her project managers to drive government’s Batho Pele initiative and the plans to rationalise the civil service, despite opposition from a third of Cosatu’s 1,8-million members.
Until recently, Neva Saidman, a former director in the labour policy section, was chief negotiator for the government in the recent public servants’ strike, but no longer.
Public Works
Minister: Stella Sigcau
Adviser: None
Director general: Tami Sokutu
Comment: Why Stella Sigcau retains her position in the Cabinet remains a mystery. She was utterly ineffective in her custodianship of the public enterprises portfolio – as the Sun Air, Aventura and Alexcor debacles showed. What does the ANC leadership or Mbeki see in her?
Still, she has recruited a star in the form of her new Director General, Tami Sokutu, formerly of water affairs. Sokutu is a good communicator. She also inherited a well-run department from her predecessor, Jeff Radebe.
Lydia Bici, also from the Eastern Cape, has been appointed the deputy director general to take responsibility for the department’s impressive public works programmes, where there were about 2 000 different projects in three of the most economically depressed provinces: the Eastern Cape, the Northern Province and KwaZulu-Natal.
This analysis was compiled by the Mail & Guardian’s political staff in partnership with Idasa’s political information and monitoring service. More in-depth analysis of policy-making in the Mbeki government is available for free for NGOs involved in social justice advocacy and which join Idasa’s Chapter 2 Network (contact mail to: samantha@ idasact.org.za) or by subscription for individuals via PIMS’s new political intelligence service epoliticsSA (see www. idasa.org.za/epolitics/ or contact the editor, Sean Jacobs, at [email protected])