The promotion of Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) president Mosibudi Mangena one of the few credible Black Consciousness (BC) Movement voices left in the country — to a deputy minister is vintage President Thabo Mbeki.
By appointing Mangena, one of the most competent exponents of former BC leader Steve Biko’s legacy, the president has managed to consolidate and expand his Africanist and renaissance project, while not disturbing his inner circle of loyalists. Mbeki has also managed to isolate other black leftist-oriented parties, such as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the Socialist Party of Azania, which have been trying to form a united black alliance with Azapo.
Mbeki played a significant role in the mid-1970s in winning over young BC activists to the African National Congress while he was an ANC representative in exile in Botswana and Swaziland. Prominent among the BC activists whom Mbeki managed to influence and recruit to the ANC was Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Mangena, a co-founder of the BC movement, was the first from the organisation to be sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island where he served five years. There was some confusion after the announcement over the constitutionality of an Azapo plan, drawn up by the organisation’s standing committee, that Mangena resign his parliamentary seat before becoming deputy minister of education. Constitutional experts pointed out that deputy ministers are required to be members of the National Assembly.
But Mangena said on Thursday that his party had yet to take a final decision on whether or not he should vacate his seat in the National Assembly.
In the Cabinet reshuffle, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Lindiwe Sisulu replaces the ill Minister of Intelligence, Joe Nhlanhla; Mbeki’s parliamentary counsellor and South African Communist Party chair Charles Nqakula becomes Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, and Inkatha Freedom Party national representative Musa Zondi replaces IFP member Buyi Nzimande as Deputy Minister of Public Works. Nzimande is tipped to become South Africa’s ambassador in a Far-East Asian country, probably Thailand. Sisulu was an official in the ANC’s department of security and intelligence during its period in exile.
Mangena’s acceptance of his new post has come under sharp criticism from PAC secretary general Thami ka Plaatjie, who said that the Azapo leader had been “co-opted” by the ruling party. He also questioned Mangena’s ability to represent Azapo as an opposition party in parliament particularly its opposition to the ANC’s macroeconomic policy. Mangena rejected ka Plaatjie’s criticisms, saying he continued to belong to an opposition party. His appointment gave him a chance to make a contribution, particularly in the field of education.
Mangena said his party underwent an intense three-week debate to consider Mbeki’s offer. Ultimately “it was the fact that there are no ANC children, no Azapo children” that informed the party’s decision to allow him to take up the post. Mangena, who has an MA in applied mathematics, is considered one of Parliament’s most thoughtful MPs.
A modest man renowned for his integrity, he formed an unlikely friendship with Cassie Aucamp, probably the funniest man in the National Assembly, who leads the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging. Both men made it to Parliament for the first time after the last general election.
Political analyst Tom Lodge says it would be unfair to overlook Mangena’s competency, which obviously won him a berth in the education ministry. He says the timing of the announcement does cause a few eyebrows to rise. Lodge points out that Mangena is a member of the parliamentary public accounts committee, which is playing a crucial role in the R43- million arms deal probe. He says that with credible black opposition parties such as Azapo joining the government, Parliament faces the possibility of being left with a predominantly white opposition.
But, citing the role played by public accounts committee chair IFP MP Gavin Wood in the arms deal probe, Lodge says a person could continue to function efficiently as an independent member despite being in government. The IFP the largest black party in opposition has five ministers in the Cabinet led by the ANC, besides sharing the KwaZulu-Natal legislature with the ruling party.
Zondi’s elevation from an ordinary MP to a ministerial position is an indication of his growing influence within the IFP. The former editor of the IFP-owned newspaper Ilanga, has long been identified as the heir to IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Nqakula’s appointment comes as no surprise to political observers, who say he is often described as “more of an ANC man than a communist” in SACP circles.