AFRICAN National Congress chief whip Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula this week helped prepare the funeral of long-standing friend and mentor, Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete.
Her close relationship with the party heavyweight underscores her own standing in the ANC. Trusted because of her perceived political acumen, she is secure enough to take tough action even if ructions may follow.
Her strong loyalty to President Thabo Mbeki – she was described by one trade unionist as ”an Mbeki praise-singer” – must also have been a factor in her rise through party ranks. In May last year she and other senior women MPs and politicians pledged loyalty to Mbeki and support for his second term as ANC president.
This followed the famous letter by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to Deputy President Jacob Zuma suggesting a link between the political prominence of certain ANC women and the president’s sex life.
As the leader of the parliamentary observer mission to Zimbabwe during the recent election there, she did not cover herself in glory. Days after Commonwealth observers condemned the violence-marred election, the ANC component of the team insisted it was legitimate – prompting opposition jibes that they were acting under instructions from above.
Mapisa-Nqakula (47) – a qualified teacher, Umkhonto weSizwe guerrilla trained in the Soviet Union and Angola and an MP since 1994 – is the fourth ANC chief whip and first woman to hold the job.
There are two sides to her. Most know her as warm and moderate in her manner, but ANC insiders describe her as tough, ambitious and, on occasions, unpleasant. She is said to have lobbied long and hard for the chief whip’s job and once threatened a Mail & Guardian reporter who asked her an unwanted question: ”We are watching you!”
In 1984 she decided to follow into exile her now husband Charles Nqakula, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and current South African Communist Party chairperson.
She has been tipped to take over the safety and security portfolio, but many believe she will be left to complete unfinished business in Parliament, where the ANC’s reputation has been tarnished by controversy over the watchdog committee on public accounts and protracted delays over the Immigration Bill in the home affairs committee.
Facing low morale among ANC MPs, haphazard organisation within the party’s parliamentary offices and allegations that ANC MPs are rubber stamps of the executive, Mapisa-Nqakula has overseen key changes since taking office in January.
Last week the ANC’s parliamentary committee chairs were reshuffled with the clear purpose of removing dead wood and drafting in talent and energy.
Out went the autocratic and obstructive head of the home affairs committee, Aubrey Mokoena, and into the foreign affairs committee came Pallo Jordan, a leading intellectual left on the margins since he was dropped from the Cabinet.
It is understood Mapisa-Nqakula proposed the changes and fought for their adoption in the ANC’s national working committee.
But the ”chief whip cracked the whip”, as one MP put it, much earlier. Staff were shaken out of their tendency to leave their offices on the stroke of 4.30pm.
Once Mapisa-Nqakula stood outside a locked office door, bearing a notice ”Back in five minutes”, for more than an hour. It turned out the staff member had not come to work that day and that the notice had been posted the previous evening.
Since 1994 she has been a member of the ANC’s national executive committee. Rising to the position of secretary general of the ANC Women’s League, she resigned from the organisation in 1995 with 10 other high-ranking members who clashed with the league’s president, Madikizela-Mandela, over her leadership style.
An ordinary MP until 1996, her first step up the parliamentary ladder was her appointment as chairperson of the parliamentary intelligence committee.
A sign of her rising prominence in the ANC – but also, for many, a major blot on her record – was the internal commission she headed into the organisational disarray of the party in Mpumalanga in 1999.
Charged with investigating the ”autocratic and divisive leadership” of then premier Mathews Phosa, the commission made the wholly incredible finding that a group of political journalists had conspired with Phosa to advance his ambitions. Ahead of the 1999 national election, Phosa was removed as premier candidate.
ANC parliamentarians describe Mapisa-Nqakula as easy to work with and supportive. While in Zimbabwe, she left on two occasions to take care of problems back in Parliament and to brief government ministers.
”Politically she is clear, absolutely 100% clear, and very politically astute,” says an ANC MP, adding that her no-nonsense, dynamic manner is ”a breath of fresh air”.
But she also commands respect among opposition MPs. Says Pan-Africanist Congress MP and chief whip Patricia de Lille: ”I have respect for her. She is very tactical in her approach; she is extremely balanced.”
Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson remembers when he was stranded outside Cape Town International airport with a broken ankle. ”She stopped her car and asked: ‘My dear, can I give you a lift home?’ She didn’t have to do that.”