SOUTH African Communist Party national chairperson Charles Nqakula’s appointment as the new Minister of Safety and Security has not gone down well in certain African National Congress circles.
Sources close to Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi say that he and other senior party members were backing Limpopo Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi for the position.
It is understood that these members believe Nqakula, who was deputy minister of home affairs until his promotion, is not an “independent thinker” and “merely reflects [President Thabo] Mbeki’s views”.
A former political journalist, who worked for the Daily Dispatch in the 1970s, Nqakula is also viewed as “too soft” for the safety and security portfolio.
Party sources say Nqakula’s “comrade” in the SACP central committee Essop Pahad, who serves as minister in Mbeki’s office, influenced the president to promote Nqakula. However, other sources say Nqakula enjoys a close relationship with Mbeki, independent of that with Pahad.
The elevation of his wife, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, from ANC chief whip to Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, has also been greeted with some dismay, though for different reasons. Party sources believe that after years of ineffective leadership in Parliament, Mapisa-Nqakula was beginning to make a difference to the way the ANC was conducting itself.
“While the new position will not enhance her profile as much as the chief whip position would have, the leadership was clearly sending a message that she is of ministerial material,” said a senior ANC source.
According to some party observers Mapisa-Nqakula feels left behind by female contemporaries such as Minister of Minerals and Energy Affairs Phumzile Mlabo-Ngcuka and Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza.
Among the hopefuls cited to take over as the new chief whip are current caucus chairperson Nathi Nhleko, viewed as having a similar style to a former incumbent, Max Sisulu, “who got the job done without being authoritarian or aggressive”.
Also seen as candidates are Gwen Mahlangu, the chairperson of Parliament’s environment committee, and defence committee chairperson Thandi Modise.
Nhleko (37) is a KwaZulu-Natal-based MP and was appointed caucus chairperson in August last year, when his predecessor Thabang Makwetla was sent to the Mpumalanga administration. A former trade union official, he was nominated to Parliament in 1994 by the SACP and chaired the public service committee from 1999.
He is an observer at the ANC national executive committee and since late last year has served on the party’s committee established to coordinate activities in Parliament. In April he attended the alliance summit between the ANC, SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions as an ANC member.
The ANC faces a tough choice over the chief whip. Many of its senior MPs are already committee chairpersons or are insufficiently senior in the party.
Deputy chief whip Andries Nel is temporarily filling the position.