Former Eastern Cape MEC for education Stone Sizani was already on the skids after announcing last January that he would “ship out” if officials in his department did not perform, say African National Congress insiders.
Sizani quit last week amid a crackdown by the ANC’s national leadership on the provincial party. There was speculation that national leaders forced his resignation as part of a drive against corruption and inefficiency.
However, party and government insiders say he was already on the way out. In the past month, the local media had published evidence emanating from the provincial auditor general’s office indicating Sizani was the beneficiary of a trust intended to benefit poor black farmers.
Sizani this week denied benefiting from the trust, which he said had been set up on his initiative.
Rumours of investigations into alleged corrupt practices and inefficiency surrounding Sizani have been circulating for more than a year. Sizani pooh-poohed these, saying he had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
The Public Service Accountability Monitor reported this week that the auditor general has issued disclaimers on the accounts of the Eastern Cape Department of Education for the sixth year in a row.
Sizani is said to be closely linked with Premier Makhenkesi Stofile, MEC for Economic Affairs Enoch Godongwana and Mcebisi Jonas, head of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation.
An ANC source said “their clique is much despised in Luthuli House [the ANC head office] because of their close relationship with the trade unions and the South African Communist Party. This probably helped hasten Sizani’s departure.”
Other party insiders say Sizani’s election as regional chairperson of the SACP-dominated Port Elizabeth region in August had already begun to seal his fate. He dismissed the claims, saying he “was not part of any clique”, nor had he been “pressurised to resign”.
Sizani (47) began his political career in the early 1970s as a student activist and was imprisoned on Robben Island in his early twenties. He went on to become a trade unionist in the 1980s, establishing union branches in Alexandra and Port Elizabeth, and became a United Democratic Front leader.
His letter of resignation, to which he directed the Mail & Guardian, does not spell out his reason for stepping down. Noting the Eastern Cape education department had made “considerable progress”, it says his resignation “will not change much”.
A sympathetic colleague said Sizani faced a tremendous challenge as MEC, with 6 482 schools under his charge, compared to a mere 2 000 in Gauteng, and 73 000 employees working in his department — the total number of civil servants in Mpumalanga.
Critics insist, however, that he did not “rise to the challenge”. Brought in as Stofile’s political adviser in 1998, he was appointed MEC to be an “evangelist for the renewal of education” in 1999.
This year the Eastern Cape had the worst matric pass rate in South Africa — 45,6%, a 4,2 percentage point drop from last year.
A government official who knows him well said Sizani lacked decisiveness in dealing with problems and incompetent officials.
The official conceded Sizani was constrained by the fact that his department also reported to Stofile and Godongwana.
His “shoddy” treatment of two heads of department he himself appointed was also cited. After firing Jonathan Godden after a year, Sizani approached lawyer Modidima Mannya to become superintendent general in October 2000.
Mannya reportedly found a “free-for-all situation” with scams in staff appointments and widespread management irregularities. As he began taking action, he claims, he started receiving death threats. Three months later he was out of a job.
After criminal charges of corruption and mismanagement of funds were brought against him, Mannya hit back with a R1,5-million defamation suit against Stofile for comments at a press conference. The case was settled out of court this year.
Sizani was involved with the Eastern Cape Development Forum as regional director of Kagiso Trust. He also went on to establish the Eastern Cape Civic Organisation.
With a commanding presence, Sizani is described as a “ladies’ man”. He told the M&G he woud return to the civic sector, where he had once played a prominent role.