Ayanda Ntsaluba, director general of health, will take a new post as director general of foreign affairs in September, senior sources in the department confirmed this week.
His is the daunting task of giving direction to a largely rudderless department that has been without a permanent director general since Sipho Pityana left 18 months ago. Pityana, credited with transforming the department to reflect South Africa’s racial profile, paid the price for insisting on disciplining senior diplomats.
Now in the private sector, Pityana confessed to finding Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma a “very difficult woman to work with”.
A number of very capable foreign affairs officials have refused the job.
Multilateral specialist Abdul Minty has had to carry the ball. With no one else prepared to take the reins, Minty was unable to take the job of ambassador to Vienna, where his skills in disarmament issues would have made him an ideal appointment.
“I love and respect Nkosazana too much to take the job,” said one front-runner for the post. “Our friendship would not survive two months.”
Dlamini-Zuma has a poor record of keeping directors general. Pityana’s predecessor, Jackie Selebi, now commissioner of police, was not on speaking terms with her when he left.
As health minister, Dlamini-Zuma got rid of Olive Shisana.
Ntsaluba goes into the job fully aware of what awaits him. He replaced Shisana in the health department.
Ntsaluba’s departure from the health department is likely to be considered a great loss by health workers and Aids lobby groups. He and Aids directorate head Nono Simelela are widely seen as countervailing forces to minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s obstructive approach in the battle against Aids.
A former exile, Ntsaluba is a medical doctor. He has also studied international relations, political economy and philosophy.