In the most significant move yet to prepare fresh leadership for the 2009 government, President Thabo Mbeki has enlarged the number of deputy ministers to 21, bringing in new faces with a diversity of experience.
In the past he has also used these posts to create gender and racial balance in the Cabinet, to pay off political debts and accommodate factions in the African National Congress.
In the past, many of those who came in as deputy minister moved on to senior ministerial posts. These include Ronnie Kasrils, deputy defence minister in 1994, appointed Water Affairs and Forestry Minister in 1999 and now Intelligence Minister.
The great unknown among the deputy ministers is the new Deputy Communications Minister, Radhakrishna “Roy” Padayachee, from KwaZulu-Natal, who has a long-standing history in grassroots activism. He was the spokesperson for the Community Distress Committee formed after the death of 12 children in a stampede at the Throb Nightclub in 2000. He worked as director of the Early Childhood Learning Centre. His struggle credentials date back to the Natal Indian Congress, the United Democratic Front. In the early Eighties he was a key mover in the Housing Action Committee.
Mbeki has promoted some provincial ministers to prepare them for larger roles in future. Newly appointed Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi was punted long before his appointment as a future national Minister of Finance. Moleketi has completed a post-graduate diploma in economic principles and an MSC in financial economics through the University of London. He was Gauteng’s only provincial minister to have served two full terms since 1994 in the same post.
Moleketi is respected across the political spectrum for efficiently managing Gauteng’s finances, and for developing a the province’s unique economic growth strategy, Blue IQ. To infuse new blood, Mbeki also drew from Parliament. Johnny de Lange, appointed Deputy Justice Minister, is probably the best-known among the MPs now brought into government.
Chair of the parliamentary justice committee, De Lange often irritated the country’s judges with his robust comments. He was criticised for threatening the independence of the judiciary after commenting that judges were overpaid and under-worked.
However, he is also credited with being the driving force behind most of the laws affecting the justice system that have been drafted in the past five years. De Lange is seen as a potential justice minister.
Another MP raised to executive responsibilities is Sue van der Merwe, appointed to help Aziz Pahad as a joint deputy in the foreign affairs portfolio. Van der Merwe has been the eyes and ears of Mbeki in Parliament as his parliamentary counsellor. That post has now been handed to respected former Northern Cape premier Manne Dipico.
A former Black Sash advice officer in Cape Town, Van der Merwe is expected to relieve some of the pressure on Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, giving her more scope for political interventions on the domestic front.
Two weeks ago the Mail & Guardian speculated that ANC Youth League leader Malusi Gigaba would get the nod as a deputy minister, as Mbeki’s overture to the youth.
Often criticised for his vaulting ambition and for failing to give the ANC Youth League independence from its mother body, Gigaba’s appointment strengthen’s the grip of the ANC leadership over a portfolio long held by Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Also appointed by Mbeki are a number of serving deputy ministers retained to gain further experience.