Irreconcilable differences between South African Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana and his director general, Advocate Rams Ramashia, led to Ramashia’s sudden resignation this week — seven months earlier than the expiry of his five-year contract, senior officials within the department told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday.
Mdladlana on Wednesday announced Ramashia’s resignation and wished him success in his future endeavours.
”As someone with his skills [sic] and talents, a number of opportunities have presented themselves and he has indicated he wishes to pursue an option in the private sector that will provide him a platform to continue driving the transformation agenda of government,” said Mdladlana.
Although Mdladlana has expressed sadness about what he has described as Ramashia’s desire to leave, officials within the department say the two (Mdladlana and Ramashia) were never on good terms.
”His [Ramashia’s] departure was long overdue as he was no longer happy. He never saw eye to eye with the minister,” said a senior official within the department.
Before he joined the department in 1999 as deputy director general, Ramashia was the president of the South African National Non-Governmental Organisation Coalition (Sangoco) — a movement that challenged government socioeconomic policies.
During his tenure as president of Sangoco, Ramashia was appointed by then deputy president Thabo Mbeki to serve on the advisory committee of the National Development Agency.
His brief upon joining the Department of Labour was to turn the bureaucracy around. He became director general in 2000.
In his tenure he was involved in formulating a number of amendments to the country’s labour laws. These include changes to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, which has significantly improved since the new amendments were enacted by Parliament in 2002. The fund recorded a surplus of R1,4-billion in August last year.
Also in 2003 Ramashia led the government delegation to the Growth and Development Summit as a convener.
The tension between Ramashia and the minister had allegedly deteriorated to the point where Mdladlana would openly clash with Ramashia in front of junior officials.
Speaking to the M&G Online about whether his resignation resulted from the tension between himself and the minister, Ramashia said: ”That is not far removed from the truth.”
He added: ”There are issues that we did not agree on, but it is inherent that this type of relationship would exist between the minister and the director general. I would be surprised [if] the minister and the director general agree on every thing. Even though [I] did not see eye to eye with the minister, we never had a head-on collision.”
He told the M&G Online that he has been appointed new chairperson of BP.