Backbencher Ismail Vadi, African National Congress MP for the past 10 years, is earmarked to chair the ad hoc committee on the Public Protector report on Bulelani Ngcuka’s investigation of Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
It has become almost traditional for the ANC in Parliament to hand political hot potatoes to relative unknowns in its ranks. The ANC in Parliament knows it will be on the losing side, whichever way the committee’s deliberations go.
Split between both camps, like the ANC outside Parliament, the organisation is understood to be deeply unhappy that it has been dragged into the power-play.
The ANC apparently wants the committee to deal with the report by the book, in an attempt to avoid generating any controversy. In effect, the organisation does not want to deal with the matter, and wants the government to sort out the mess.
Vadi, from Lenasia in Gauteng, has served on the education, safety and security and public administration committees. He was also part of the assembly which drafted the Constitution. Despite his long tenure at Parliament, he is not known to be part of the inner circles of the ANC caucus. He was a key strategist behind the ANC’s campaign to win minority votes during the election.
ANC officials are meanwhile frothing about the public attack on Mushwana by Ngcuka and former justice minister Penuell Maduna.
“Regardless of whether the report was right or wrong, their response was wrong,” an official said.