The resignation of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene after it emerged he had omitted that he — like virtually the entire cabinet — had met our former first family, the Guptas, for tea was one of far too few occasions in which we’ve had a prominent ANC member relinquish their duties honourably.
Now, Nene wasn’t accused of any crime or other misdemeanour; nor was he a minister who we’ve come to discover would do the bidding of former state president Jacob Zuma’s favourite friends. He read the room. In a climate in which the nation had been invigorated by the supposed New Dawn that his new boss in President Cyril Ramaphosa had promised, Nene knew he couldn’t hold onto the keys of treasury. It was an honourable and — to many in the hallways of the ministry — a sad farewell, but a good goodbye.
It embodies an appreciation of the depth and importance of public service that, in the main, doesn’t exist.
This was further evidenced this week with the reaction of Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to the third part of Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s report into state capture. As an act of preservation, perhaps, ahead of the release of the report, he had warned at the beginning of the year that it shouldn’t be used as a tool to settle scores.
In the report, Zondo said that on further investigation, authorities are likely to find evidence that Mantashe was corrupt in dealings with the now infamous Bosasa, which paid for upgrades to his home when he was secretary general of the ANC.
Now, Mantashe is well within his rights, as we all are, to take the findings on judicial review; this is an obvious and well-beaten path by his many comrades in the governing party. But as a public servant, should he not step aside? There is precedent.
It’s the honourable thing to do rather than wait for Ramaphosa to call him over for an evening visit to Pretoria, however unlikely. Mantashe’s name has been besmirched by the state capture project.
Addressing journalists in his seat at the department of mineral resources and energy, but wearing his hat as chairperson of the party — as clear as ever an example of the blurring of lines between party and state — Mantashe said he wouldn’t resign.
If he were talking about as chairperson of the ANC, well, the party’s followers have long accepted that leadership contests now boil down to the choice of the “better” rogues among us. As ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini once said, they all have “smallanyana skeletons.”
But, as a senior member of Ramaphosa’s administration, we expect a different calculation. What’s the fear for? There is life, after all, outside the cabinet: just ask former health minister Zweli Mkhize.