Sometimes, it seems the ANC doesn’t care about losing power. In a move to appease allies in the ANC Women’s League after his axing of its president and social development minister Sisisi Tolashe, President Cyril Ramaphosa has shocked the country by appointing disgraced former minister Dina Pule to replace Tolashe.
The decision, before the local
government elections set for November, drills holes in the ANC and its long-promised “renewal” narrative and exposes the party’s anti-corruption rhetoric as hollow political theatre.
While some in the party argue that Pule deserves a second chance, the ANC doesn’t have the luxury of recycling crooked cadres at a time when the party is shedding voters and fighting for its life.
It is unlikely that Ramaphosa thinks the nation has forgotten who Pule is. She left the cabinet in disgrace years ago after a damning public protector investigation found her guilty of maladministration and improper conduct during her time as communications minister under Jacob Zuma.
Parliament reprimanded her for wilfully misleading the ethics committee under oath and breaching her oath of office.
Now she has been handed the keys to a department that governs a budget of billions and serves nearly 28 million vulnerable citizens.
The move shows the electorate and those fighting corruption the middle finger.
The appointment occurs at a moment of national reckoning. The Madlanga Commission has revealed how deep and far corruption’s tentacles reach, showing criminal infiltration and political interference in the state’s security apparatus. It is this rot in the security system that has seen Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, a Ramaphosa ANC campaign ally in 2017, suspended but not fired, like Tolashe, raising questions about the ANC’s renewal rhetoric.
You would expect that during the time of the Madlanga Commission, the executive would be signalling an unyielding commitment to integrity. Instead, by welcoming Pule back, Ramaphosa has undermined the gravity of the oversight mechanisms. It signals to corrupt networks that accountability is temporary and political survival inside the ANC will always trump ethical standards.
For an anxious electorate preparing for the November polls where the ANC could lose Joburg, it boggles the mind that Ramaphosa couldn’t find a decent cadre to replace Tolashe. The ANC’s renewal strategy is limping again because of the decision.
How does a president who seemingly doesn’t care about integrity in his cabinet during a judicial corruption probe expect citizens to trust his party? The message he sends is that under his leadership and under ANC rule, accountability is a revolving door and the fight against corruption is a secondary concern to internal party appeasement.
Perhaps Ramaphosa has forgotten that Pule has corruption on the soles of her Christian Louboutin shoes? Voters haven’t