Mantashe finds himself caught in the middle
Secretary-general should be the power behind the throne but is finding it tough exerting authority, write S’thembiso Msomi and Qaanitah Hunter
THEORETICALLY, he is the second-most powerful politician in the land. His position may not be recognised in the constitution, but he is said to be the only person who gets to sit in and listen as the president appoints cabinet ministers.
The ANC secretary-general is, under normal circumstances, the first person the country’s president consults when he wants to sack or redeploy a member of the executive.
This informal but long-standing arrangement, party insiders say, is meant to remind those taking up public office that they are doing so not just at the president’s pleasure, but with the blessing of Luthuli House.
But a number of recent events suggest that the power and authority of ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe is increasingly coming in for criticism, mostly from groups in the party that are supportive of President Jacob Zuma.
As part of the internal fallout that has followed the ANC’s dismal showing at the recent local government elections, there are those who are pointing fingers at Mantashe’s sixth-floor office at Luthuli House, saying it failed to stop the manipulation of candidate lists, which may have caused some party supporters to stay away from the polls.
The same detractors are wont to point out that under Mantashe’s watch, the ANC has had two breakaways and that its majority has been reduced at every election.
Although the same accusation could easily be made against Zuma, it says something about the realignment of political forces in the ruling party that those who point fingers at Mantashe absolve the president.
If anyone still had any doubts that the secretary-general is no longer trusted by the president’s supporters, such doubts would have evaporated on Monday.
As a small group of #OccupyLuthuliHouse protesters gathered at Library Gardens in Johannesburg preparing to deliver a memorandum demanding that Zuma resign to Mantashe, the secretarygeneral found himself at loggerheads with members of the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association.
The MKMVA, led by Deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe, a staunch Zuma supporter, wanted to stop Mantashe from receiving the memorandum, arguing that this would give “legitimacy” to the protest.
A few days before, we had interviewed Mantashe in his offices and he had nothing complimenfactory tary to say about the planned protest. Yet MKMVA members and other pro-Zuma groupings that took to the streets to “defend” Zuma and Luthuli House against the protesters behaved in a manner that suggested they had little confidence in the secretarygeneral fighting in their corner.
At times it is difficult to tell where Mantashe stands on many of the issues occupying both country and party.
Earlier this year he was one of the most vocal critics of the Gupta family’s influence over Zuma and some cabinet ministers. But then an investigation into the matter, headed by him, yielded unsatisIf results.
He publicly acknowledged that scandals involving the president, especially the Nkandla debacle, had cost the ANC voters. But when there were calls for Zuma to be “recalled” from office following the party’s poor showing at the polls, it was Mantashe who shielded the president by saying that the ANC should take “collective responsibility”.
In the interview, he told us that, as the ANC’s chief spokesman, it was his responsibility to communicate views adopted by the party, even if such views contradicted his own opinions.
“It happens when you are secretary-general many times . . . Because when you are secretary-general you go to meetings, you table reports [and] half the time they originate from your office, you take them there [and] are discussed. Some of your views are accepted, some are changed and some are rejected.
“Once they are discussed and discussions are adopted by a structure, you don’t have the luxury of expressing your views.
“You talk to that issue, whether you agree with it or not. You must report it as enthusiastically as if it is your original idea and you must defend it,” Mantashe said.
He sees his primary role as ensuring that the centre of power holds. “We do everything that should be done to clarify positions of the ANC. It is a difficult period now, when an organisation is highly factionalised; people do all sorts of things to undermine that very centre.”
But isn’t the centre of power supposed to be the Union Buildings? For Mantashe, no. He pointed out that ANC policy is that Luthuli House is “the strategic centre of power”, which gives directives to party deployees in government.
It is difficult to tell where Mantashe actually stands on many of the issues
Luthuli House is the centre of power, how can it keep the country together when its top six leaders appear to be fighting each other? What is Mantashe’s relationship with Zuma and deputy secretarygeneral Jessie Duarte, especially given that the latter seems to disagree with Mantashe on Gupta influence?
“We are six. I don’t know why you isolate two. Can I tell you what we don’t do here? I don’t want a deputy who is a praise singer.”
But surely the recent public spats involving cabinet ministers are indicative of a house divided at the very top? Why would Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and his local government counterpart, Des van Rooyen — in his capacity as MKMVA treasurer — have the confidence to publicly question Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s actions, even when they have been told to keep quiet by Mantashe?
“When ministers take cheap shots at each other, you must know there is something dysfunctional about the cabinet as a structure . . . When there are no rules at the level of cabinet, cabinet ministers will jump at each other, tear each other apart, and I think that is the behaviour of Mosebenzi Zwane,” Mantashe said.
Are you saying that Zuma’s cabinet is dysfunctional, we asked him.
“I don’t know. I am not a member of the cabinet. I don’t want to make any presumptuous observations.”
During the interview, Mantashe strongly suggested that the leadership instability in a number of parastatals was a “deliberate” act by people hellbent on looting state coffers.
But who is he accusing of this?
“Now, you see, you are asking questions like a judge. You want me to say: ‘So help me God.’ . . . You must connect the dots and ask why is it a trend in SOEs to be in disarray?”
He gave the example of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, which is said to have illegally donated R80-million to the ANC. Mantashe insisted that the money never went into party coffers.
“When you go deep, you scratch the surface and you find there is no R80-million gone to the ANC. But R80million has gone out of Prasa. Where has it gone? Why is it difficult to say that R80-million has not gone to the ANC, it has gone to X, Y and Z?”
Connect the dots. Ask why it is a trend in SOEs to be in disarray?