Gigaba and the perils of vaulting ambition

Sometimes “ambitions can get over you and kill your career”. That’s what a university colleague of former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba told me when I asked his thoughts about his promotion to finance minister in April last year. Words that have proved prescient, as the man who believed his path to both party and state presidency was already written finally resigned this week. It seems so long ago that Gigaba was promoted to his biggest job in his storied career as a politician. It was a poisoned chalice and for a “smart” politician, it was an appointment well worth the risk of not accepting. ANC romantics often speak of not being able to say no to deployment, but when it was clear that former president Jacob Zuma had in essence gone rogue by operating outside of party structures, he should have declined. But in his pursuit of his long-cherished dream of unbridled power, the ascension would prove too attractive. In an inner circle of people just as ambitious, such as the mayor of Ekurhuleni, I don’t think there was anyone to caution him against accepting ahead of the December conference.

I can imagine that for his supporters, it was his chance to showcase his leadership credentials in the most senior of cabinet positions and he would then be able to clear a path for his generation.

And as uncomfortable as the general public was with just how

Gigaba was appointed to his post, a result of year-long attempts by

Zuma and his “radical economic transformation” lieutenants to hound

Pravin Gordhan out of his seat, I felt that the vast majority of South

Africans were willing to give the 47-year-old a chance to surprise. Prove he was not a sponsored man but a man of his own convictions.

Along with his entourage that included an economics adviser who had called for the nationalisation of everything from banks to mines and still does, he walked into the Treasury’s headquarters and strutted about determined to make the best of his opportunity to prove his mettle. For the most part, Gigaba kept to the script of selling the idea that the Treasury would remain prudent and fiscally disciplined. Ratings agencies still acted, and markets never believed Gigaba’s story. But given the well-known secret that he harboured presidential ambitions, and his young age, even his biggest detractors could place a wager that he wouldn’t hand over the keys to the safe.

But when he stood up and spoke against ill-considered plans such as nuclear, there was blowback from factions that had ensured his rise. There were complaints that he had gone to the Treasury only to speak and act just like “them”. Ahead of December’s elective conference, knowing that everyone and their dog was watching where he would place his bets, he chose to sit on the fence, alienating that same faction again. Once again, he chose to look after himself and his burning ambition.

When he was demoted for the second time in his political career and sent back to home affairs earlier this year, the relief amongst his seemingly small bunch of supporters was that at least he was still at the main table. What they forgot was that in satisfying his ultimate ambition, Gigaba had served many masters, flipping sides at the toss of a coin. Those decisions would return to haunt him and today, some 18 months after he became finance minister, their prefect joins a list of more than 10 ministers to lose their jobs during Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency.

While he’ll still sit in the highest decisionmaking body of the party, he isn’t at the main table. To get back he has to build a constituency again, but given how he has acted to satisfy his most burning of desires, would he able to win the trust of his comrades?

It is something that he will soon find out as he embarks on one of the many comeback campaigns in the party. His generation, including the likes of Fikile Mbalula, will either be cheering him on or looking for a new side.

Will he be able to regain the trust of his comrades?