Meet Cyril’s No 2, David Mabuza
Deputy president David Mabuza speaks to YOU about his career, presidential ambitions and that controversial Gupta flight
HE’S been called everything from a dangerous operator to a corrupt scoundrel who had a hand in political assassinations. He caused a storm when he was flown to Russia for medical treatment on the Gupta family’s private jet after he’d apparently been poisoned.
And he’s widely believed to have persuaded President Cyril Ramaphosa to make him his deputy instead of appointing his chosen No 2, Naledi Pandor.
David “DD” Mabuza (57) holds so much sway in the echelons of power he’s been given the nickname The Kingmaker – and if his move from the Mpumalanga premier’s office to the Union Buildings in Pretoria is controversial, well, so be it.
He’s an old master at surviving storms. In fact, he’s even nicknamed himself The Cat because of it.
WE FIND Mabuza in the soon- to- be- vacated premier’s mansion in Nelspruit, sipping on vegetable juice on the veranda. He’s come a long way. He was born in a village in Brondal in Mpumalanga to Anna Nkambule, a housekeeper, and William Cetshwayo Mabuza, a railway station guard.
As a kid he and his 11 siblings had to fetch water from the river, collect wood and take the cattle out to graze before setting off for school.
His parents separated when he was in Grade 10 and his father left the family home. His friends and his love of soccer kept him going – and before long he was sucked into the turbulence of the times.
Mabuza became politicised after the Soweto school uprising of 16 June 1976 and became determined to fight against the injustices of apartheid.
“Things were tough,” he says. “The chances of a young person succeeding were zero.”
Despite regular boycotts he passed matric at Khumbula High School and got a bursary to study teaching at Mngwenya College of Education in Nelspruit.
It was at college that Mabuza really became embroiled in politics. He was expelled in his final year after organising a student strike and arrested soon after that. “I was kept in a local police station and tortured,” he said, adding he was allowed to write his exams after his release and got his diploma. “That was a hectic period,” he says. His mother, who had cancer, suffered a great deal. “The police would come looking for me and harass everyone at home. She didn’t like the kind of life I was leading. “According to my parents if you were wanted by the police it meant you weren’t a good person. I tried to explain that I’d done nothing wrong and we were fighting against the system.”
She died in 1987 a very unhappy woman, he says.
Mabuza went on to work as a teacher while operating underground for the ANC. “I’d help ferry weapons or documents or whatever was ANC-related.”
He served as principal of Lungisani Secondary School in Nelspruit from 1989 to 1993 until he was made MEC for education in Mpumalanga in 1994. “It was a nightmare,” he says. “I battled to understand what to do. But I survived.”
Under his leadership the ministry created a single department of education out of the then nine – but his time there wasn’t without scandal.
He was accused of inflating matric results but doesn’t want to dwell on that. He believes the department taught him a lot, including negotiating skills and patience.
Mabuza played a key role in backing Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s Polokwane conference in 2007, and in 2009 he was made premier of Mpumalanga.
He was accused of playing the unity card at the ANC elective conference in December last year when he tried to mobilise branches to abstain from choosing candidates, instead going with “unity”. He believes he acted in the best interests of the party.
The turning point for him, he explains, was the 2007 Polokwane conference, which left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“I saw comrades I admired such as Mbhazima Shilowa and Mosiuoa Lekota take a different path and leave the ANC.”
He also had to watch as Julius Malema “who used to come and visit me in this house” walked away from the party.
Going into last year’s conference he foresaw yet another split and didn’t think the ANC would survive it. “It could’ve been the end of this journey, all these dreams. I just got frustrated.”
His unity efforts fell on deaf ears but he’s fine with it, he says. “I’m happy with the outcome. The ANC is alive. People on the ground are happy.”
SO HOW does The Cat feel about being linked to tender corruption, the Guptas and political killings? All the trouble started when he was made Mpumalanga premier and contested the chairmanship of the province, he says. “The contest was fierce among comrades I knew and I never thought they’d hate me this way.”
Articles that he was corrupt “and what not” started to surface but there “wasn’t a piece of evidence”, he says.
He also denies involvement in the murders of provincial officials Jimmy Mohlala and Sammy Mpatlanyane, who’d uncovered tender corruption in the run-up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Mabuza says the process was finalised around 2007, two years before he became premier.
“When I came in as premier people started saying I had an interest in the stadium. The speaker of the municipality was shot. So, the allegation was that I was part of the shooting. Why should I arrange for the speaker to be killed? What did I stand to gain? “Nothing.” And that trip to Russia on the Gupta jet?
Mabuza tells us he was left fighting for his life in 2015 after apparently being poisoned during a birthday bash for which he’d organised a funfair for kids as part of a fundraising drive for schools in Bushbuckridge. “I drank coffee – that was all I had that morning.”
He started sweating and feeling weak soon afterwards and the next day he was so ill his wife, Nonhlanhla Patience Mnisi, rushed him to hospital.
“I couldn’t eat or drink. At some point I couldn’t speak.”
Then-president Zuma came to see him after he’d been in hospital for a month.
“I was in a terrible condition. After he left he sent some doctors to check on me and they said the situation is so dire we must try to arrange to get you to Russia to get treatment.”
He was taken aboard a jet where he saw Zuma’s son, Duduzane, who said his father had asked him to help.
“I didn’t even know whose plane it was. I only realised later it was a Gupta plane.”
He’s never had anything to do with the Guptas, he says. “If people have proof, they must go to the police or public protector.”
The government needs to fight corruption with all its might, he adds. “It’s like a cancer that will kill all of us.”
MABUZA is eager to get stuck into his new role even though it means sacrificing family time – something he’s done a lot of over the years. “All my children have grown up without me,” the father of seven says. “I’ve tried to pay for school and every other thing but it’s not enough.”
Nonhlanhla (45), to whom he’s been married for 15 years, smiles. “To us, he’s very special,” she says.
Home for the family is a 25ha farm in Barberton where Mabuza watches soccer on TV and goes fishing.
His eldest daughter, Innocentia (38), says her dad has always been strict. “He has that teacher thing going on. He’s fun but he throws the best tantrum when you make him angry.”
So does The Cat hope to be president one day? “If I could pass, it would be fine,” he says.
“I didn’t have any desire to be here but here I am. It’s not always about me and where I want to go.”