ZWELI ICED AS SHUFFLE LOOMS
President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally acted, placing health minister Zweli Mkhize on special leave this week to allow him to deal with the tender fraud allegations he is facing. The saga around Mkhize has hastened the need for Ramaphosa to reshuffle his cabinet — a much-anticipated and long-awaited move initially necessitated by the death of respected minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu.
It is doubly urgent now, given that he has appointed tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane to act in the health post — hardly the person to make the nation feel at ease during a pandemic. She has no medical track record and, frankly, not a particularly stellar one in tourism either.
It is not the first time Ramaphosa has had to deal with allegations of pandemic-linked corruption among his closest colleagues; his spokesperson Khusela Diko remains suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary process initiated by the presidency.
Diko has been cleared of the charges levelled against her on a political level by the ANC’s national disciplinary committee. She opted to take special leave last year, but was suspended after the finalisation of a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report on allegations that her now late husband was irregularly awarded a lucrative personal protective equipment contract from the Gauteng health department.
By placing Mkhize on special leave, Ramaphosa is paving the way for his potential removal — the SIU has undertaken to conclude its investigation into the dodgy Digital Vibes contract by the end of June.
Mkhize is embroiled in allegations of corruption over the R150m communication contract to Digital Vibes, run by his close associates Tahera Mather and Naadhira Mitha, according to reports. Follow-up reports indicated that Mkhize’s son, Dedani, had allegedly benefited from the contract, with R300,000 transferred to his company and a Toyota Land Cruiser purchased for his KwaZulu-Natal farm. Mkhize has denied wrongdoing and distanced himself from
Mather and Mitha.
The SIU’s June deadline renders the long-awaited cabinet reshuffle much more likely, once Ramaphosa has had an opportunity to engage with the report.
There has been speculation over a cabinet reshuffle for months and the FM understands it was initially delayed by difficulty in finding a replacement for finance minister Tito Mboweni, in what is expected to be a far-reaching overhaul. Kubayi-Ngubane is unlikely to act in the health post for long.
Should Mkhize’s conduct be found wanting by the SIU, Ramaphosa will have the arduous task of finding a replacement for his health minister amid a devastatingly slow vaccination rollout.
While former Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa and parliamentary health portfolio committee chair Sibongiseni Dhlomo have been suggested, Ramaphosa will have to appoint someone capable of carrying on with — and accelerating — the vaccination process. Kubayi-Ngubane, Ramokgopa and Dhlomo do not cut it in terms of the leadership calibre required in that post.
It presents a headache similar to that of the finance minister for Ramaphosa. There is an urgent need for a highly competent, ethical individual who can hit the ground running.
Ramaphosa has only just finalised performance agreements with his ministers, about two years behind schedule.
The glaring holes in his cabinet mean he will have to reshuffle sooner rather than later. It would be an opportune time to get rid of dead wood. If he has been paying attention, he will find he does not need performance assessments to identify them.
The glaring holes in Ramaphosa’s cabinet mean he will have to reshuffle sooner rather than later