Sexwale an easy target for Zuma

A political rival, he also failed in his duties

IT was easy for President Jacob Zuma to fire his political opponent, former human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale, because he has failed to deliver on his key responsibilities, say ANC insiders.

Sexwale was axed on Tuesday alongside former communications minister Dina Pule and former cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister Richard Baloyi.

The firing of Pule and Baloyi did not come as a surprise, but Sexwale was the biggest casualty of the cabinet reshuffle.

Possibly because of his links with ousted ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, Sexwale is considered to be Zuma’s political opponent. However, the president did not touch his other rivals in cabinet — Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile and Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula. Evidently, however, Sexwale’s underperformance gave Zuma an opportunity to gun for him.

ANC insiders with access to the rationale behind the cabinet changes said Sexwale had delivered only 160 000 houses a year during his tenure despite having a larger budget than his predecessor, Lindiwe Sisulu, who built 220 000.

“The reason we decided to change the department from housing to human settlements was because we wanted to go beyond just building houses,” said one ANC insider.

“We wanted to create communities where the building of houses is integrated with the building of schools and sports facilities. He did not do that.”

It is understood that, according to the performance agreement Sexwale signed with Zuma, he was meant to upgrade 400 000 shacks by 2014— but he has only delivered 40 000.

Human settlements was meant to assist low-income earners in obtaining gap fund- ing for housing, but not much progress has been made.

“There was also the sanitation backlog, which explains some of the problems we [have] in Cape Town,” said an ANC insider.

The cabinet last year instructed Sexwale to intervene after the Gauteng government demolished houses that were “illegally” built on governmentowned land in Lenasia.

“He was supposed to show leadership in Lenasia, but he did not,” said the insider.

Soon after his axing, rumours spread in ANC circles that Sexwale had been fired because of his continued links with Malema, who this week launched his political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters.

But Malema’s allies denied the claim, saying the two had fallen out ahead of the Mangaung conference after Malema had switched allegiances and backed former ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa for the ruling party’s deputy presidency instead of Sexwale.

Pule’s axing, on the other hand, had been long expected. Her performance was below par, because she spent most of her time fighting personal battles after being exposed by this newspaper for having channelled millions of rands in sponsorship money for the ICT Ind- aba to her boyfriend.

But Pule’s biggest failure has been her dereliction in introducing the country’s switch to digital migration.

“She failed with the SABC . . . and also there are serious problems at the Post Office,” said an ANC source.

Baloyi has failed to inspire confidence in all the departments he has led.

His poor handling of the public servants’ strike in 2011 led to him being moved to the cooperative governance and traditional affairs and being replaced by Sisulu at the Department of Public Service and Administration.

On his watch, the state of local government has continued to deteriorate, for example, most municipalities in North West are either dysfunctional or under administration.

The same situation has repeated itself in other provinces.

Sexwale did not respond to requests for an interview, but he told a newspaper this week that he accepted Zuma’s decision.

Connie September replaced him.

Pule and Baloyi were succeeded by Yunus Carrim and Lechesa Tsenoli.