Ministers behaving badly -- Mantashe
LAYING DOWN THE LAW: ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe says because there are no rules for ministers, ‘they are jumping at each other and tearing [each other] apart’ THE recent public spat between cabinet ministers taking cheap shots at each other is indicative of a dysfunctional cabinet.
This is according to ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who told the Sunday Times on Friday that such behaviour would not happen under normal circumstances.
He called on President Jacob Zuma and his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, to deal with misbehaving cabinet ministers.
“When ministers take cheap shots at each other, you must know that there is something dysfunctional about the cabinet as a structure,” he said.
Mantashe has been one of the ANC leaders who have been trying to put out fires as the scandal relating to the Hawks’ investigation into Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s role in the formation of the “rogue unit” at the South African Revenue Service has caused instability in South Africa.
He was one of the first senior ANC leaders to condemn the Hawks’ decision to send questions to Gordhan a few days before he delivered his budget speech in February.
The Gordhan saga has divided both the government and the party along factional lines, with pro-Zuma leaders lambasting Gordhan for snubbing the Hawks when they called on him to make a warning statement last week.
This week, Gordhan found himself attacked by cabinet colleagues — Co-operative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
The Presidency had to intervene on Friday night to distance the cabinet from a statement by Zwane, who had claimed the cabinet had called for a judicial commission of inquiry into the banks’ decision to close accounts of the Gupta family.
Further, the National Treasury is at the centre of a storm with state-owned entities Eskom, SAA and Denel.
Van Rooyen accused Gordhan of trying to elicit sympathy from the media by going public with his refusal to present himself to the Hawks and defended his attack on his cabinet colleague by saying he spoke in his capacity as a leader of the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association.
However, Mantashe said there was a difference between sponsored views and legitimate resolutions by ANC structures. “It is a totally different issue when you have a sponsored view where people use structures to speak for factions.”
Because there were no rules for ministers, “they are jumping at each other and tearing [each other] apart”, he said. “That is where I will put my emphasis: president, deputy, your cabinet ministers are misbehaving.”
Mantashe said the public spats between ministers indicated a spillover of unresolved disputes in the cabinet. It was a sign something was wrong with the workings of the cabinet.
This week an open war brewed between the Treasury and Eskom and Denel.
Eskom attacked the Treasury for investigating a dodgy coal contract with a company owned by the Gupta family, with the Treasury saying Eskom had refused to co-operate. Finally, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown ordered Eskom to co-operate with the Treasury.
Arms manufacturer Denel accused the Treasury of political opportunism and grandstanding after it threatened court action to halt a joint venture in Asia by Denel which is linked to the Gupta family.
The Treasury has been embroiled in a long-standing dispute with the SAA board over its refusal to afford the dysfunctional state carrier loan guarantees from the government.
Mantashe said the disarray in SOEs created a ripe environment for looting and suggested it could be deliberate.
“If you want SOEs to be in chaos, I will know as Gwede Mantashe sitting here as secretary-general of the ANC that chaos, if it is sustained over a period of time, it can only create an environment for looting. And looting is the enemy of the liberation movement. It is not a friend of the liberation movement,” he said.
Looting would ultimately result in the decline of the ANC, Mantashe said, and he questioned why shareholder ministers allowed the disarray in SOEs to continue.
This narrative has been widely shared by Gordhan, who reportedly told Treasury staff last week that he was protecting the department against thieves.
While Mantashe described Gordhan as a long-standing cadre of the movement, he cautioned the minister about portraying the Treasury as an institution at war with the government.
“It’s dangerous in that you create a Treasury that’s a department and ministry of saints that must be protected from these other devils,” he said.
On the touchy issue of Gordhan’s rumoured imminent arrest, Mantashe repeated his view that a minister should not be treated any differently if he had a case to answer.
Sustained chaos can only create an environment for looting It’s dangerous if you create a . . . ministry of saints
Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.sundaytimes.co.za