Madlala-Routledge no 'heroine'

2007-08-17 12:20

Cape Town - President Thabo Mbeki has taken issue with those elevating sacked Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to "heroine" status.

"Ordinarily, I would not make any further comment on this matter," Mbeki said in his online newsletter on Friday.

However, an ill-founded and ill-intentioned hue and cry about Madlala-Routledge's dismissal had been raised at home and abroad.

In a determined effort to market Madlala-Routledge as some "super-heroine", her admirers had attributed government policy and programmes on HIV and Aids to her.

"Thus the extraordinarily absurd claim has been made that her dismissal from the national executive threatens the very survival of the government (and ANC) programme on HIV and Aids."

Never denied right to speak her mind

The fact of the matter was that personally, Madlala-Routledge had very little to do with the HIV/Aids/STD strategic plans, regardless of the fabrications she and her admirers chose to manufacture.

Mbeki said ANC members deployed in government would not be treated as heroes and heroines on the basis of "lone ranger" behaviour, so-called because of their defiance of agreed positions and procedures of the ANC and government.

Contrary to what some had suggested, Madlala-Routledge, like other members of the national executive, had never been denied the right to speak her mind both in Cabinet committee and Cabinet meetings.

"This also relates to instances when deputy ministers have differed with their ministers. Any suggestion to the contrary would be, to speak plainly, a blatant lie.

"Similarly, we must underline and emphasise the point that government policies are government policies.

"There is no government policy that belongs to individual ministries or departments, or even the presidency. Our government is not made up of a federation or coalition of ministers, or a presidential autocracy," Mbeki said.

People had been dropped from government in the past, but in no instance had they ever decided to engage in a media and public campaign, as Madlala-Routledge had chosen to do.

The question at issue was very simple. The central matter raised with the former deputy minister was the issue of the collective responsibility of everybody serving in the national executive.

"I would never have raised this with Ms Madlala-Routledge when I spoke to her on 7 August and in the 8 August letter, maliciously, with no factual basis," he said.

She defied a written decision

"I am certain that Ms Madlala-Routledge will recall the instances when I spoke to her while she served as deputy minister both at defence and at health, to assist her to understand and respect her obligation to honour the fact that she was part of a collective that has a responsibility to abide by the decisions of the ANC and the government.

"In this regard, I must also say that, of course, government can detail the many instances when Ms Madlala-Routledge wilfully ignored or defied this obligation."

To justify her trip to Spain, Madlala-Routledge had argued that some ministers and deputies had previously travelled out of the country without receiving authorisation, written or otherwise.

"The fact of the matter is that Ms Madlala-Routledge has absolutely no way of knowing this."

In any case, the point at issue was that she defied a written decision that she should not travel to Spain.

Mbeki said he knew of no other incident since 1999 when a minister or deputy travelled even after permission to travel had been denied.

Because the ANC had always sought to build rather than destroy, for many years the leadership had agreed to keep Madlala-Routledge in government, attempting to develop her as a true cadre committed to serving the people as a disciplined member.

"It is clear that in this specific case we failed," Mbeki said.

- SAPA