Who will Motlanthe appoint?

2008-09-25 07:25

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - It seems likely that the new President Kgalema Motlanthe, who will be elected and sworn in on Thursday, will have to find six or seven new ministers to fill the posts abandoned by those who say they will not be coming back.

All the rest of those who resigned with Thabo Mbeki are expected to be reappointed to their present positions by Motlanthe, according to Gwede Mantashe, the party secretary general.

For the new appointments he will have no shortage of talents or of those willing to serve.

Deputy president

For the most prominent job - deputy president - two names have been mentioned. The first is Baleka Mbete, the Speaker of the National Assembly and chairperson of the party. The second is Lindiwe Sisulu, presently minister of housing.

Mbete, the ANC hierarchs might feel, needs to be compensated for her disappointment at not being named for president, although she was widely canvassed for the job. However, she has no experience at all in Cabinet or running a ministry. Since Motlanthe himself has never been a departmental minister either, and his Cabinet experience extends only to two months, it might be thought better to give the task to someone with experience of both.

If the post is to be reserved for a woman, Lindiwe Sisulu would seem to be a natural choice. She has been in the hot seat at housing since she left the intelligence ministry, and her ranking in the party is high as daughter of struggle icons Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

Perhaps Mbete could move from her present task to the presidency as well and take over the jobs done by Essop Pahad or Motlanthe himself there - in particular she could be an efficient and knowledgeable head of government business.

Posts for Phosa, Sexwale?

Two names come immediately to mind to fill top posts in the government, although neither of them are MPs at present that could be arranged by creating vacancies to be filled from their respective provincial lists.

Treasurer general of the party, Matthews Phosa, has not been overstretched by his responsibilities in that job, and he could comfortably add running a department to it. When last in government he was premier of Mpumalanga and might be an appropriate pick to run Provincial and Local Government vacated by Sydney Mufamadi. Mufamadi found himself with adequate time to head up the conventional arms control committee and to be the chief of Mbeki's Zimbabwe mediation team in addition to his ministerial job.

The qualifications of Tokyo Sexwale to fill a senior economic post are high. Also a former premier (of Gauteng), he left to become a major figure in the business community as founder of Mvelaphanda and its chairperson. He could well step into Alec Erwin's chair at Public Enterprises.

There are however other candidates for the economic ministries who are MPs - one in particular is the chairperson of the finance committee, Nhlanhla Nene, or the present chief whip Nathi Mthethwa. He chaired the Minerals and Energy committee until his recent elevation.

Also to be reckoned with is Max Sisulu - also an ANC aristocrat, brother of Lindiwe. He is ANC economic policy chief. He was also chief whip of the party, and went on to be deputy chief executive of Denel. He too is no longer an MP.

Nozizwe Madlala Routledge comeback?

Both Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota and his deputy Mluleki George have resigned and say they are not coming back, so there could be a post there for Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, who was deputy defence minister for five years before being moved to health and falling out with Manto Tshabalala Msimang, before being fired by Mbeki. It was always slightly odd to have a Quaker in that department though.

The deputy minister of science and technology, Derek Hanekom, would be a natural choice to fill the vacancy left by Azapo's insistence that their man Mosibudi Mangena should quit. Hanekom has been a dedicated Zuma supporter ever since he was crudely fired by Mbeki from the Agriculture ministry.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)