A LOOK AT MOTLANTHE'S CABINET APPOINTMENTS

UNCLAS PRETORIA 002477 AF/S PLEASE PASS TO A/S FRAZER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KJUS PGOV KDEM SF SUBJECT: A LOOK AT MOTLANTHE'S CABINET APPOINTMENTS REF: PRETORIA 2132 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (U) Motlanthe finished making his Cabinet appointments this week by appointing three Deputy Ministers: Andre Gaum was named Deputy Education Minister, Musa Nhlanhla Nene was named Deputy Finance Minister, and Fatima Hajaig was named Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister. In total, Motlanthe made 10 new ministerial appointments and five new deputy ministerial appointments to the Cabinet. Below are short biographies for each of the newly appointed ministers and deputies. End Summary. -------------- Bios: The Ministers -------------- ¶2. (U) Defense Minister Charles Nqakula previously served as Minister of Safety and Security from 2002-2008. He helped facilitate the peace process in Burundi, setting up the political and military principles underpinning peace and achieving a cessation of hostilities. Nqakula served as Deputy Minister of Home Affairs from 2001 to 2002. He was elected to the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) in 1994, 1999, and 2004. Nqakula has long-standing ties to the South African Communist Party, serving as Deputy Secretary General from 1991 to 1993 under Chris Hani and then as Secretary General following Hani's assassination. He also has an extensive background in efforts to organize labor, having been elected Vice President of the Media Workers' Association of South Africa following his appointment as Vice President of the Writers' Association of South Africa in 1979. He served as public secretary of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983 before he left the country and underwent military training in Angola as part of the armed wing of the ANC, the Umkonto we Sizwe or "Spear of the Nation." He subsequently infiltrated South Africa as one of the commanders during Operation Vula and served as a commander in Western Cape in 1988. (Note: Operation Vula was the armed resistance inside South Africa beginning in the late 1980s to create communication channels between ANC leaders in exile and those in the country and to undermine the apartheid regime. End Note.) He was born on September 13, 1942 and is married to Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. He enjoys composing choral music and writing poetry. ¶3. (U) Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Enver Surty previously served as the Deputy Minister of Education from 2004-2008. He has been described as possessing "all the hallmarks of a good leader." He served as a member of Parliament in the Senate until 1994 and subsequently the National Council of Provinces from 1996 to 2004. He joined the National Assembly in 1999 and was re-deployed to the National Council of Provinces as Chief Whip, a position he held from 1999 to 2004. During his time in the legislature, he participated in select committees, including on the Justice, Safety and Security, Constitutional Affairs, and Local Government portfolios. He served on the ANC's NEC from 1999 to 2007 as an observer. Surty has an extensive legal background, serving as a human rights lawyer in Rustenberg from 1977 to 1994. He also acted on behalf of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) during his tenure as an advocate. Surty was born on August 15, 1953 and is married with three children. He enjoys watching and playing soccer, cricket, and squash. He is an avid reader. Qsoccer, cricket, and squash. He is an avid reader. ¶4. (U) Health Minister Barbara Hogan previously served as a member of Parliament, where she played a leading role in numerous ad hoc committees and investigations. She chaired the portfolio committee on Finance from 1999 to 2004. She was instrumental in creating ANC structures in Gauteng and has been a member of Parliament since 1994. Concurrent with her appointment to the Health Ministry, Hogan acts as chairperson of the Standing Committee on the Auditor General. She is a member of the advisory board of the Amandla AIDS Fund, which was established by the non-profit organization Artists for a New South Africa in 2003. She joined the ANC in 1976 after the Soweto student uprising. In 1982, she became the first woman to be sentenced to treason in South Africa and began serving a 10-year sentence. She was released in 1990. Hogan was born in 1952 and enjoys reading. ¶5. (U) Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa previously served as the Chief Whip of the ANC. One of former President Thabo Mbeki's staunchest critics, he has been in Parliament since 2002 and is currently a member of the NEC and the ANC's National Working Committee. Prior to Polokwane he was a key lobbyist for Jacob Zuma's bid to become party leader; he was accused of being one of the leaders responsible for organizing party members bused in to boo former Mbeki. He was elected to the NEC of the ANC's Youth League in 1994 and served in its National Working Committee as Secretary for Organization from 1994 to 2004. He was deployed to the ANC's National Organizing team in 2001 and served as chairman of the Minerals and Energy Portfolio Committee in 2004. He has ties to the labor movement, having served in 1989 as chairman of the Southern Natal Unemployed Workers Union, an initiative of COSATU. Mthethwa was recruited into underground work for the ANC as part of Operation Vula. He has extensive ties to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, which he has capitalized on as chairman of the ANC's Political Committee in Kwa-Zulu Natal. He has in the past denied meeting requests from the Consul General in Durban. He is known for his tough talk and militancy. He was born on January 23, 1967 and is married. He enjoys writing and sports. ¶6. (SBU) Public Enterprises Minister Brigitte Mabandla previously served as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development from 2004 to 2008. Prior to that she served as Housing Minister from 2003 to 2004 and as Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science, and Technology from 1995 to 2003. Industry sources report that she knows very little about the state enterprises that she will be responsible for. Some newspaper journalists believe that her transfer to this ministry suggest that the large state enterprises she is responsible for will eventually be transferred back to the relevant ministries (i.e. Eskom to the Department of Minerals and Energy, Telkom to the Department of Communications and Transnet and South African Airways to the Department of Transportation.) Mabandla's reputation also has been tainted by her refusal to charge former Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi for widely perceived corruption during the Mbeki government. She is a member of the ANC's NEC and has been in Parliament since 1994. She has an extensive background working with NGOs and experts in human rights, minority rights, children's rights, women's rights, and rights for the disabled. She has a background in law, having earned her degree at the University of Lusaka in 1979. She lectured in law at the Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce from 1983 to 1986 and served as Legal Advisor of the ANC Lusaka Legal and Constitutional Affairs Department from 1986 to 1990. She then was a member of the ANC's Constitutional Committee and negotiating team from 1990 to 1994. She was born on November 23, 1948 and is married. ¶7. (U) Public Works Minister Geoffrey Doidge has extensive legislative experience. Not only is he Public Works Minister, Doidge is chairman of the Committee of Chairpersons in Parliament, a member of the National Assembly Rules Committee, a member of the Joint Rules Committee, a member of the National Assembly Program Committee, a member of the Joint Program Committee, a member of Parliament's Budget QJoint Program Committee, a member of Parliament's Budget Forum, a member of the ANC Whips Committee since 1994, and a member of the ANC Governance Committee in Parliament. He has extensive experience in development work and local governance. He was a founding member of the ANC's Strategy Team as served as Deputy Chief Whip of the ANC from 1994 to ¶1999. His local government experience includes times as a member of the ANC Transkei regional executive from 1992-1995 and as a member of the Kokstad Local Affairs committee from 1992 to 1994. He is known for protecting staff members from abuse by fellow legislators. He was born on April 26, 1952 and is married. ¶8. (U) Intelligence Minister Siyabonga Cwele has been a member of Parliament since 1994. He has served as a member of the ANC's Provincial Executive Committee in Kwa-Zulu Natal since 1990. Throughout his legislative career, he has served on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, as a member of the Senate of the National Council of Provinces from 1994 to 1999, and as chairman of the Standing Committee on Social Services. He served in various underground capacities for the ANC from 1984 to 1990. He was known as one of the few leaders in Parliament willing to speak out against some of Mbeki's decisions. He is a strong Zuma supporter, and was credited with ensuring Mbeki's bid for a third term was defeated at Polokwane. Cwele, who has a good grasp of the intelligence system, led the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence to recommend that former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy be charged for allowing the Scorpions to gather intelligence that culminated in the controversial Browse Mole report. The report linked ANC President Jacob Zuma to a coup plot against Mbeki. He denied a request in 2008 by the Consul General in Durban to discuss political developments. ¶9. (U) Provincial and Local Government Minister Sicelo Shiceka is a member of the ANC's NEC. He was fired from his ANC party position in Gauteng when former premier Mbhazima "Sam" Shilowa assumed the office in 1999. Following his dismissal, he was appointed as the permanent Gauteng representative to the National Council of Provinces and served as the chairman of Parliament's collective committee on local government and administration. He has extensive service dealing with Public Service, Land and Environmental Affairs, and Security and Constitutional Affairs portfolios. ¶10. (U) Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi has been in Parliament since 1999. He has concurrently served as a member of the Committee on Public Service and Administration, a member of the National Assembly Rules Committee, a member of the Joint Rules Committee on Ethics and Members Interest, and member on the Ad Hoc Committee on the African Peer Review Mechanism. During the 1980s, he was a UDF activist. He served in Limpopo as the ANC's provincial spokesman following the 1994 election and in a variety of capacities in local government before assuming his legislative seat. He has been described as a "hardworking, but lesser-known MP." ¶11. (U) Minister to the Presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang previously served as Health Minister from 1999 to 2008. Prior to that assignment, she served as Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999. Her emphasis on treating AIDS with vegetables such as garlic and beetroot rather than Western anti-retroviral medicines was criticized heavily internationally; many political analysts view her appointment to the Presidency as a way to "move her quietly away from health care matters." Tshabalala-Msimang began her involvement with the ANC in the 1960s when the group sent her to Soviet Union for education; she received medical training there from 1962 to 1969. Beginning in the 1970s and into the 1980s, she was an official within the exiled ANC leadership in Tanzania and Zambia, with job responsibilities focused on health and well-being of ANC militants in those countries. She was elected to Parliament in 1994. In recent years there have been concerns over her health, as she was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital in February 2007 suffering from anaemia and pleural effusion. She underwent a liver transplant a month later. A 1961 graduate of Fort Hare, she is married to ANC leader Mendi Msimang. -------------- Bios: The Deputies -------------- ¶12. (U) Deputy Minister of Health Molefi Sefularo is a medical doctor and academic from Northwest who holds degrees from Medunsa, University of Witswatersrand, and the University of Cape Town. Long active in local Northwest ANC structures, he currently is on the Trade and Industry committee in Parliament. He has served as chairman for the ANC's Health Committee since 1993. During the 1980s, he was QANC's Health Committee since 1993. During the 1980s, he was a UDF activist. He was born on July 9, 1957 and is married. Sefularo is interested in human rights, nature conservation, distance running, and reading. ¶13. (U) Deputy Minister of Defense Fezile Bhengu has been in Parliament since 1994. He is chairman of the Committee on Defense and a member of the Joint Rules Committee. A graduate of Fort Hare, Bhengu was a UDF activist in the 1980s and worked for the ANC in underground capacities prior to the group's unbanning. He is known to regularly criticize legislators and was a fierce critic of former Deputy Defense Minister Mluleki George. ¶14. (U) Deputy Education Minister Andrew Gaum has the distinction of being the last National Party legislator to sit in the National Assembly. He followed Marthinus van Schalkwyk into the ANC. Gaum has been in Parliament since 1999 and served a brief stint in the Western Cape Parliament from 2001 to 2004. While he served in the provincial legislature, he served as an executive committee member on the Education portfolio. As an ANC legislator, he served on the Constitutional Review Committee and on the Safety and Security Committee. He enjoys sports and reading. ¶15. (U) Deputy Finance Minister Musa Nhlanhla Nene is Parliament's former Finance committee chairman. Business Day political analysts describe him as "well known for his prudent approach to fiscal and macro-economic policy." Some see him as a potential replacement for Finance Minister Trevor Manuel when he decides to leave the government. Nene is said to get along well with Manuel and is a close friend of South African Reserve Bank Governor Titi Mboweni. Nene has served in Parliament since 1999 and represents Kwa-Zulu Natal and is the former ANC Secretary for the Bambatha region. Most recently, he received international attention when his chair collapsed during a national South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television interview. The incident was captured and has been widely viewed on youtube.com. Nene took the incident in good grace at first, saying he was glad to give people something to laugh about in stressful times, but as the incident continued to receive international press he now feels it has been "enough." He has asked SABC to investigate who circulated the clip and refuses to rule out legal action. ¶16. (U) Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Fatima Hajaig has served in Parliament since 1994. During her tenure, she devoted most of her energy to foreign affairs and to the Foreign Affairs committee, where she chaired the sub-committee on international affairs. She also serves on the Pan African Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the Southern African Development Community committee on inter-parliamentary cooperation, and the parliamentary group for international relations and Parliamentarians For Global Action. She has a law degree from Budapest and has some background in trade and industry. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶17. (U) Motlanthe's appointments fall into two categories. On the one hand, there are ministers and deputies with strong reputations for being technically competent and willing to speak their minds. Surty, Hogan, Cwele, and Baloyi fall into this category. Most of the deputies fall into this category as well. Motlanthe has been rightfully lauded for these picks. On the other hand, there are ministers the President simply moved aside because they performed poorly or were embarrassments in their previous roles. Tshabalala-Msimang and Mabandla fall into this role. Motlanthe did not receive praise for retaining these leaders, but was lauded for moving them aside. The question now that everyone is asking is whether the appointments will remain in their positions should Zuma assume the presidency next year. BOST