IN LESS than 100 days in office, the name Faith Muthambi has moved from relative obscurity to the top of the public discourse, hogging the headliness – albeit for the wrong reasons.
Until quite recently, Muthambi was an unknown MP, serving as an ANC whip on the communication portfolio. In late May, after her appointment as communication minister, Muthmabi, as any new minister would do, hit the ground running. She promised to deal with the crisis crippling the SABC by filling up the contentious position of the chief operating officer (COO), the second-most powerful position at the public broadcaster after the chief executive officer.
But as things stand, Muthambi's seemingly good intentions of fixing the crisis at the SABC, laudable at the outset, have caused yet another crisis. Fact is, Muthambi stepped on a landmine that was waiting to detonate. Her irrational decision to appoint Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the COO of the broadcaster amidst adverse findings of the public protector has ruined her reputation. And her overzealous efforts to defend a dishonest man speaks a lot about her honesty as a person.
But what could have made Muthambi lie to the nation about Motsoeneng's situation with an overdose of confidence and a straight face?
Muthambi is not the first ANC leader to walk into the eye of the storm and, in the process, mess up her credibility, at least in the eyes of the media and many in the general populace.
Once upon a time Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi was a solid trade unionist. An unwavering red-communist who appeared incorruptible. His hard work catapulted him into the state.
His first assignment: to defend the Nkandla security upgrades.
It is common cause that the Nkandla matter represents one of the saddest moments in the history of the country's public administration. It easily ranks with the arms deal as a stark example of institutionalised rot.
But what was shocking was the lengths to which Nxesi and the ministers in the security cluster went to defend the scandal – from trying to keep it secret to cursing those who dared to question it. Nxesi’s credibility took a serious blow. History will recount him as the minister who defended the indefensible.
The National Prosecuting Authority is but a shadow of what it is supposed to be, plagued by years of infighting and political interference. This is what Mxolisi Nxasana inherited. Before he knew it, things blew up in his face and he has sustained major injuries.
Nxesi, Muthambi and Nxasana – good or bad – are an example of many an ANC leader and administrator who walked into a department, municipality or an office and found ticking time bombs just waiting to explode. They are victims, or willing participants, of a state which was corrupted way before they joined its echelons.
But when did the rot in the state start? As a given, the apartheid state machinery was brutal and corrupt. It therefore followed that the ANC would replace the corruption with its ethos of selflessness. However, by many accounts this did not happen.
By the end of former president Thabo Mbeki’s tenure institutions such as parliament – the voice of the people that is supposed to hold the executive accountable – had been rendered ineffective.
As a consequence, self enrichment is widespread and distribution of patronage has become the order of the day.
In his book, The Mbeki Legacy, Brian Pottinger argues: “Under the withering and continuous fire of a rampant Mbeki ascendency, the legislature became less and less of a check and nothing of a balance.
“By the end of Mbeki’s tenure as ANC leader, parliament had so diminished itself as to be drawing from public the lowest integrity ratings of any institution in the country,” Pottinger adds.
The Zuma years in office have not turned the tide against real and perceived corruption in the state. Instead, the credibility of state institutions have suffered more damage under his watch. Some would even argue that through his actions and inactions he leads the rot.
The SACP, before being co-opted into the state, used to warn against the trappings of power and the corrupting effect that a capitalist state can have even on well-meaning, hard-working comrades. That sober voice has mysteriously died.
The SABC, the Public Works Department and the NPA are but a few examples that demonstrate the rot in the state.
Nxesi’s efforts to clean up the cesspit that is his department have come to nought. Muthambi and Nxasana walked into institutionalised corruption that is not of their making. But whether by commission or omission, they are now very much a part of defending the status quo. The corrupt nature of our state can infect even good men and women. We shall for a long time remember Nxesi’s role in the Nkandla debacle. And we will remember Muthambi’s part in the SABC mess in the same way.
George Matlala is deputy political editor at the Sowetan
New ministers hit the ground running – and trip on bombs
Until quite recently, Muthambi was an unknown MP, serving as an ANC whip on the communication portfolio. In late May, after her appointment as communication minister, Muthmabi, as any new minister would do, hit the ground running. She promised to deal with the crisis crippling the SABC by filling up the contentious position of the chief operating officer (COO), the second-most powerful position at the public broadcaster after the chief executive officer.
But as things stand, Muthambi's seemingly good intentions of fixing the crisis at the SABC, laudable at the outset, have caused yet another crisis. Fact is, Muthambi stepped on a landmine that was waiting to detonate. Her irrational decision to appoint Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the COO of the broadcaster amidst adverse findings of the public protector has ruined her reputation. And her overzealous efforts to defend a dishonest man speaks a lot about her honesty as a person.
But what could have made Muthambi lie to the nation about Motsoeneng's situation with an overdose of confidence and a straight face?
Muthambi is not the first ANC leader to walk into the eye of the storm and, in the process, mess up her credibility, at least in the eyes of the media and many in the general populace.
Once upon a time Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi was a solid trade unionist. An unwavering red-communist who appeared incorruptible. His hard work catapulted him into the state.
His first assignment: to defend the Nkandla security upgrades.
It is common cause that the Nkandla matter represents one of the saddest moments in the history of the country's public administration. It easily ranks with the arms deal as a stark example of institutionalised rot.
But what was shocking was the lengths to which Nxesi and the ministers in the security cluster went to defend the scandal – from trying to keep it secret to cursing those who dared to question it. Nxesi’s credibility took a serious blow. History will recount him as the minister who defended the indefensible.
The National Prosecuting Authority is but a shadow of what it is supposed to be, plagued by years of infighting and political interference. This is what Mxolisi Nxasana inherited. Before he knew it, things blew up in his face and he has sustained major injuries.
Nxesi, Muthambi and Nxasana – good or bad – are an example of many an ANC leader and administrator who walked into a department, municipality or an office and found ticking time bombs just waiting to explode. They are victims, or willing participants, of a state which was corrupted way before they joined its echelons.
But when did the rot in the state start? As a given, the apartheid state machinery was brutal and corrupt. It therefore followed that the ANC would replace the corruption with its ethos of selflessness. However, by many accounts this did not happen.
By the end of former president Thabo Mbeki’s tenure institutions such as parliament – the voice of the people that is supposed to hold the executive accountable – had been rendered ineffective.
As a consequence, self enrichment is widespread and distribution of patronage has become the order of the day.
In his book, The Mbeki Legacy, Brian Pottinger argues: “Under the withering and continuous fire of a rampant Mbeki ascendency, the legislature became less and less of a check and nothing of a balance.
“By the end of Mbeki’s tenure as ANC leader, parliament had so diminished itself as to be drawing from public the lowest integrity ratings of any institution in the country,” Pottinger adds.
The Zuma years in office have not turned the tide against real and perceived corruption in the state. Instead, the credibility of state institutions have suffered more damage under his watch. Some would even argue that through his actions and inactions he leads the rot.
The SACP, before being co-opted into the state, used to warn against the trappings of power and the corrupting effect that a capitalist state can have even on well-meaning, hard-working comrades. That sober voice has mysteriously died.
The SABC, the Public Works Department and the NPA are but a few examples that demonstrate the rot in the state.
Nxesi’s efforts to clean up the cesspit that is his department have come to nought. Muthambi and Nxasana walked into institutionalised corruption that is not of their making. But whether by commission or omission, they are now very much a part of defending the status quo. The corrupt nature of our state can infect even good men and women. We shall for a long time remember Nxesi’s role in the Nkandla debacle. And we will remember Muthambi’s part in the SABC mess in the same way.
George Matlala is deputy political editor at the Sowetan
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