Alan Hammond

The ANC ‘night of the long knives’ has seen many national cabinet ministers fail to retain their positions in the National Executive Committee (NEC). While new ANC President Jacob Zuma was making conciliatory noises in his first speech as leader, his supporters punished many Mbeki loyalists in the NEC elections.

The size of the NEC was increased from 60 to 80 positions but this still didn’t leave room for Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana. Mdladlana was not seen campaigning for Mbeki ahead of the conference and in press conferences was less than supportive of the Scorpions. This led some to believe that his sympathies were with Zuma.

The two men certainly share a deep commitment to their traditions and language: Zuma to Zulu language and culture, Mdladlana to Xhosa traditions.  Mdladlana has noted parliamentary translators complain that he is inventing Xhosa idioms – while the truth is that he probably has a deeper knowledge of the language than the professional translators.

However Mdladlana was probably a victim of Zuma’s trade union supporters.  Mdladlana has strongly supported the Labour Relations Act and has often ignored calls to become directly involved in labour disputes. As Labour Minister he has had to act as impartial observer – while union leaders have expected him to take their side.  Mdladlana has spoken about how former ANC leader OR Tambo asked him to lead the movement to combine the many teaching unions into one, more powerful union. 

This process lead to the formation of The SA Democratic Teachers Unions (Sadtu)  which Mdladlana went on to lead, with Education Director-General Duncan Hindle as his deputy. 

One of the cabinet ministers to retain their NEC position was Education Minister Naledi Pandor.  She was helped by the expansion of the leadership body and scraped in at number 74.  This will shore up some of her influence in the organisation, and the government.  Among ministers she currently heads the cabinet cluster including Education, Labour and Sport.

The more significant development though could be the elevation of former union leader Gwede Mantashe to Secretary General of the ANC. This is a full time position with the party and he will undoubtedly move into an office in Luthuli House shortly.  However he should still be able to retain his position as head of the Jipsa task team working group. 

Feedback from those involved with the Jipsa process is that Mantashe has played a very effective role in bringing the parties together.  The Jipsa process is all about co-ordinating the work of various government departments, and not all parties are keen to engage in debate on what they consider to be their territory.

Speaking at a National Business Initiative breakfast last month, Mantashe mentioned that the officials from the Education Department were their ‘most difficult customers’.  Some senior officials from the DoE were resistant to discussing matters that were already being discussed at ministerial level.  “There are no holy cows,” Mantashe told them, ensuring that all matters were open for discussion.  It seems that pressure from Jipsa stakeholders have caused the DoE to backtrack on the movement to the new National Certificate Vocational (NCV).  They have now agreed that the N courses that were phased out would be available again where there was demand.

Mantashe was already successful in getting the parties to work together for skills development.  His new authority in the ruling party can only aid his task.

View more at the Skills Portal website