Publication: Business Report Issued: Date: 2007-08-13 Reporter: Donwald Pressly

Mbeki Can Take Awkward Questions, But Not From Too Close To Home

 

Publication 

Business Report
Date 2007-08-13

Reporter

Donwald Pressly

Web Link

www.businessday.co.za

 

Just up the road from parliament is the Cape Town version of the Rand Club - the Cape Town Club - where the mighty and meek meet over lunch, at high tea or cocktails to discuss the events of the nation and of the day.

Last week, Raenette Taljaard, the former shadow finance minister and now director of the Helen Suzman Foundation, spoke at a Fireside Chat under the watchful glare of an elegant statue of Queen Victoria about her perspectives of South Africa's arms deal.

It could not have been a better day to host her as she had been appointed a few hours before as a member of the board of the Public Investment Commission (PIC), together with such luminaries as the former head of the SA National Defence Force, General Siphiwe Nyanda.

This commission has custodianship over billions of rands in investments of the pension funds of public officials.

Taljaard's vast intellectual talent has clearly been recognised by those in high places in the ruling party - her appointment to the board, which has oversight over the work of chief executive Brian Molefe, had to be vetted, after all, by the cabinet.

Taljaard (34) served as an MP from 1999 until 2005, at the time of the arms deal controversy. No one else did more work to find out just what to make of the deal and to determine who had sticky fingers *1.

Although the credit for exposing much of the alleged corruption behind the deal must go to Patricia de Lille, it was Taljaard - in a more behind-the-scenes role as a member of the standing committee on public accounts - who waded for hours through ministerial papers and arms procurement reports.

A comment she made the other evening was glaring. She said that from her research, it appeared that President Thabo Mbeki had not played a role that could be questioned in the deal*2. There were questions about others, but we won't go there. There had been questions about the president meeting Thales, but this had happened after she left parliament. Her view on Mbeki was "ring-fenced", she acknowledged.

Her appointment to the PIC is good news indeed. It is not an appointment that could have been made without the support of the president and finance minister Trevor Manuel. It stands in stark contrast to the shoddy dismissal of the deputy health minister Nosizwe Madlala-Routledge.

Oddly, both this appointment and that dismissal have to do with the right values governing our body politic. It is about keeping the values of people such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Helen Suzman alive. It has to do with dedication to transparency.

On the other hand, Madlala-Routledge has fallen on the sword of principle. She had the guts to fight the good fight over babies' deaths at Frere Hospital and to declare it a national emergency. It clearly did not go down well in the offices of the president or health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

It is comforting to know that Taljaard remains adamant that uncomfortable questions need to be constantly asked *3 about the impact on South Africa's trade balance of "the [military] toys" we have already bought - now the Airbus A400M in addition to Hawks and Gripens. Unfortunately, Madlala-Routledge is out on her ear for asking uncomfortable questions about health policies and standards.

It says something about our president. He appears not to be able to tolerate opposition from within his own ANC camp, but is comfortable with bringing a former official opposition member on board in a key state mechanism such as the PIC.

Perhaps Madlala-Routledge - like Bantu Holomisa a number of years back - was just a little too close to home *4.

With acknowledgements to Donwald Pressly and Business Report.


*1       Plus Gavin Woods, Andrew Feinstein, Gerda Ferreira, Johan du Plooy, Billy Downer, Charles de Chermont, Jan Swanepoel, Terry Crawford-Brown, Sam Sole, inter alia.


*2      I simply doubt that this could be the good RT's final opinion on the matter.


*3      Any line of uncomfortable questions ends in only one place.


*4      The Society of Mutual Crown Jewel Holders.