Editorial: It's time to be decisive, Mr President
There are many reasons to criticise Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie. Not least among them is his xenophobia regarding immigrants, which has found expression in his party's appalling 'Abahambe' slogan.
The larger-than-life former convicted criminal-turned-sports minister is certainly not a measured individual — a critical ingredient in a political leader. But this week he gave a public lesson to Cyril Ramaphosa in decisive leadership, a characteristic our president has shown himself to lack.
Within a day of media reports that Kenny Kunene — his close friend and second-in-command in the PA — had been found in the company of a murder suspect when police arrested him on Monday, McKenzie suspended him from party activity for a month so that he could explain their connection.
Contrast that with how it took Ramaphosa weeks to fire the higher education minister, Nobuhle Nkabane, when it was apparent from the get-go that she had blatantly lied to parliament about her conduct in the appointment of Sector Education and Training Authorities boards. Ramaphosa was only shaken out of his lethargy and axed her this week because he was looking down the barrel of the Democratic Alliance withdrawing its support in a crucial budget vote in parliament.
Ramaphosa also dithered for months to act against then justice minister Thembi Simelane, when she was implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, only to merely shuffle her to the human settlement portfolio, as if that would miraculously make the serious allegations against her disappear.
Granted, McKenzie's move against Kunene was a no-brainer, and applauding him for it is setting the bar embarrassingly low for a leader. But Ramaphosa has constantly fumbled and failed to clear it.
In the latest episode of The Indecisive Mr Ramaphosa, he put Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on special leave pending a judicial inquiry into serious allegations that place him at the centre of the infiltration of law enforcement, intelligence and associated institutions in the justice system by criminal syndicates. Given the president's previous tepid responses, one can't help but wonder why he did not fire Mchunu if he thought the gravity of the matter warranted suspension. It is, after all, his prerogative to hire and fire cabinet ministers.
And we all know how judicial inquiries pan out. After R1 billion was blown and as many reams of paper were used to print copious pages of the Zondo report on state capture, the number of people brought to account after being implicated in serious corruption remains exactly zero — for those counting.
On that precedent, it's hard to believe that Mchunu is having sleepless nights as he enjoys his taxpayer-funded break from work.
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