Don’t send in the clowns
· Citizen
A straight line runs between Dr Beetroot and the Rain Queen. One wasa health minister who tackled HIV with raw veggies, the other is a water minister who, presumably jokingly, performs incantations and palm-rubbing rituals to trigger precipitation.
In both cases, the ANC not only appointed a minister who was plainly bonkers, but it then doggedly stuck with her as the crisis worsened.
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Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang – convicted thief who stole from her patients, lifelong drunkard and sharp-elbowed health ministerwho vaulted the liver-transplant queue – was the face of Aids denialism under former president Thabo Mbeki.
Her sanctioning of lemon, garlic, African potato, and beetroot over antiretroviral drugs made South Africa an international laughing stock.
The comedy continues
The comedy continues under the Rain Queen, Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina.
A leading water expert told me that, although the Rain Queen is “more about showmanship than substance,” on balance she is better than her predecessors.
Department officials may be far happier with her, the expert said, because “although she’s not competent, she doesn’t pretend to be, and she allows the officials to get onwith things”.
While acknowledging the talent pool is shallow, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s choices for the water portfolio suggest he has never regarded it as a particularly important department.
The word “water” didn’t appear a single time in last year’s State of the Nation Address (Sona). Nor in the 2024 one.
In this year’s Sona, Ramaphosa made a show of urgency about Joburg’s water crisis, announcing a national water crisis committee that he would chair.
He also ordered Majodina and Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa to skip the opening of parliament and head for Gauteng instead, to “deal” with the water supply collapse.
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A crisis long in the making
The crisis is neither unexpected nor new.
What has changed is not that water has stopped running. It is that water has stopped running in Johannesburg, the country’s most economically important city.
This threatensto cost the ANC dearly in the local elections. Instead of staying in the disaster zone to get Joburg’s taps flowing as ordered, Majodina travelled to Addis Ababa for an African Union (AU) water and sanitation conference.
There, in full Rain Queen regalia, she delivered what is becoming her signature turn: an “internal watersong”, and then led delegates in clappingto help ensure that “the clouds are gathering”.
I partially blame Ramaphosa for this idiocy.
When Majodina pulled the same childish “look at me!” stunt last year at the AU Africa Water Investment Programme Summit in Cape Town, Cyril giggled indulgently.
Majodina’s latest showgirl gig raises awkward questions for Ramaphosa. By going to Addis Ababa instead of Johannesburg, she appears to have ignored his instructions.
But as Tony Leonnotes in his News24 column: “We know from theunceremonious firing of the former deputy minister of trade and industry, Andrew Whitfield, that no member of the national executive travelsabroad without presidential approval…”
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The ringmaster
Dr Beetroot and the Rain Queen are only two of the more colourful fools in the ANC’s long line of ministers who are simply never held accountable for their performance.
But then again, the president himself is neverproperly held accountable. Stephen Grootes writes this week in Daily Maverick that Ramaphosa’s “long game” has largely been vindicated.
“There can be no doubtthat Ramaphosa has played a masterful game,” Grootes writes admiringly. “He is in charge.”
Yup. I agree. Ramaphosa is in charge, theringmaster of his very own circus. He should, however, resist the temptation to join the clownshow quite so often.
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