[miningmx.com] – SOUTH African president, Jacob Zuma, named Advocate
Ngoako Ramatlhodi as the country’s next mines minister, a politician who started his political career as ANC president Oliver Tambo’s speech writer whilst in exile.
Ramatlhodi replaces Susan Shabangu who was appointed head of a newly created Womens’ ministry which will be housed in the Office of the Presidency. Ramatlhodi joins the mines brief from the Ministry Correctional Services where he was deputy minister.
Godfrey Oliphant will continue as deputy minister of mineral resources, Zuma said.
Zuma unveiled sweeping changes in which some departments were merged while new ones created including the Ministry of Water and Sanitation. Overall, however, the cabinet is one person larger, at 37 individuals, including the president himself.
Malusi Gigaba, who was tipped to be a potential new mines minister, returns to his former office of the Ministry of Home Affairs where he was previously deputy minister. His former brief as minister of public enterprises will be taken by Lyn Brown while Tina Joematt-Pettersson will take up the energy portfolio which is another perplexing appointment.
Pravin Gordhan steps down from the finance portfolio to be replaced by his former deputy, Nhlanhla Nene. Gordhan takes over the Ministry of Cooperative Governance.
As widely expected, Cyril Ramaphosa, who built his fortune from coal and energy investments in Shanduka Resources, was appointed the country’s deputy president.
According to the Mail & Guardian, in an article published in 2012, Ramatlhodi was the subject of a corruption probe regarding a property deal, controversially shelved by the Scorpions in 2008. The newspaper said that more recently he was appointed to clip the wings of the Constitutional Report.
In The Times in 2011, Ramatlhodi argued that South Africa’s Constitution was a compromise that “emptied the state’ and disempowered the black majority, and that “forces against change reign supreme in the economy, judiciary, public opinion and civil society’. He was premier of the Limpopo provincial government from 1994 to 2004.
According to the Mail & Guardian, the long-running Scorpions investigation explored allegations of kickbacks received from a company that benefited from a provincial grants distribution contract while Ramatlhodi was premier.
“At the heart of the affair was Cash Paymaster Services’ empowerment partner, Northern Corporate Investment Holdings, which earned about R30m from the contract between 2000 and 2003,” said the Mail & Guardian.
Speaking on Talk Radio 702, Richard Calland, associate professor in the Public Law department at the University of Cape Town, described the appointment of Ramatlhodi as “bizarre”. “It will send shudders through spine of international investors,” said Professor Calland.
“He is a clumsy politician, right of the ANC, a nationalist, and he has spoken out about constitution. This will be a very difficult period of time for mines and international investment and confidence in this country.
“It suggests the idea – not of nationalisation [of mines] – but certainly of building a government stake and then transferring power to black ownership will be much higher on the agenda in that sector,” he said.
