When Daily Maverick and Eyewitness News journalist Stephen Grootes launched his book SA Politics Unspun, a guide to the characters and parties on the scene, he asked Mac Maharaj to conduct the interview. Maharaj is an institution in politics, knows the key players personally, and was a part of the important events. The subject would be the interrogator. As Grootes recalls, the pair shook hands before Maharaj, with a stack of papers, controlled the conversation, honing in on the few inaccuracies in the book. The spokesperson won the battle and though Grootes’ mistakes were minimal, Maharaj skirted the president’s, and the ANC’s, challenges while schooling the media on fact-checking and avoiding assumptions.

On Tuesday, the presidency announced in a press release that Maharaj would retire at the end of April after serving as spokesperson for President Zuma since July 2011. Turning 80 years old later this month, Maharaj said, “It is time to slow down a bit.” Starting in May, Government Communication and Information System Deputy Director General Harold Maloka will be acting presidency spokesperson.

Maharaj has been the most senior leader to serve in the role, appointed by the president in 2011 owing to his understanding of government, oration skills, and loyalty to state and party, according to Zizi Kodwa, who was then acting presidency spokesperson and is now ANC spokesperson. Before Kodwa, Vincent Magwenya spoke for Zuma.

Maharaj came to the job with a sterling struggle record. In Padraig O’Malley’s Shades of Difference, which weaves a narrative of Maharaj and South Africa, Nelson Mandela writes in his foreword, “I respect Mac, and I love him.” After attending the University of Natal and working at the New Age newspaper, studying in the UK while pushing the Anti-Apartheid Movement and training in East Germany, Maharaj returned to South Africa to devote himself to political work with the ANC underground before being charged with sabotage. He was interrogated, tortured, sent to Robben Island for 12 years in 1964 and helped smuggle out the early manuscript of Long Walk to Freedom on his way out of prison in 1976. Maharaj was key to the ANC’s Operation Vula, its underground system of communication, and was briefly incarcerated again in 1990. He served as a secretariat during the Codesa discussions and then as transport minister in Mandela’s Cabinet.

After leaving government in 1999, Maharaj found himself embroiled in what now seems like typical revolutionary factionalism. He was accused of corruption, linked to payments from Schabir Shaik, and was embroiled in a bruising dispute and inquiry over claims that then National Prosecuting Authority head Bulelani Ngcuka was an Apartheid spy. Details of the allegations linked to the same payments from Shaik emerge occasionally, but Maharaj has always denied wrongdoing and never been charged.

These days Maharaj is best known as the president’s spin doctor, the front line of defence against the many attacks on Zuma. He’s the curt, succinct voice cutting down allegations of wrongdoing, the person you have to cross if you want report on the president. While he churns out information on the Zuma’s day-to-day activities, the state visits, the speeches and infrastructure launches, Maharaj has defended Zuma with vigour. He expresses how alarmed the presidency is over baseless and mischievous claims with no truth. He reduces allegations to rumours that stereotype the president or attempts to distort Zuma comments. He turns the ordinary news into totally incorrect claims, without foundation, that fly in the face of journalistic ethics. Given Zuma’s ability to court or attract controversy and criticism, true or false, being his spokesperson must surely be one of the hardest jobs in the country.

But, single-handedly, Maharaj managed to remove the word “compound” from the Nkandla debate and has since maintained the president is following the correct procedure on the matter. A slip-up from the spokesperson on the issue could significantly damage Zuma. But Maharaj doesn’t schmooze with journalists, nor will he be flattered into revealing information. When Mandela was sick in hospital, with media from across the world looking for information, for months Maharaj revealed only that the former president’s condition was “still critical but stable”.

On Tuesday, Maharaj told Daily Maverick he had been inundated with calls since the announcement of his retirement, and if he responded to one he would have to respond to all, distracting him from his work. He wants to set a day aside next week to speak to the media. Things are “really hectic” with his day-to-day duties, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s state visit, and soon having to hand over the reins to his successor, said Maharaj.

ANC MP Jackson Mthembu was spokesperson for the party during most of Maharaj’s time speaking for Zuma and worked with him in the ‘90s while Maharaj was transport minister and Mthembu was MEC for transport in Mpumalanga. On Tuesday he said, “He has always been a good person, very cheery and a good friend.” Often Mthembu’s team would consult Maharaj on communication matters not just because he worked for the president but because he is a veteran in the party. Mthembu said Maharaj has always made himself available to the media, having his phone on at all hours. “He is a very witty fellow, very intelligent, despite his age,” said Mthembu, who described Maharaj as respectful to all people but always willing to debate.

DA spokesperson and MP Phumzile van Damme said she wished him all the best in retirement. “He certainly deserves a break after having to defend a president who was always involved in some crisis or the other,” she said on Tuesday. Van Damme became an MP after last year’s elections and is one of the younger members in the House. “I have learnt a lot from Mr Maharaj as a fellow spokesperson and politician. Most importantly, that there are some issues that even the best spin cannot redeem,” she said. “I also take away [the] lesson of the need to be strong in the face of a barrage of criticism. Although I do not agree with what Mr Maharaj defended, I admire his ability not to buckle under pressure. A thick hide and the ability to withstand criticism is key in politics.”

Maharaj is yet to speak on the specifics of his retirement – why now and what he plans to do next. Last week, however, the presidency issued a press release with the bizarre subject line “New Cabinet appointments”. It announced three new Cabinet appointments in “Public Participation and Interface”, “Roads and Traffic Affairs” and “Social Cohesion and Nation Building”. The portfolios were fake and the announcement was an April Fools’ joke. It was in poor taste considering the recent death of Collins Chabane, requiring Zuma to soon make new Cabinet appointments. Press releases from the presidency before and after the joke concerned the Marikana Commission and a state visit to Egypt. Perhaps the email signalled it was time for Mac to call it quits.

But few veterans of the struggle put themselves in the centre of today’s politics, and Maharaj chose to return to the scene instead of chirping from the sidelines while enriching himself in business deals. Part of his legacy will now be tied to Zuma’s leadership and perhaps he will be criticised for defending the indefensible. But Maharaj’s struggle credentials should be honoured, and as Zuma’s spokesperson he has been a committed comrade, highly dedicated to his job, and often coming out on top against the sometimes overwhelming odds. DM

Photo: Mac Maharaj (Phillip de Wet)