Nomvula Mokonyane during the ANC special meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) on 21 November 2021. (Photo: Alet Pretorius) 
Perhaps the biggest lesson from the apparent, and puzzling, rise of Nomvula Mokonyane is that it may demonstrate how – within ANC structures – there is almost no regard for the nationwide perception that the party is riven by corruption.
It also suggests that having a disastrous track record in government will not stop someone from being elected to a senior position.
Mokonyane may be one of those politicians who almost symbolises the duality of the lives of many who gave so much during the Struggle.
As one columnist put it many years ago, “We must remember that in 1986, a heavily pregnant 23-year-old Mokonyane was thrown into jail under the state of emergency declared by the apartheid state. Alone in solitary confinement and without much help from the heartless authorities, the young activist from Kagiso was forced to give birth alone. Exhausted and in pain, she named her son Retlabusa – Sesotho for ‘we (the people) shall govern or rule’.”
If giving birth was a moment of great pain for Mokonyane, it is likely that the passing of Relabusa, her son, at the age of just 23 in 2010, was even greater – a truly awful time. It took place in the full glare of publicity, reflecting her role as a senior politician and premier of Gauteng.
These days, Mokonyane has been at the forefront of our politics for over 20 years as a Gauteng MEC, premier and then a Cabinet minister.
From the horror of having to give birth in solitary confinement, she now bears the mark of the Zondo Commission report.
Chief Justice Zondo found that not only did she receive monthly payments from Bosasa, along with food and an Aston Martin, but she also lied about it (Mokonyane says she will challenge the findings against her in court).
The report recommended that she be investigated and possibly formally charged for her conduct.
Yet, despite that, it appears the leaders of many ANC provinces believe it is Nomvula Mokonyane who should be elected to the position of deputy secretary-general.
While she has not been formally charged, it is surely the case that millions of voters were aware of the claims against her and would have followed her testimony. The findings against her were damning and millions heard the evidence.
It appears that people in the ANC who make the nominating decisions are not concerned about any of this, including the findings of the Zondo Commission – findings that were formally supported by the party’s highest structures.
Should Mokonyane be elected to this position in December, then those who vote for her don’t care about the Zondo Commission’s findings either, ridiculing the whole propaganda of the ANC’s process of “renewal”.
And is not just the Zondo findings: there is also her track record in government, and in our politics more generally.
There can be no doubt of Mokonyane’s previous relationship with Jacob Zuma – she strongly backed him all the way to the end.
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It was she who ran against Paul Mashatile for the leadership of the Gauteng ANC in 2011, essentially as Zuma’s candidate. And when she lost that election, the NEC of the ANC (which Zuma appeared to thoroughly control at the time) then refused to make Mashatile provincial premier, and appointed her to the post instead.
It was during this time that she visited the family of an 18-year-old boy who had been run over by a VIP driver for one of her MECs. Famously, on the way back she conducted an interview on Radio 702 with this journalist. When it became apparent that her car’s sirens were on, she refused to deny that they were breaking the speed limit. It was one of the symbols of the problems and dangers of the blue-light brigades.
When the Gauteng ANC refused to accept her as head of provincial government any longer and insisted that David Makhura become premier in 2014, she was moved to Cabinet.
As Minister of Water and Sanitation, she was accused of allowing what City Press described as her “young male companion” to essentially run the department, and even to issue instructions to her director-general.
A complaint to the Press Ombudsman about the story was dismissed, and the story stood.
When she was removed from that position, her successor, Gugile Nkwinti, described what she left behind as “a mess”.
Former auditor-general (now deceased) Kimi Makwetu also explained how the department did not follow proper procedures.
Many communities are now living with the consequences of this. People in Giyani, and in so many other rural areas – as well as urban areas such as Gqeberha and parts of Joburg – may well be paying the price for her mismanagement of this portfolio.
And, notoriously, there is her response to the collapse in the value of our currency during Zuma’s final reshuffle at midnight at the end of March 2017. Speaking at a stadium four days after the reshuffle, she said, “Let the rand fall, we will pick it up.”
Despite this, she was still elected by the ANC’s NEC to the position of Chair of the ANC’s National Disciplinary Committee of Appeal. She resigned from the position earlier this year, claiming to have too heavy a workload (although a cynic might suggest it was more likely because of the pending findings against her by Zondo).
All of this leads to the question: With this kind of track record, how is she now able to get support from across different slates?
While there have been some indications that the process of electing ANC leaders this year has been more transparent than in the past, there is much that is still opaque.
And it is not clear how she has come to be proposed for the position by the provincial leaderships of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Limpopo. While these are only three provinces of the ANC, the political power of these choices comes from the fact that they appear to cross the leadership slate. Gauteng and Limpopo are backing President Cyril Ramaphosa for another term as leader, while KZN is backing Dr Zweli Mkhize. Even Ramaphosa’s own ANC branch, in Chaiwelo in Soweto, has formally nominated Mokonyane for the position.
It is her apparent ability to get support from both slates that matters.
This gets to the heart of the issue in the ANC: How is it that people with such troubling track records get into such strong positions? Why them, and not someone else? In a sense, it is the ultimate question of democratic politics almost anywhere.
It may be that the public beginnings of this journey lie in the Eastern Cape. It appears that it was there, during a march against gender-based violence in May after the killing of Namhla Mtwa, that Mokonyane first spoke in public after the Zondo findings.
She appeared again in August, protesting the same issue in the wake of the gang-rape attack in Krugersdorp.
But it appears that the real politicking has been behind closed doors, within ANC branches and structures.
While it is not certain at this stage that Mokonyane will claim this position in December, it may be worth asking what the impact of her possible election would be. And it would not just be limited to the messaging to voters that the Zondo findings do not matter.
Many of the ANC’s problems are managerial in nature: it has no money; it has branches and regions that want different things; and the number of disputes within the party is only likely to increase. If someone who has this track record is now in the office of the secretary-general, it appears unlikely that the management of these issues will improve.
Is someone who once told people in Bekkersdal that the ANC doesn’t need your “dirty votes” – a person who allowed someone else to run a national department while she was its minister – really the appropriate candidate for this position? And if not, how then has she received this wide support?
If Mokonyane is elected to what could be an important position in the ANC, it may be that the ANC itself is the organisation that really pays a price for such a decision. DM