Thursday, September 25, 2008

Opportunism Is:

South African Cabinet Ministers.

Cabinet is appointed by a president. S/He appoints ministers to various portfolios, these are not guaranteed or elected by public posts.

Ministers with a spine, tendered their resignation not really in solidarity with Oom Thabo, but rather because their "contract" is effectively over with the exit of a president. Gripe of the post: Ministers of the like of Manto Tshabalala Msimang.

This woman, enjoys the dubious honour of widespread unpopularity.However, despite her garlic-lemon-olive oil brand of treatment of terminally ill patients, she enjoyed a free reign and total support from Oom Thabo. Some quarters even go so far as considering his support and loyalty to her part of his demise. However, at crunch time, when the President is "recalled", does she hand in her resignation? No.

Being a Minister is not a right, it's a privileged office which is supposed to allow you to put your skills at work for the betterment of the people. Evidently for Ministers such as Dr Beetroot, putting your own position of power, your pension is far more important than having a spine or showing some loyalty to the man who put his career in jeopardy for you to continue running amok. This critique doesn't only apply to her, but to all of those who kept their cushy jobs despite the fact that they might not be deployed back to cabinet under Motlanthe. Shakespeare needs to be paraphrased at times like this, something is very much rotten in the State of South Africa. It is precisely this kind of complacent behaviour which has filtered down from the top that has resulted in our all round poor service delivery for us plebs at the bottom of the gravy train.

In other news, I was utterly appalled to be faced with the shocking reminder of APLA cadres still incarcerated (more on that in another post). This was quite strange, because I was thinking about them over the weekend as I ran through my voting options.


Right, now I await the list of who will serve under Motlanthe, whom I hope will begin work as though he is a proper president and not merely a stop over. Congratulations Mr President. I hope your wisdom, diplomacy and work ethic supercedes your ambition.

So help us God,
rah*

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7 Comments:

Blogger Saaleha Idrees Bamjee said...

We're liking Kgalema already, what with Manto's reassigning.
But who is Barbara Hogan really? I don't know much about her.

September 25, 2008 5:56 pm  
Blogger rah* said...

Barbara Hogan's the first (and I think only) White woman who was incarcerated for a lenghty period of time after being convicted under the Terrorism Act and/or Treason Act. She served 4 years in the 80s I think. She's also been one of the key allies of the TAC from within government ministry/ANC circles.She's also Ahmed Kathrada's wife/partner and did her jail time with stalwarts like Albertina Sisulu.

September 25, 2008 7:25 pm  
Blogger Waseem said...

Ah I just found about Barbara Hogan and wanted to be first to share this "news". Damn you Saaleha! but Yay! What does Minister in Presidency do anyway, they shoulda given her Minister without portfolio haha.

p.s. I know very little about politics

September 26, 2008 11:00 am  
Blogger Prixie said...

i feel quite manic just thinking about SA's politcal state at the moment.

September 26, 2008 12:41 pm  
Blogger Ghulam said...

The new list seems like a decent bunch of people. But don't judge Tshabalala Maak Jou Bang too harshly. Millions are going to die and there is no solution.

TAC campaigns aside. The Fedex bailout is 700billion USD. Thats probably how much the AIDS epidemic needs to be fixed. South Africans just can't afford to solve the HIV crisis. Money makes the fucking shit go down and we got more shit than we got money.

September 26, 2008 9:29 pm  
Blogger po said...

Well thank goodness she is no longer minister of health that is all I can say.

October 08, 2008 3:43 am  
Blogger Nooj said...

i found it interesting that she's been dating ahmed kathrada for the past 14 years

October 14, 2008 3:52 pm  

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