South Africa’s President Reappoints Deputy Accused of Graft
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Version 0 of 1. JOHANNESBURG — President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa on Wednesday reappointed a power broker long accused of corruption as his deputy, a fresh blow to hopes for a new cabinet free of the most tainted figures in the governing African National Congress. The fate of the deputy president, David Mabuza, had been regarded as a test of Mr. Ramaphosa’s ability to clean up his party and the government. The appointment makes Mr. Mabuza second in command in South Africa’s government and the leading contender to succeed Mr. Ramaphosa as president. “It’s more of the same,” said Ralph Mathekga, a prominent political analyst. “It’s a compromised cabinet.” “The strength of this presidency depends on Mabuza. He’s too powerful not to be deputy,” said Mr. Mathekga, the author of “Ramaphosa’s Turn: Can Cyril Save South Africa?” Mr. Ramaphosa announced the makeup of his new cabinet on Wednesday after his party, the African National Congress, held on to power in general elections earlier this month, garnering its smallest share of the vote since the end of apartheid in 1994. Many of the A.N.C.’s historical supporters abandoned it, disillusioned by the party’s endemic corruption. News of Mr. Ramaphosa’s new cabinet had been highly anticipated. After Mr. Ramaphosa forced his scandal-tainted predecessor, Jacob Zuma, out of power in February 2018, he had appointed respected allies to his cabinet. But he also appointed figures close to Mr. Zuma who had been central players in the corruption that swept the country in recent years. Mr. Ramaphosa’s allies had said that, after this month’s elections, the president would have the mandate to pick a cabinet of his choosing. The fate of Mr. Mabuza had drawn the most attention. In South Africa, the president chooses the deputy president and other cabinet members from among the members of the National Assembly. In December 2017, Mr. Ramaphosa became the A.N.C.’s president after Mr. Mabuza backed him at the last minute, and handed him the votes for a slim victory. When Mr. Ramaphosa became South Africa’s president two months later, he made Mr. Mabuza his deputy — an appointment that clearly made the president uneasy. While Mr. Ramaphosa pledged to make the fight against corruption his biggest priority, his deputy had for years symbolized the corruption inside the A.N.C. “The A.N.C. is two parties now,” said William Gumede, a political scientist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. “Ramaphosa is only in control of one half, and he has to make compromises with the other.” Long the undisputed leader of a small province called Mpumalanga, Mr. Mabuza and his allies siphoned public funds for years, according to current and former A.N.C. officials and government documents. They turned the province into the A.N.C.’s second-biggest voting bloc at the party election that propelled Mr. Ramaphosa to the presidency. For years, the province had been one of the most corrupt in the nation, and the site of many politically motivated killings. Before this month’s elections, the A.N.C.’s own integrity commission recommended that Mr. Mabuza and other senior party figures implicated in acts of corruption be removed from the party’s candidate list. But the past week showcased Mr. Mabuza’s ability to defy political gravity. Two hours before new lawmakers were scheduled to be sworn in last Wednesday, Mr. Mabuza announced that he would postpone his own swearing-in ceremony to clear his name. He successfully challenged the integrity commission, which lacks investigative powers, and was sworn in as a lawmaker on Tuesday — paving the way for his reappointment as deputy president. |