R 071539Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 6384
INFO SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 
AMCONSUL DURBAN 
AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 
DIA WASHINGTON DC
CIA WASHINGTON DC
NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS PRETORIA 002477 
 
 
AF/S PLEASE PASS TO A/S FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KJUS PGOV KDEM SF
SUBJECT: A LOOK AT MOTLANTHE'S CABINET APPOINTMENTS 
 
REF: PRETORIA 2132 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (U)  Motlanthe finished making his Cabinet appointments 
this week by appointing three Deputy Ministers: Andre Gaum 
was named Deputy Education Minister, Musa Nhlanhla Nene was 
named Deputy Finance Minister, and Fatima Hajaig was named 
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister.  In total, Motlanthe made 10 
new ministerial appointments and five new deputy ministerial 
appointments to the Cabinet.  Below are short biographies for 
each of the newly appointed ministers and deputies.  End 
Summary. 
 
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Bios: The Ministers 
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¶2. (U)  Defense Minister Charles Nqakula previously served as 
Minister of Safety and Security from 2002-2008.  He helped 
facilitate the peace process in Burundi, setting up the 
political and military principles underpinning peace and 
achieving a cessation of hostilities.  Nqakula served as 
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs from 2001 to 2002.  He was 
elected to the African National Congress (ANC) national 
executive committee (NEC) in 1994, 1999, and 2004.  Nqakula 
has long-standing ties to the South African Communist Party, 
serving as Deputy Secretary General from 1991 to 1993 under 
Chris Hani and then as Secretary General following Hani's 
assassination.  He also has an extensive background in 
efforts to organize labor, having been elected Vice President 
of the Media Workers' Association of South Africa following 
his appointment as Vice President of the Writers' Association 
of South Africa in 1979.  He served as public secretary of 
the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983 before he left the 
country and underwent military training in Angola as part of 
the armed wing of the ANC, the Umkonto we Sizwe or "Spear of 
the Nation."  He subsequently infiltrated South Africa as one 
of the commanders during Operation Vula and served as a 
commander in Western Cape in 1988.  (Note: Operation Vula was 
the armed resistance inside South Africa beginning in the 
late 1980s to create communication channels between ANC 
leaders in exile and those in the country and to undermine 
the apartheid regime.  End Note.)  He was born on September 
13, 1942 and is married to Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe 
Mapisa-Nqakula.  He enjoys composing choral music and writing 
poetry. 
 
¶3. (U)  Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Enver 
Surty previously served as the Deputy Minister of Education 
from 2004-2008.  He has been described as possessing "all the 
hallmarks of a good leader."  He served as a member of 
Parliament in the Senate until 1994 and subsequently the 
National Council of Provinces from 1996 to 2004.  He joined 
the National Assembly in 1999 and was re-deployed to the 
National Council of Provinces as Chief Whip, a position he 
held from 1999 to 2004.  During his time in the legislature, 
he participated in select committees, including on the 
Justice, Safety and Security, Constitutional Affairs, and 
Local Government portfolios.  He served on the ANC's NEC from 
1999 to 2007 as an observer.  Surty has an extensive legal 
background, serving as a human rights lawyer in Rustenberg 
from 1977 to 1994.  He also acted on behalf of the Congress 
of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) during his tenure as 
an advocate.  Surty was born on August 15, 1953 and is 
married with three children.  He enjoys watching and playing 
soccer, cricket, and squash.  He is an avid reader. 
Qsoccer, cricket, and squash.  He is an avid reader. 
 
¶4. (U)  Health Minister Barbara Hogan previously served as a 
member of Parliament, where she played a leading role in 
numerous ad hoc committees and investigations.  She chaired 
the portfolio committee on Finance from 1999 to 2004.  She 
was instrumental in creating ANC structures in Gauteng and 
has been a member of Parliament since 1994.  Concurrent with 
her appointment to the Health Ministry, Hogan acts as 
chairperson of the Standing Committee on the Auditor General. 
 She is a member of the advisory board of the Amandla AIDS 
Fund, which was established by the non-profit organization 
Artists for a New South Africa in 2003.  She joined the ANC 
in 1976 after the Soweto student uprising.  In 1982, she 
became the first woman to be sentenced to treason in South 
Africa and began serving a 10-year sentence.  She was 
released in 1990.  Hogan was born in 1952 and enjoys reading. 
 
¶5. (U)  Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa 
previously served as the Chief Whip of the ANC.  One of 
former President Thabo Mbeki's staunchest critics, he has 
been in Parliament since 2002 and is currently a member of 
the NEC and the ANC's National Working Committee.  Prior to 
Polokwane he was a key lobbyist for Jacob Zuma's bid to 
become party leader; he was accused of being one of the 
leaders responsible for organizing party members bused in to 
boo former Mbeki.  He was elected to the NEC of the ANC's 
Youth League in 1994 and served in its National Working 
Committee as Secretary for Organization from 1994 to 2004. 
He was deployed to the ANC's National Organizing team in 2001 
and served as chairman of the Minerals and Energy Portfolio 
Committee in 2004.  He has ties to the labor movement, having 
served in 1989 as chairman of the Southern Natal Unemployed 
Workers Union, an initiative of COSATU.  Mthethwa was 
recruited into underground work for the ANC as part of 
Operation Vula.  He has extensive ties to the ANC in 
KwaZulu-Natal, which he has capitalized on as chairman of the 
ANC's Political Committee in Kwa-Zulu Natal.  He has in the 
past denied meeting requests from the Consul General in 
Durban.  He is known for his tough talk and militancy.  He 
was born on January 23, 1967 and is married.  He enjoys 
writing and sports. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Public Enterprises Minister Brigitte Mabandla 
previously served as Minister of Justice and Constitutional 
Development from 2004 to 2008.  Prior to that she served as 
Housing Minister from 2003 to 2004 and as Deputy Minister of 
Arts, Culture, Science, and Technology from 1995 to 2003. 
Industry sources report that she knows very little about the 
state enterprises that she will be responsible for.  Some 
newspaper journalists believe that her transfer to this 
ministry suggest that the large state enterprises she is 
responsible for will eventually be transferred back to the 
relevant ministries (i.e. Eskom to the Department of Minerals 
and Energy, Telkom to the Department of Communications and 
Transnet and South African Airways to the Department of 
Transportation.)  Mabandla's reputation also has been tainted 
by her refusal to charge former Police Commissioner Jackie 
Selebi for widely perceived corruption during the Mbeki 
government.  She is a member of the ANC's NEC and has been in 
Parliament since 1994.  She has an extensive background 
working with NGOs and experts in human rights, minority 
rights, children's rights, women's rights, and rights for the 
disabled.  She has a background in law, having earned her 
degree at the University of Lusaka in 1979.  She lectured in 
law at the Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce 
from 1983 to 1986 and served as Legal Advisor of the ANC 
Lusaka Legal and Constitutional Affairs Department from 1986 
to 1990.  She then was a member of the ANC's Constitutional 
Committee and negotiating team from 1990 to 1994.  She was 
born on November 23, 1948 and is married. 
 
¶7. (U)  Public Works Minister Geoffrey Doidge has extensive 
legislative experience.  Not only is he Public Works 
Minister, Doidge is chairman of the Committee of Chairpersons 
in Parliament, a member of the National Assembly Rules 
Committee, a member of the Joint Rules Committee, a member of 
the National Assembly Program Committee, a member of the 
Joint Program Committee, a member of Parliament's Budget 
QJoint Program Committee, a member of Parliament's Budget 
Forum, a member of the ANC Whips Committee since 1994, and a 
member of the ANC Governance Committee in Parliament.  He has 
extensive experience in development work and local 
governance.  He was a founding member of the ANC's Strategy 
Team as served as Deputy Chief Whip of the ANC from 1994 to 
¶1999.  His local government experience includes times as a 
member of the ANC Transkei regional executive from 1992-1995 
and as a member of the Kokstad Local Affairs committee from 
1992 to 1994.  He is known for protecting staff members from 
abuse by fellow legislators.  He was born on April 26, 1952 
and is married. 
 
¶8. (U)  Intelligence Minister Siyabonga Cwele has been a 
member of Parliament since 1994.  He has served as a member 
of the ANC's Provincial Executive Committee in Kwa-Zulu Natal 
since 1990.  Throughout his legislative career, he has served 
on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence, as a member 
of the Senate of the National Council of Provinces from 1994 
to 1999, and as chairman of the Standing Committee on Social 
Services.  He served in various underground capacities for 
the ANC from 1984 to 1990.  He was known as one of the few 
leaders in Parliament willing to speak out against some of 
Mbeki's decisions.  He is a strong Zuma supporter, and was 
credited with ensuring Mbeki's bid for a third term was 
defeated at Polokwane.  Cwele, who has a good grasp of the 
intelligence system, led the Joint Standing Committee on 
Intelligence to recommend that former Scorpions boss Leonard 
McCarthy be charged for allowing the Scorpions to gather 
intelligence that culminated in the controversial Browse Mole 
report.  The report linked ANC President Jacob Zuma to a coup 
plot against Mbeki.  He denied a request in 2008 by the 
Consul General in Durban to discuss political developments. 
 
¶9. (U)  Provincial and Local Government Minister Sicelo 
Shiceka is a member of the ANC's NEC.  He was fired from his 
ANC party position in Gauteng when former premier Mbhazima 
"Sam" Shilowa assumed the office in 1999.  Following his 
dismissal, he was appointed as the permanent Gauteng 
representative to the National Council of Provinces and 
served as the chairman of Parliament's collective committee 
on local government and administration.  He has extensive 
service dealing with Public Service, Land and Environmental 
Affairs, and Security and Constitutional Affairs portfolios. 
 
¶10. (U)  Public Service and Administration Minister Richard 
Baloyi has been in Parliament since 1999.  He has 
concurrently served as a member of the Committee on Public 
Service and Administration, a member of the National Assembly 
Rules Committee, a member of the Joint Rules Committee on 
Ethics and Members Interest, and member on the Ad Hoc 
Committee on the African Peer Review Mechanism.  During the 
1980s, he was a UDF activist.  He served in Limpopo as the 
ANC's provincial spokesman following the 1994 election and in 
a variety of capacities in local government before assuming 
his legislative seat.  He has been described as a 
"hardworking, but lesser-known MP." 
 
¶11. (U)  Minister to the Presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang 
previously served as Health Minister from 1999 to 2008. 
Prior to that assignment, she served as Deputy Minister of 
Justice from 1996 to 1999.  Her emphasis on treating AIDS 
with vegetables such as garlic and beetroot rather than 
Western anti-retroviral medicines was criticized heavily 
internationally; many political analysts view her appointment 
to the Presidency as a way to "move her quietly away from 
health care matters."  Tshabalala-Msimang began her 
involvement with the ANC in the 1960s when the group sent her 
to Soviet Union for education; she received medical training 
there from 1962 to 1969.  Beginning in the 1970s and into the 
1980s, she was an official within the exiled ANC leadership 
in Tanzania and Zambia, with job responsibilities focused on 
health and well-being of ANC militants in those countries. 
She was elected to Parliament in 1994.  In recent years there 
have been concerns over her health, as she was admitted to a 
Johannesburg hospital in February 2007 suffering from anaemia 
and pleural effusion.  She underwent a liver transplant a 
month later.  A 1961 graduate of Fort Hare, she is married to 
ANC leader Mendi Msimang. 
 
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Bios: The Deputies 
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¶12. (U)  Deputy Minister of Health Molefi Sefularo is a 
medical doctor and academic from Northwest who holds degrees 
from Medunsa, University of Witswatersrand, and the 
University of Cape Town.  Long active in local Northwest ANC 
structures, he currently is on the Trade and Industry 
committee in Parliament.  He has served as chairman for the 
ANC's Health Committee since 1993.  During the 1980s, he was 
QANC's Health Committee since 1993.  During the 1980s, he was 
a UDF activist.  He was born on July 9, 1957 and is married. 
Sefularo is interested in human rights, nature conservation, 
distance running, and reading. 
 
¶13. (U)  Deputy Minister of Defense Fezile Bhengu has been in 
Parliament since 1994.  He is chairman of the Committee on 
Defense and a member of the Joint Rules Committee.  A 
graduate of Fort Hare, Bhengu was a UDF activist in the 1980s 
and worked for the ANC in underground capacities prior to the 
group's unbanning.  He is known to regularly criticize 
legislators and was a fierce critic of former Deputy Defense 
Minister Mluleki George. 
 
¶14. (U)  Deputy Education Minister Andrew Gaum has the 
distinction of being the last National Party legislator to 
sit in the National Assembly.  He followed Marthinus van 
Schalkwyk into the ANC.  Gaum has been in Parliament since 
1999 and served a brief stint in the Western Cape Parliament 
from 2001 to 2004.  While he served in the provincial 
legislature, he served as an executive committee member on 
the Education portfolio.  As an ANC legislator, he served on 
the Constitutional Review Committee and on the Safety and 
Security Committee.  He enjoys sports and reading. 
 
¶15. (U)  Deputy Finance Minister Musa Nhlanhla Nene is 
Parliament's former Finance committee chairman.  Business Day 
political analysts describe him as "well known for his 
prudent approach to fiscal and macro-economic policy."  Some 
see him as a potential replacement for Finance Minister 
Trevor Manuel when he decides to leave the government.  Nene 
is said to get along well with Manuel and is a close friend 
of South African Reserve Bank Governor Titi Mboweni.  Nene 
has served in Parliament since 1999 and represents Kwa-Zulu 
Natal and is the former ANC Secretary for the Bambatha 
region.  Most recently, he received international attention 
when his chair collapsed during a national South African 
Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television interview.  The 
incident was captured and has been widely viewed on 
youtube.com.  Nene took the incident in good grace at first, 
saying he was glad to give people something to laugh about in 
stressful times, but as the incident continued to receive 
international press he now feels it has been "enough."  He 
has asked SABC to investigate who circulated the clip and 
refuses to rule out legal action. 
 
¶16. (U)  Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Fatima Hajaig has 
served in Parliament since 1994.  During her tenure, she 
devoted most of her energy to foreign affairs and to the 
Foreign Affairs committee, where she chaired the 
sub-committee on international affairs.  She also serves on 
the Pan African Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the 
Southern African Development Community committee on 
inter-parliamentary cooperation, and the parliamentary group 
for international relations and Parliamentarians For Global 
Action.  She has a law degree from Budapest and has some 
background in trade and industry. 
 
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Comment 
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¶17. (U)  Motlanthe's appointments fall into two categories. 
On the one hand, there are ministers and deputies with strong 
reputations for being technically competent and willing to 
speak their minds.  Surty, Hogan, Cwele, and Baloyi fall into 
this category.  Most of the deputies fall into this category 
as well.  Motlanthe has been rightfully lauded for these 
picks.  On the other hand, there are ministers the President 
simply moved aside because they performed poorly or were 
embarrassments in their previous roles.  Tshabalala-Msimang 
and Mabandla fall into this role.  Motlanthe did not receive 
praise for retaining these leaders, but was lauded for moving 
them aside.  The question now that everyone is asking is 
whether the appointments will remain in their positions 
should Zuma assume the presidency next year. 
 
 
BOST