TO MCEBISI Jonas, the tie is just an
accessory. It generally hangs loose around his neck. It must be a
Uitenhage thing — the industrial town he was born in 55 years ago.
At
the same time, he projects an urban and suave demeanour, and Mr Jonas
has always come across as a silky operator. However, he is terrible at
front-line politics — he just cannot win elections.
But, he is a master political strategist, who was behind Makhenkesi Stofile’s reign, when the burly reverend chaired the Eastern Cape and ran the province from 1997 to 2004.
On Wednesday, the tie was loose, and the last button on his shirt undone, when Mr Jonas pulled an incredible political act that showed he has nothing to lose.
He thundered these words: "Members of the Gupta family offered me the position of minister of finance to replace then minister (Nhlanhla) Nene."
However, after this scandalous disclosure emerged last week, it has been denied by the Gupta family.
He lost a bid for the Eastern Cape chairmanship, and as African National Congress (ANC) operators tend to do with political hot potatoes, they shipped him off to Parliament in 2014. That is how he became eligible for President Jacob Zuma’s national executive. But now, Mr Jonas’s damning statement has marked a point of no return in his relationship with Mr Zuma.
Mr Jonas became an MP in 2014 in a rather strange way. Before that, he was in a difficult situation as finance and economic development minister in the Eastern Cape, where he operated a one-man faction, having unsuccessfully contested the party’s provincial chairmanship against Phumulo Masualle. The position usually paves the way for the winner to become premier.
Before then, Mr Jonas and Enoch Godongwana, the ANC’s economic policy chief, were the brains trust behind Mr Stofile’s ascendancy in 1997. This was a time when the new democratic provincial administration was in a deep cash-flow crunch: so much so that it could not even pay staff pension fund contributions.
Mr Jonas was the CEO of the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council. In 1999, he became CEO of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, which reported to Mr Godongwana, who was finance and economic development minister. The development corporation was key in developing infrastructure at the infancy of the two Eastern Cape industrial development zones. The troika hit a snag when Mr Stofile’s successor, Nosimo Balindlela, appointed a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate graft.
Known as the Pillay Commission, headed by High Court in Port Elizabeth Judge Ronnie Pillay, its report linked the trio, and former ANC chief whip Stone Sizani, to maladministration and corruption.
They challenged the report in court successfully, and it was subsequently scrapped.
Mr Jonas, like Finan
ce Minister Pravin Gordhan, has become a poster boy of a new struggle in the ANC — they represent the sophisticated faction in the party that has a better grasp of governance in a globalised world.
They are up against Mr Zuma’s faction: a group that has demonstrated little regard for the world of rating agencies, financial markets and investors.
 |
| Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, right, and Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas. Picture: TREVOR SAMSON |
But, he is a master political strategist, who was behind Makhenkesi Stofile’s reign, when the burly reverend chaired the Eastern Cape and ran the province from 1997 to 2004.
On Wednesday, the tie was loose, and the last button on his shirt undone, when Mr Jonas pulled an incredible political act that showed he has nothing to lose.
He thundered these words: "Members of the Gupta family offered me the position of minister of finance to replace then minister (Nhlanhla) Nene."
However, after this scandalous disclosure emerged last week, it has been denied by the Gupta family.
He lost a bid for the Eastern Cape chairmanship, and as African National Congress (ANC) operators tend to do with political hot potatoes, they shipped him off to Parliament in 2014. That is how he became eligible for President Jacob Zuma’s national executive. But now, Mr Jonas’s damning statement has marked a point of no return in his relationship with Mr Zuma.
Mr Jonas became an MP in 2014 in a rather strange way. Before that, he was in a difficult situation as finance and economic development minister in the Eastern Cape, where he operated a one-man faction, having unsuccessfully contested the party’s provincial chairmanship against Phumulo Masualle. The position usually paves the way for the winner to become premier.
Before then, Mr Jonas and Enoch Godongwana, the ANC’s economic policy chief, were the brains trust behind Mr Stofile’s ascendancy in 1997. This was a time when the new democratic provincial administration was in a deep cash-flow crunch: so much so that it could not even pay staff pension fund contributions.
Mr Jonas was the CEO of the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council. In 1999, he became CEO of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, which reported to Mr Godongwana, who was finance and economic development minister. The development corporation was key in developing infrastructure at the infancy of the two Eastern Cape industrial development zones. The troika hit a snag when Mr Stofile’s successor, Nosimo Balindlela, appointed a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate graft.
Known as the Pillay Commission, headed by High Court in Port Elizabeth Judge Ronnie Pillay, its report linked the trio, and former ANC chief whip Stone Sizani, to maladministration and corruption.
They challenged the report in court successfully, and it was subsequently scrapped.
Mr Jonas, like Finan
ce Minister Pravin Gordhan, has become a poster boy of a new struggle in the ANC — they represent the sophisticated faction in the party that has a better grasp of governance in a globalised world.
They are up against Mr Zuma’s faction: a group that has demonstrated little regard for the world of rating agencies, financial markets and investors.
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