THE LOWLY NEWSPAPER MAN: Contemptuously, the ANC passes the baton from disgraced Tolashe to disgraced Pule

So there was Dina Pule, confidently striding up to the stage to be sworn in as social development minister by Acting Deputy Chief Justice Nonkosi Mhlantla.

She swore that she would be “faithful to the Republic of South Africa and will obey, respect and uphold the Constitution and all other law of the republic; and I undertake to hold my office as minister with honour and dignity; to be a true and faithful counsellor; not to divulge directly or indirectly any secret matter entrusted to me; and to perform the functions of my office conscientiously and to the best of my ability”.

And then Pule solemnly concluded: “So help me God.”

This line may be standard in oaths of office worldwide, but in this particular case, Pule will definitely need a lot of help from the Almighty to help her fulfil all those noble pledges. The person who was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to head up one of the supposedly pro-poor government’s most vital ministries failed dismally to do any of the above when she was last serving in government.

So much so that she was fired by the then president, Jacob Zuma, was the subject of damning findings of unlawful conduct by erstwhile Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, and was found guilty of ethical misconduct by Parliament’s ethics committee.

Now, to be nailed by that moral paragon called Jacob Zuma for wrongful behaviour is quite an achievement. An even greater achievement for Pule, it could be argued, is to be brought back to office by Ramaphosa – one of the prime architects of South Africa’s constitutional order.

The ‘spouse’, the blesser and the shameful conduct

Pule’s tawdry fall from grace arose from her abuse of her position as minister of communications, from 24 October 2011 to 9 July 2013, to benefit her lover, Phosane Mngqibisa. It is public record that he scored millions as a result of her interventions.

Fearful of those punishing northern winters, she took him along on official trips on the taxpayers’ tab. Because he did not qualify for the spousal privileges accorded to office holders (she confessed in an interview with the Public Protector that she had not ended her previous marriage), she hid their relationship and lied to Parliament about it.

All the while, she was blessing Mngqibisa with access to money-making schemes and luxury travel.

But Pule’s most brazen act related to the hosting of the inaugural ICT Indaba in 2012, where she actively sought donations from companies in her sector, giving support to Mngqibisa’s sponsorship application. Then she went further, committing an unsolicited R10-million to the indaba without it having gone through normal government processes. A chunk of this ended up in the account of her boyfriend’s personal company instead of the conference organisers’ account.

There was a web of money flows that, if the authorities of the time had been enthusiastic about investigating important and connected people, could have landed the two in more serious trouble.

Madonsela found that the “unsolicited” donation broke all rules regulating donations and sponsorship by the state and that Pule’s conduct and that of her department was “unlawful, improper” and constituted “maladministration”. She stated bluntly that “Pule caused or allowed” the then Department of Communications to benefit Mngqibisa during the ICT Indaba.

As Madonsela wrote in her report, a “conflict of interest arises when a decision maker is placed in a position of protecting the opposing interests of two masters or persons that she or he is attached to, or where her personal interests and those of her organisation are at odds. Clearly ... Pule placed or found herself in a position where she had to protect the opposing interests of her department and those of her special friend...”

Sanctions and apologies

After its own separate inquiry, the Joint Ethics and Members’ Interests Committee found that Pule had breached sections of the Executive Ethics Code “in that her unlawful extension of spousal benefits to Mngqibisa amounted to making improper use of allowances available to her”. It said her conduct was improper and in violation of the code and brought the “eminence of both the executive and Parliament into disrepute”.

Pule was given the harshest sentence Parliament could impose – a salary docking, a reprimand and an apology to the National Assembly. Her apology was just an obligatory “I’m sorry, I made a mistake” and she continued serving as an MP until the end of that term. There was absolutely no remorse.

In reprimanding her, then National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu told Pule that citizens expect their representatives “to display the highest standards in what they do and how they conduct themselves” and to protect “our national assets and ensure that they are used only in the public interest and not for private gain”. By behaving the way she did, said Sisulu, the former minister “gravely undermined the people’s trust”.

After that, Pule opted not to return to Parliament, but she remained active in ANC structures, albeit in a low-key way. She sprang back into prominence at the ANC’s 2022 national conference, where “organisational renewal” and the war on corruption were major themes.

The renewal mantra had begun in 2017, and by 2022 it was an article of faith. It permeated discussion documents in the run-up to the conference, with the tone being set in the 8 January statement, which said 2022 would be the year of “Renewal and Unity”.

Well, the year ended with Pule and leaders who had been heavily indicted in the final Zondo Commission report being elected into the party’s echelons.

Return to Parliament

In 2024, the disgraced Pule was back in Parliament, even getting the chair of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture. If you thought that was redemption, you had something else coming your way. Now she is in the Cabinet, overseeing a R302-billion budget.

This disgraced person is responsible for making sure that the most vulnerable South Africans are protected by the country’s extensive social net. The treatment of this portfolio has been an insult to both these people and women in general.

The ANC seems to have decided at some point that this portfolio belongs to the ANC Women’s League choristers, who serve only as voting fodder for whichever big men seek power at the party’s conferences. It has become a throwaway role, much like the way the sport, arts and culture job is wrongly treated. The only ministers who have served any meaningful purpose in this portfolio were Zola Skweyiya and Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, serious people who understood the ministry’s role in a developmental state such as ours.

This week’s appointment of Pule is completely insane, even by ANC standards. Her predecessor, Sisisi Tolashe, was fired because she was a disgraced minister. To recycle a disgraced minister from 13 years ago to fill the shoes of a disgraced minister from a few months ago makes no sense.

It could be that there is a belief in Luthuli House and the Union Buildings that we have all forgotten who Dina Pule is. It is feasible that they believe that, because not long after a certain Nobuhle Nkabane was fired as a higher education minister owing to dishonourable conduct, the ANC reappointed her as deputy chief whip. So she, too, could find herself engineered further up in the not-so-distant future.

There is one simple word to describe Pule’s recycling: contemptuous. It is contemptuous of South Africans, contemptuous of the Parliament that reprimanded her and contemptuous of the institution of the Office of the Public Protector. Above all, it is contemptuous of the Constitution to which she previously said she would be faithful – and then spat on. DM