Once in a while, a crisis forces an unlikely hero to emerge and unleash hope. To remind us of the allure of simple things. To jog our memory of how, sometimes, what is plain or normal, is so darn beautiful.
Take the sorry saga that is the office of the public protector. Out of the rubble and shrapnel arising from the bombs that saw Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane suspended, emerges Adv Kholeka Gcaleka, Mkhwebane’s deputy who is now the acting boss, to give us a ray of hope.
Gcaleka set the ball rolling early by deciding not to entangle her office in a court process meant to halt impeachment proceedings into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office. The message was clear: where there’s any Stalingrad litigation by Mkhwebane, it will not be sponsored by the office. This was a good call that possibly will place her in harm’s way should Mkwhebane successfully fight off her suspension. This will immediately generate tension between the two.
But it is a call that will save the government (read taxpayers) scarce funds. If, as a society, we celebrated people who did good, she immediately would have been a candidate deserving of applause. Our government needs more Gcalekas.
This week, Gcaleka put Ramaphosa on notice, rejecting his request for another extension so he could respond to questions received on June 8. He was initially given a deadline of June 22, but this was changed to July 18 after a request by Ramaphosa for an extension.
If, as a society, we celebrated people who did good, she immediately would have been a candidate deserving of applause.
By giving Ramaphosa an extension to July 18, Gcaleka demonstrated she is willing to be fair to the number one citizen. But by deciding against another request for an extension, Gcaleka is sending an important message that her svelte must not be misconstrued for meekness. She can be decisive — even if doing so against the president.
This is a masterclass in being a woman with balls of steel. She’s showing us you don’t need to be unfair on Ramaphosa, or even be transparent about pushing a narrow agenda associated with a faction within the ANC, to be tough with the president. You can be fair to him but tough with him at the same time. And this is how it ought to be. This is what normal looks like. We almost forgot it because of Mkhwebane’s predicableness.
In the media, normal, too, must be an ability to criticise Ramaphosa without being beholden to some unsavoury characters trying to remove him from office. It’s one of the first rules of journalism: report fairly. Yet, the contours tell a story of a media battling to tell Ramaphosa that it is not OK to have a scandal like Phala Phala and not put out a framework of sorts about what the hell happened there. Similarly, criticising Ramaphosa must not be construed to mean being needlessly friendly with former president Jacob Zuma.
At the same time, some media outlets with the balls to tell Ramaphosa he has, on the surface, messed up, operate like rogues who have no inhibitions about being fair to the president and his faction within the ANC. It’s a world of extremes.
Normal, in this case, means being able to criticise Ramaphosa and Zuma while being fair to both. Anything else is, again, the opposite of normal, that alluring yet elusive thing.
Gcaleka, meanwhile, achieved that equilibrium in a short space of time. She showed us that where she finds that Mkhwebane was engaged in vanity cases, she will not just continue with them because Mkhwebane might just come back if that parliamentary process to remove her fails. Gcaleka has focused on doing the right thing for as long as she remains at the helm. No fear, no favour. In doing so, she most probably has already pissed off Mkwhebane and Ramaphosa in a short space of time. You go, girl.
Gcaleka most probably has already pissed off Mkwhebane and Ramaphosa in a short space of time. You go, girl.
Having someone like her at the helm is what our democracy requires, especially now. Can you imagine the pressure the police officers investigating Phala Phala are under? Would it not give us peace of mind to know that these, too, are imbued with Gcaleka’s balls?
While John Rawls popularised the concept of “justice as fairness”, it is a thing to behold when young Gcaleka shows us the art of what ought to be normal. She has almost instantly restored trust and confidence that decisions arising for her office will be fair, even if they rub those in power the wrong way.
Whatever happens in the next few days, we know Ramaphosa has no option but to either answer Gcaleka before Monday or be subpoenaed. A “process man” that he told us he is, we must hope he respects Gcaleka’s processes. Imagine the confidence booster this is to police captains investigating the president.
There is so much going wrong in our country. Inflation. Interest rates. Sporadic but random shootings. Abject poverty. Cyril Ramaphosa. John Steenhuisen. Busisiwe Mkhwebane. Rail network. Potholes. Water crisis (especially in Seshego and Nelson Mandela Bay). There’s an orgy of negativity.
What is required is courage and fairness like Gcaleka’s. Courage to say to your boss, or someone who might be called upon to appoint you to a higher position: wait, but you’re wrong here! Fairness in that whatever findings we will see may not be influenced by factional interests. Gcaleka has made normal sexy again. Not everything is falling apart ...
