Sport could do more for Zizi Kodwa than he might do for it: analyst

The pertinent question might not be what Zizi Kodwa will do for sport, but what sport will do for the new sport, arts and culture minister.

While few are expecting Kodwa to ride to the rescue of struggling federations, a political analyst says the newly appointed minister could benefit from the highly visible platforms offered by sport, allowing him to step out from the shadows of his former intelligence portfolio.

This year alone he could use the women’s football and men’s rugby and Cricket World Cup tournaments to boost his profile.

“It’s a space for him to politically lobby and get out there and be seen and be present and build constituencies,” said Ebrahim Fakir, a political commentator and director of programmes at Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute (ASRI).

But beyond that, Fakir expects the sport sector to be a low priority for Kodwa, whose main concern could be smoothing the arts and culture feathers ruffled by former minister Nathi Mthethwa.

“He's got to undo the bad relations his predecessor had with quite an important sector, arts and culture. They really hated the previous guy,” said Fakir, director of programmes at ASRI.

“Unfortunately for the sports guys, I think they're going to be at the lower end of the queue.”

The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) on Tuesday issued a statement congratulating Kodwa and calling his appointment a “positive development in an exciting time for sport”.

“We hope he will also play a crucial role in providing leadership on topical issues in sport and creating alignment in the governance and growth of sport,” Sascoc said.

Several sports administrators and officials contacted by TimesLIVE on Wednesday said they didn’t know Kodwa, and those from bodies that had struggled with funding from government in the past year were not expecting major changes.

“Dare I say I don’t have high hopes,” said one.

“From what he spoke about in an interview I saw, it seems arts, culture and heritage are the focus,” said another. “Will have to wait and see.”

While Kodwa, apparently a Kaizer Chiefs fan, was not known within sport, Fakir pointed out he was not an unknown entity.

“He's been a spokesperson for the ANC. He's been in government as deputy minister for intelligence ... He had a wide-ranging but nevertheless still discrete portfolio. It's not arts, culture, recreation and sport, which is a huge portfolio.”

His new mandate ranges from museums and state-owned theatres to cultural centres and recreational facilities, all of which are heavily dependent on government funding.

“He's going to have a tough job in the sense that the art sector has been so badly neglected for so long that the constituency's pressure on him is gonna come greatest from that sector.

“I think the pressure that's going to come from an organised arts/culture sector is going to be much stronger than it is from the sports guys.”

Fakir explained that richer sports federations like rugby, cricket and soccer were unlikely to press Kodwa, meaning the Cinderella bodies will have to organise if they wanted to put some pressure on the minister.

Fakir said it was impossible to assess what sort of job Kodwa had done previously.

“Not much of his work was visible, maybe because it was the nature of the intelligence portfolio. But maybe he was beavering away quietly in the background, working hard, doing things we don't know.

“But if that was the case, then why didn't we avert things like the July uprising? 

“Crime intelligence is in a poor state,” he added. “They've been involved in issues of state capture, enabling corruption and so on. So [perhaps] he was quietly working away and burrowing away somewhere invisible to everyone else, but he certainly wasn't terribly present. Or he may have been like a lot of other ANC ministers, just going through the motions, not really doing anything.”

Kodwa was implicated in the Zondo commission into state capture, which recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa consider Kodwa's position as deputy minister of state security because of his tainted relationship with controversial businessperson and former EOH boss Jehan Mackay.

Kodwa was named in the Zondo report for accepting what judge Raymond Zondo called a loan of nearly R1m, which he had paid back.

“Unlike Gwede Mantashe, who has said that if they finger him or if there's anything like that, he will take the whole commission on review, Kodwa’s explanation is responsible, a bit more prudent. Evasive but prudent,” Fakir said.

But the critical element was to remember Kodwa’s ultimate mandate.

“Let's also understand that Kodwa, no matter what his other benefits might be, is also a creature of the ANC. Ultimately, they get their behaviour shaped by that, and that prevails over every other consideration.

“[Jacob] Zuma has proven that, [Cyril] Ramaphosa has proven that.”