CHARLES MOLELE
TWO weeks after his appointment, Deputy President Paul Mashatile has finally settled in his new job following the resignation of his uninspiring predecessor, David Mabuza.
The next few weeks will see rapid action from Mashatile as he consolidates his position in government and South African politics; his predecessor, a perpetual procastinator, missed crucial parliamentary sessions and government meetings, to the utter chagrin of his party members and government officials.
With a reputation as a man of action, Mashatile, in his capacity as Chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), is set to convene his first Special Extended SANAC Plenary meeting on Friday.
Next week, Mashatile will deliver the keynote address during the official commemoration of World TB Day on 24 March 2023 under the theme: Yes! You and I Can End TB.
Earlier this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed him as a Special Envoy to South Sudan. Among other functions assigned to him, Mashatile will become the leader of government business in Parliament and lead social cohesion initiatives involving traditional leaders and military veterans.
He will also chair the Cabinet’s security cluster and governance committees.
The president said that he believed that with the assignment of these duties, he and Mashatile would be able to serve the nation with distinction.
Mashatile is indeed an astute choice: his election as ANC Deputy President at the party’s 55th National Conference in December, firmly puts him in pole position to become South Africa’s next president, if anything happens to Ramaphosa.
But critics and multiple observers are asking what causes, projects and national issues will Mashatile champion, and what role will he carve for himself, outside over and beyond those functions Ramaphosa assigned to him and seconds him to. In short: how is he preparing to carve a national, state leadership role for himself, because he and Ramaphosa are not on the same page and even do not share the same perspective on how to effectively run government?
ANC Veterans League president, Dr Snuki Zikalala, told Inside Politics that as the incoming Deputy President of the country, Mashatile’s reputation as an effective implementer of policy and conference resolutions will serve him well.
“He is a very calm person who doesn’t get easily excited. He is a person who always does what he says he will do. He is the person who implements. If there is a resolution agreed to by the collective, he will make sure it is implemented. He will not deviate from the mandate. I don’t think he is either left or right. He is a national leader who has neither espoused socialist ideals, nor displayed any right-wing tendencies within the ANC. He is committed to the advancement of ANC’s National Democratic Revolution,” said Zikalala.
The former General Secretary of the National Union of Mine Workers (NUM), Frans Baleni, said Mashatile is an excellent “networker” who knows how to navigate his way around.
“The Deputy President Paul Mashatile is an excellent networker and knows how to manage stakeholders. He is not a person who talk too much. I’ve known him since the days of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and he was always a committed comrade. I saw him rising over the years in politics and government,” said Baleni.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) president and COSATU’s first Deputy President, Mike Shingange said that despite strained relations between the ANC and workers, the Deputy President has managed to maintain a strong connection with both workers and unions.
“He is a well-grounded comrade. He is a proud product of congress movement and the UDF structures – with an undisputed history of mobilising all sectors of the society and other components of the revolutionary movement,” said Shingange.
“He is one of the few leaders of the ANC who still see the governing party as a disciplined force of the left, with a bias towards the poor and the working class. He has never been antagonistic to the workers and is always having a listening ear to the workers … Ideologically speaking, Mashatile is neither a neo-liberal nor an extreme leftist. When he chairperson of Gauteng, he consulted meaningfully with the unions and other alliance members, rather than as an exercise to just tick the box.”
United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader General Bantu Holomisa said Mashatile has over time built bridges with other political parties, fostering a culture of collaboration and compromise.
“He is a balanced individual and not a populist. Unlike others, he is not shy to sit down with the opposition parties. It’s a role I have seen him play, reaching out to opposition parties during the Local Government Elections in 2016 and talking unity. He is the right person to lead the social cohesion initiatives of government because he is highly respected by other parties. I am still yet to hear in Parliament any political party which speaks ill of Paul,” said Holomisa.

A government insider, on the other hand, said despite appearing aloof and dangerous, Mashatile is actually quite the people’s person, almost to the point of populism.
“He is totally anti-violence. He prefers charm and political manoeuvring. On that point he is as deft and smooth as Jacob Zuma, but of course without the aura of the intelligence services doing his bidding,” said the source.
“Like President Cyril Ramaphosa, I don’t think he has any specific ideological dogma per se. He is at home in Julius Malema’s version of RET as much as he is with the middle classes. He also strikes me as silently insecure about his lack of bookishness but overcompensates with his people’s skills.”
“He is the ultimate politician of our time though because he understands the precept that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics. He has basically, and single-handedly rewritten ANC politics of slates, ushering in a spirit of regional non-alignment. In that way he is far more dangerous than David Mabuza and gambles harder than him, politically. Which is why Cyril Ramaphosa is more afraid of him than any politician, alive or dead, in South Africa today.”
Mashatile was born in Geraldsville, Pretoria on 21 October 1961, and grew up in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg.
After his baptism in politics as a student leader, Mashatile quickly rose through the ranks and has become one of the most popular leaders of the African National Congress.
Following the unbanning of the ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1990, Mashatile assisted in their re-establishment and continued to organise new legal structures in the country.
He remains, however, a controversial figure. Mashatile was once referred to as the Capo dei Capi, or don of the dreaded Alex Mafia for his involvement in scandals concerning restaurant expenses totalling R250 000 in 2006, and the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP).
Following the 2019 general elections, there were further claims the Gauteng government or its politicians had misused R1.3 billion in funds meant for the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), a welfare scheme coordinated by Mashatile’s human settlements department from 1999 to 2004.
Zikalala, the ANC Veterans League president, said the allegations of corruption surrounding the Alexandra Renewal Project persist, causing unease among the public. He said the serious nature of these claims has deeply troubled society, as they continue to emerge and refuse to dissipate.
“The issue of the Alexandra Renewal Project needs to be cleared for the comfort of the society at large,” said Zikalala.
“What happened with the project? Where’s the truth. The other issue of great concern to us is the issue of unpaid salaries for ANC staff members during his tenure as ANC Treasurer-General. But then not everything is of his making. The ANC doesn’t have money. He never managed to get us out of that hole. The party is still in the red. While the problems were there even during Dr Zweli Mkhize’s time, his failure to sort out the finances and pay salaries on time remains a big question.”
Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile, who’s seen as Mashatile’s protégé, has previously poured cold water into allegations of corruption around the Alex Renewable Project.
“We are here to say that narrative (about the Alex renewal project corruption) that is in the public is flawed. It’s not true, and that is why we are giving you the number. But if you say there is corruption then that is another story,” said Maile.
A government source said despite the allegations and debates around his suitability as Deputy President, Mashatile is going to be the President of South Africa.
“Ramaphosa is not going to finish his term. He might not even finish this year. He will go into the 2024 Elections the weakest and most disliked ANC President in its history, nationally, outside the party. South Africans pretty much don’t care about him at all anymore. Some might even be tempted to look at Mashatile.”
Mashatile is the former MEC of Finance in Gauteng and spearheaded the Gautrain project, which is counted among his legacies.
He also served as the Arts and Culture Minister under former President Jacob Zuma.
He was axed from Zuma’s cabinet after he openly criticised Zuma’s leadership style, the Nkandla scandal, including the perceived influence of the Gupta family on government appointments and policies.
Mashatile was one of those who believed that the Nkandla scandal was damaging to the image of the ANC, which was already facing growing public discontent and declining electoral support.
He enjoys an overwhelming support from the majority of ANC branches across the country. Despite concerted efforts by an influential grouping within Ramaphosa’s faction to side-line him, Mashatile emerged as the ANC’s number two during the party’s elective conference in December.
Mashatile holds a postgraduate diploma in Economic Principles from the University of London.
Mashatile’s political activism dates back to his high school days where he was involved in politics of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), an ANC aligned organisation for high school pupils at the time.
During his youth days, Mashatile became the first president of the Alexandra Youth Congress. He reportedly represented the organisation at the launch in 1983 of the United Democratic Front, which provided a political home for “Charterists” while the ANC was still banned. The term refers to exponents of the Freedom Charter, the blueprint for free, democratic South Africa adopted by the ANC and allies in 1955.
Mashatile was detained without trial throughout the 1985-1989 states of emergency. These were the core years of President PW Botha’s repression during the closing years of a crumbling apartheid era.
After the 1990 unbanning of the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania and other liberation movements, Mashatile helped re-establish both the ANC and the SACP in the Johannesburg region. (Almost uniquely in the world, these two political parties permit dual membership in each other.)
During the 1990s Mashatile rose to become provincial secretary of the ANC in Gauteng province, and provincial chair during the 2000s.
With his reputation as an effective implementer of policy and conference resolutions, Deputy President Mashatile certainly appears ready to take on his new role. However, only time will tell if he is truly up for the challenges ahead.

INSIDE POLITICS. Additional reporting by the Conversation.