If education were a barometer of wisdom, Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Nobuhle Pamela Nkabane would be among the most accomplished in parliament.
Sadly, two weeks ago, Nkabane unequivocally made clear there’s a gulf between being learnt and wise.
But her performance before the portfolio committee on higher education last week was not just about her colleagues but also about South Africans.
It’s giving South Africans the finger salute for someone they pay almost R2 million a year to be seen chewing gum at work.
When representatives of President Cyril Ramaphosa stand up on a public platform and rudely interact with the 62 million citizens of South Africa, it becomes impossible to argue that the commander-in-chief is a capable leader.
We teach our children to apply themselves and respect their job, but then they see someone we have elected to public office behave like a tramp.
If Nkabane was a roaring success in her portfolio, maybe one could argue: “Let this wonderful woman go and fix the many problems in higher education instead of wasting her time in committees.”
But the minister is not doing a bang-up job, I’m afraid. It is one thing to be uncouth, but to also be incompetent should not be tolerated.
Of course, she’s not the only one who is less than useful at her job, but to then rub it in like that calls for action by her party, the ANC, but particularly the man at Mahlamba Ndlopfu.
This president has repeatedly displayed an absence of the cahoonas for this job.
One time, a minister failed to show up for the signing of a law of which their office is the
custodian – nothing happened to her.
Then a party went against a cabinet decision to vote against the fiscal framework and made a noise about it, or a minister decided to go to parliament regardless of opposition from their cabinet colleagues – whichever is the true version, nothing happened to them either.
Now someone who is the face of the president on higher education chews gum at work, in front of their employers, the long-suffering citizens of this country, and to top it all, refuses to answer questions. Nothing will happen.
Makes you wonder: if someone can drag their own name in the mud like this in public, what does anyone think she does in the secrecy of the cabinet?
With every such disrespect, Ramaphosa is emasculated. Maybe it’s a sign that Ramaphosa will be recalled after the ANC elective conference, and Nkabane is aware of it.
I don’t know how the president escapes the conclusion that this was an FU to him. It certainly was to South Africans, and they got the message loud and clear.
What is unclear is whether the president was listening or, if he was, did he hear what his countrymen and women heard?
How did Nkabane ever think that she could disrespect her colleagues without South Africans wondering: “If she’s so disdainful of them, those people she sees regularly, with whom she most probably converses often, what does she think of us – the people she would never meet?”
If Ramaphosa, as expected, does nothing, says nothing – South Africans would be right to conclude his ministers Represent him according to his wishes.
Then there was the rogue ambassador who called his host names – all on behalf of the president – and nothing would have happened had the host not acted.
How is it possible that Ramaphosa doesn’t realise that any failure to act in the face of disrespect extends the harm to the people he represents? That any derision not nipped in the bud attracts more?
Maybe someone at Chief Albert Luthuli House should step in for Ramaphosa – take action on his behalf to rescue whatever respectability remains after the recent public castration, including in the White House.
It doesn’t inspire confidence in the leader when their representatives demonstrate such arrogant contempt for the citizens.
• The author is news editor
