President Jacob Zuma has consolidated his public relations team by appointing his long-time friend and political ally, Mac Maharaj, as presidential spokesman with immediate effect.
Maharaj, who served as transport minister in the cabinet of Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999, takes over from Zizi Kodwa, who has been acting spokesman since the departure of Vincent Magwenya in July last year.
Kodwa will stay on as Zuma’s communications adviser, the Presidency said in a statement on Wednesday night.
Maharaj joined the Presidency last year. He is to continue to perform his role as special envoy handling matters in North Africa and the Middle East, and as a member of the Zimbabwe facilitation team. He also represents the president at the G20 infrastructure working group.
Kodwa said on Wednesday night that Zuma had been searching for a “seasoned communicator” to fill the position.
The president wanted someone who was a “good orator”, “understands how government works”, would bring “passion and commitment” to the job and was “good at explaining things”, he said.
“In Mac Maharaj, the president has all these things in one package. Mr Maharaj has proved himself a good communicator, as a loyal ANC cadre and in government.”
Maharaj was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1964 to 1977, along with Struggle veterans Pravin Gordhan, Billy Nair, Siphiwe Nyanda and others. He played a key role in the fight against apartheid inside and outside South Africa.
After his release from jail he went into exile and was involved in maintaining underground ANC structures in the country.
In 1988, Maharaj returned secretly to South Africa to command Operation Vula, a clandestine project to bring exiled ANC leaders back into the country. During this time Maharaj forged a close relationship with Zuma and the Shaik brothers, Mo and Schabir.
Maharaj made headlines in 2003 when he accused then-national prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka of being an apartheid spy when the prosecuting authority was about to announce an investigation into fraud and corruption charges against Schabir Shaik, who had been Zuma’s financial adviser.
Shaik was later found guilty and sentenced to prison. The Hefer Commission, appointed by then-president Thabo Mbeki to look into the spy claims, exonerated Ngcuka. – Political Bureau