The diplomatic service has become fertile ground for ANC leaders to dump comrades who have fallen out of favour in the course of the tussle to control the ruling party.
This is something of a time-honoured tradition, as the National Party too used foreign postings as a means to redeploy those no longer flavour of the month at home.
Former ANC chief whip in Parliament Stone Sizani has become the latest seasoned politician to go this route, replacing ex-cabinet minister and premier Makhenkesi Stofile at the SA mission in Germany. About 20 former cabinet members and senior government officials head SA missions abroad.
Former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool was shipped out of the country to take up the plum Washington posting six years ago after the brown envelope scandal broke.
He was recently replaced as South Africa’s ambassador to the US by Mninwa Mahlangu, who chaired the National Council of Provinces for several years until he lost this job to Thandi Modise in 2014.
Former Correctional Services minister S’bu Ndebele became South Africa’s high commissioner to Australia after he fell out of favour with President Jacob Zuma.
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the former minister of tourism, became South Africa’s ambassador to Greece after he was chopped from cabinet by Zuma in 2014. Geoff Doidge was the minister of Public Works until the police headquarters lease saga broke in 2009. He became South Africa’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, but continued to be dogged by fallout from the Nkandla saga.
Former minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa was sent to Russia after Zuma became president.
Membathisi Mdladlana, a long-standing minister of labour, was deployed to Burundi in 2010 after he expressed ambition to become the Western Cape provincial leader of the ANC while he was the convener for an interim structure in the province.
Last year he was sent to Canada to replace Mohau Pheko, who was caught out in a lie about her PhD degree from a non-existent university in the US. Lulu Xingwana became South Africa’s high commissioner in Ghana after she was not re-appointed to the cabinet by Zuma.
Several high-profile opposition politicians have also served time in the country’s foreign missions, including former DA leader Tony Leon, who did a stint as ambassador to Argentina.
Sunday Argus