Lindiwe Sisulu loses Cabinet seat after nearly 30 years in Parliament

Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu, fired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has been a member of Parliament for just shy of 30 years, having survived many Cabinet reshuffles in the past.

She was part of the post-apartheid ANC MPs in 1994 which included Jeff Radebe, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Jay Naidoo, Stella Sigcau and Zola Skweyiya, among others.

An anti-apartheid activist herself, Sisulu is the daughter of revered struggle heroes Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

Ramaphosa announced his new-look Cabinet on Monday night, which included two new ministries in the Presidency.

Openly defying Ramaphosa

The President’s supporters in the governing party had been waiting for the axe to fall on his detractors who openly bashed his leadership leading to the Nasrec December elective conference.

Sisulu and the now Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma topped the list of the “unwanted” in the ANC NEC that’s dominated by Ramaphosa’s allies.

Dlamini-Zuma, who also first arrived in Parliament in 1994 as health minister, defied her party and voted along with opposition parties in the Phala Phala saga. She has surprisingly survived Monday’s Cabinet reshuffle.

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Ramaphosa shifted her from Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to take over from the now-fired Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

For Sisulu, standing up to Ramaphosa and eventually putting her name in the hat to contest again at Nasrec earned her support from the radical economic transformation (RET) faction aligned with former president Jacob Zuma.

Undeterred, the former minister laid into the judiciary and further accused Ramaphosa of buying votes at the 2017 elective conference where he beat Dlamini-Zuma.

Last year, she failed to get enough nominations from the ANC branches, and further got another rude awakening on the conference floor when the fractured RET failed to garner enough nominations for her to contest the treasurer-general position.

Previous cabinet posts

Sisulu previously held various portfolios such as intelligence, defence, human settlements and international relations.

In her latest tourism portfolio, she was dragged before Parliament’s committee to explain Tourism SA’s botched R1 billion Tottenham Hotspurs deal which has since been scrapped.

Ramaphosa replaced Sisulu with GOOD Party leader Patricia de Lille, who headed the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

Apart from Sisulu and Nkoana-Mashabane, Ramaphosa also fired sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, deputy ministers Phumullo Masualle and Sidumo Dlamini, who held posts at public enterprises and small business development respectively.

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