Port Shepstone High alumnus Mkhuleko Hlengwa is the newly elected deputy minister of the department of transport.
This was revealed by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he announced the national executive council recently.
Hlengwa is not only the spokesperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), he is also the former national chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA).
Speaking to the media, the 37-year-old said he does not take lightly the responsibility of being deputy minister.
“We will do all that is humanly possible and necessary to ensure that things are turned around in the transport sector,” he said.
“The IFP welcomes the announcement of the national executive, it gives certainty and gives South Africa an opportunity now to be able to move forward. We are entering unchartered waters, the Government of National Unity of a new kind of South Africa as opposed to what we had in 1994.”
He added that there is a need for consensus building and compromises.
Hlengwa said the IFP comes with experience of governing, especially when it comes to coalitions, saying that it is leading the government of provincial unity in KwaZulu-Natal.
He added that with IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa leading the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi heading the Department of Public Service and Administration, they need to move with speed and urgency, given the dire conditions, particularly on the job front.
“None of us are under the illusion that the road of the Government of National Unity will be easy. Prince Mangosuthu Bhuthelezi used to say that it is better to travel with hope than to arrive, so we must not be prophets of doom at this point. Our role is to ensure that the work is done. We are not new to this and the IFP, among others, recognises the need to build bridges among all parties. It is a matter of finding the synergies within the government in this new dimension,” he said.
Hlengwa added that they understand that bringing parties together is no easy feat, saying that it will take political discipline and will from all parties to ensure the interests of all South Africans comes first.
“That should be the key focus, South Africans require a working and functioning government,” he said.
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