S’THEMBISO MSOMI | Tolashe nanny scandal reveals truth of our self-serving political elite

By now, social development minister Sisisi Tolashe should have fallen on her sword.

At the very least, she should have been summoned to Mahlamba Ndlopfu to explain to the president why she thinks she was entitled to hire a nanny for her three grandchildren at state expense, and then have almost half the nanny’s salary transferred to an account belonging to her daughter.

Yet President Cyril Ramaphosa has neither summoned Tolashe for a dressing-down nor demanded her resignation.

This state of affairs is hardly surprising. The courage with which Ramaphosa began his presidency — demanding accountability from ministers accused of misconduct — has long since dissipated.

There was so much hope for a new dawn in our culture of governance when, just months into office, Ramaphosa leaned on his first and acclaimed finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, to resign after the latter admitted to meetings with the controversial Gupta family, which he had previously denied.

Accepting Nene’s resignation, Ramaphosa said he believed it was “in the interests of good governance”.

Tolashe is yet to publicly respond to the latest allegations. But judging by her remarks captured in a leaked recording of a meeting between her and ANC MPs, she is far from contrite. Instead, she seems to be mobilising her party caucus to rally behind her in anticipation of tough questions from opposition MPs

The president was to be applauded again some three years later when, right in the middle of the Covid crisis, his health minister, Zweli Mkhize, was accused of having benefited from a R150m health department tender awarded to Digital Vibes.

Though Mkhize protested his innocence and vowed to legally challenge the Special Investigating Unit report that contained the damning findings, he was forced to resign when it became clear Ramaphosa wanted him out of his cabinet. But since then it has been back to factory settings: put off acting for as long as possible, especially when the alleged transgressor happens to represent an important intra-ANC constituency.

Tolashe fits the bill. Not only is she president of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), which at party conferences is treated as a province with full voting powers, she is also from the Eastern Cape, a province that — following the collapse of KwaZulu-Natal, owing to the ANC membership’s Great Trek to Jacob Zuma’s new outfit — is now the biggest voting bloc at ANC national gatherings.

Over the past year, she has been at the centre of many controversies, from the awarding of a five-year employment contract to a social development director-general that had not been approved by the cabinet to claims she spent R3m on a trip to New York. There have also been accusations that she has employed staff in positions for which they are not properly qualified.

Over the past months, Tolashe has made headlines for allegedly registering two SUV vehicles, ostensibly donated by Chinese officials to the ANCWL, in the names of her children. She never declared these “gifts” to parliament, arguing they were not for her personal benefit, even though the women’s league itself said it knew nothing about the vehicles.

Any one of the above-mentioned controversies should have been enough to justify her boss demanding answers from or reprimanding her.

Now, over the past week, as the country prepared to mark Workers’ Day, there were fresh allegations in the Daily Maverick that Tolashe had irregularly hired a nanny for her grandchildren at her private home — in KuGompo City in the Eastern Cape — and that almost half the salary the state paid to the domestic worker was diverted to her daughter’s account.

Tolashe is yet to publicly respond to the latest allegations. But judging by her remarks captured in a leaked recording of a meeting between her and ANC MPs, she is far from contrite. Instead, she seems to be mobilising her party caucus to rally behind her in anticipation of tough questions from opposition MPs.

As social development minister, Tolashe is supposed to be at the forefront of protecting the poor and jobless — and yet she stands accused of exploiting a poor woman desperate for a job

If the ANC does give her its backing, it would prove once again the party has learnt little, if anything, from the state capture years, when its MPs acted as a shield for wayward ministers and neglected their primary watchdog role over the executive.

If ANC MPs defend her, the irony will apparently have been lost on them that, as social development minister, Tolashe is supposed to be at the forefront of protecting the poor and jobless — and yet she stands accused of exploiting a poor woman desperate for a job.

In a speech she delivered in parliament last year during her department’s budget vote, Tolashe waxed lyrical about standing on the shoulders of giants such as the late Zola Skweyiya, credited with transforming the country’s social welfare system into one accessible to millions of people. However, Skweyiya would be turning in his grave were he to see what she has done with a portfolio that was once the post-apartheid government’s pride and joy.

So too would Charlotte Maxeke, the founding leader of the Bantu Women’s League — the predecessor of the ANCWL. Among many of her teachings in the 20th century, Maxeke stressed the need for human solidarity and the importance of people uplifting each other. To her, success was meaningless if it did not lead to improvements in the lives of others.

One of her oft-quoted statements is: “This work is not for yourselves. Kill that spirit of self and do not live above your people; rather, live with them and, if you can rise, bring someone with you.”

Tolashe is not living up to those values and instead seems comfortable trampling on the rights of a poor and vulnerable employee for her own benefit. In this respect, she is very much in tune with many in the political class who seem to see themselves as royalty — and those they employ as subjects available to be exploited in whichever way the political principal fancies.

Perhaps that is why the political class appears not to be as alarmed as the rest of us by the latest claims against her.