GARETH VAN ONSELEN: Fikile Mbalula: minister of capitulation
It has been a wretched — and revealing — two weeks for the putative minister of police, but luckily for him his ego stops him from realising who is really doing his job
Poor old Fikile Mbalula. He thought he had been given a chance to run with the big dogs. Minister of Police, no less. No more mucking about in the political kindergarten that was the Department of Sports and Recreation. This was the big time. Only, not so much. Mbalula has found out the hard way over the past two weeks, that there is only one real minister of police: Jacob Zuma. When push comes to shove, Mbalula is merely a personal assistant to him. It’s been a tough fortnight for Mbalula. First up, he had to contend with the former deputy minister of higher education, Mduduzi Manana, and his assault of a woman, caught on video. Almost a week later it emerged Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, had also allegedly indulged in her share of physical violence. But really Mbalula, despite a flurry of words and hashtags, was always chasing the bus, not driving it. Thus, he never caught it.The home of the game Mbalula plays, the one where he pretends to be minister o...
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