Finance minister Malusi Gigaba perfectly fitted the mould of WH Auden’s poem, "The Unknown Citizen" until his tenure as public enterprises minister, when his links to state capture emerged. "Our researchers into Public Opinion are content/That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; /When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went," the poet wrote. That pretty much sums up the description of Gigaba’s politics by his peers. He is a career politician who blows the way of power in the hurly-burly of SA’s political shifts. Gigaba’s most acerbic critics in the ANC describe him as someone with little depth, and say his vacillation can in essence be attributed to the pursuit of high office — a strategy that has largely worked. To supporters he is talented, bright and astute; he has mastered the art of the political chess game, doing what is necessary to rise in the ranks of the ANC and government. Gigaba was elected president of the ANC Youth League for three ...
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