EDITORIAL: Gigaba’s exit and the day the tide turned
Unlike Tom Moyane at the SA Revenue Service, Malusi Gigaba jumped before he was pushed
Aweek in politics is a long time. When Malusi Gigaba, who had seemed mysteriously untouchable, resigned on Tuesday as home affairs minister, it shifted the political balance in the ANC further in favour of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Even Gigaba, with his extraordinary capacity for political survival and arrogant denial of error, could not absorb the pressure from a combination of personal scandal, damning court judgments and increasing association with state capture. Unlike Tom Moyane at the SA Revenue Service (Sars), he jumped before he was pushed. It’s something of a vindication of Ramaphosa’s strategy. He has employed an enigmatic drip-drip approach of sitting tight and letting his internal ANC opponents hang themselves, or in effect be hanged by other agencies, such as the Nugent inquiry into Sars and the Zondo commission into state capture. Former president Jacob Zuma famously employed a "Stalingrad" tactic throughout his tenure, using every legal means to survive. Ramaphosa is...
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