Minister of public works and infrastructure Dean Macpherson alongside deputy minister Sihle Zikalala. Picture: department of public works and infrastructure/Facebook
The litmus test on the well-being of the Government of National Unity is to monitor the relationship between Sihle Zikalala and Dean Macpherson.
These two figures entered politics in KwaZulu-Natal at opposite ends of the national political discourse.
Zikalala’s first political role, after joining the ANC in 1990 at age 27, was to serve as a councillor for the ANC in the Ilembe District Municipality from 1996 to 2000.
Macpherson was elected as the councillor for Durban North in 2009 at age 24. He later joined the National Assembly in 2014 and is currently serving his third term.
While Macpherson’s political trajectory has shown continued upward mobility, Zikalala’s political career has been subjected to his party’s mood swings.
Appointed as an MEC in 2016 and premier in 2019, his later resignation as premier of KZN on August 5, 2022 was a direct consequence of the influential role Jacob Zuma played in the politics of the region.
Macpherson is particularly known for publishing two unsanctioned DA posters ahead of South Africa’s 2021 Local Government Elections.
The posters read: “The ANC called you racists”; and “The DA calls you heroes”.
Macpherson later apologised for his role in the unsanctioned poster debacle.
Earlier that year, on July 15, 2021, Zikalala was filmed physically assaulting a young man during the unrest in KZN.
Despite the very popular Chris Pappas and the influential Jacob Zuma, Zikalala and Macpherson have forged significant leadership roles in a very difficult province.
Zikalala holds a master’s degree in commerce whereas Macpherson is known to only hold a high school completion certificate.
Zikalala was promoted to Minister of Infrastructure and Public Works by President Cyril Ramaphosa on March 7, 2023.
Macpherson was given Zikalala’s position on June 3, 2024 by Ramaphosa, with Zikalala made his deputy.
Looking at the numerous pictures of the pair, this is a humiliation that the now twice-displaced Zikalala appears to find hard to swallow.
What is more worrying than the career pathways of two politicians, is the message this decision sends to the ever-rising political tensions in KZN.
With 2026 being the next major test for the GNU, it is important that the Dean Macpherson and Zikalala relationship survives the political fires of KZN.
That its multiple potential messages of supremacy, education, and racism will be exploited by the likes of the EFF and MK, is beyond doubt.
But more dangerous is the issue of whether Zikalala will survive this. Will there be a moment where he will rise in anger, or in courage, to protest what the party did to him?
Will he be tempted to seek a greater role for his skills and join the MK party in 2026, to possibly become their mayoral candidate for eThekwini?
His political rise happened during the Zuma era, and he is known to have said that he never betrayed Zuma.
How significant will the politics of woundedness be in 2026?
We would be naive to underestimate the work that is already under way by the forces that seek to undermine this particular relationship.
Besides the memes and jokes about Zikalala now being the better-educated black working for his lesser-educated white boss, the corruption cartels will be putting maximum pressure on him to give in to anger at what is seen by his constituency as a demotion.
The Department of Infrastructure and Public Works is the heart of the economic revitalisation in South Africa.
Macpherson rightly said it’s the department that has the potential to turn South Africa into a massive construction site.
Major infrastructure projects, costing billions of rand, that will create thousands of jobs, are managed by this department.
These two ministers will be the two people to watch as to how well the GNU – and South Africa – is functioning.
Will the minister and his deputy, emerging from their fractious relationship in KZN, survive each other to get the department’s failing heartbeat resuscitated?
* Lorenzo A. Davids.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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