After five years of crisis management and hopping from one scandal to another, President Jacob Zuma wants an information ministry, based on the Zimbabwean, Chinese and Russian models, to clean up his image.
His spokesperson Mac Maharaj is earmarked to become the minister of information, assisted by the current international relations communications head, Clayson Monyela, as director general.
Zuma is likely to return as president and, according to officials close to him, he is determined to tidy up his first-term mess with the new “propaganda ministry” and by restructuring his government. This entails recreating the post of a second deputy president to monitor performance, phasing out some ministries and dropping some ministers.
Zuma reconfigured the government when he came to power in 2009 and split some departments, created new ministries and changed the names of others.
The information ministry was apparently identified as being central to re-imaging his administration and leaving an impressive legacy.
Government sources said research on and preparations for the ministry are at an advanced stage.
The ANC head of communications, Lindiwe Zulu, said the ministry was proposed at the ANC’s 2012 conference but that she is not aware that it is about to be implemented.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to three sources – two senior government officials with intimate knowledge of the plan and an ANC national executive committee member.
Preferred candidate
Maharaj is the preferred candidate because of his age (79), seniority and relationship with Zuma. The M&G understands that other candidates initially considered were ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu and Zulu.
Monyela and Mthembu both said on Thursday that they are not aware of the discussions, and Maharaj said the mooted ministry is “totally out of my knowledge”.
But a government source said: “The rationale is that the combination of Maharaj’s political acumen and Monyela’s innovative approach to government communications will result in a powerful propaganda machinery in Zuma’s second term.”
Zulu said that the ANC had discussed possible ways of improving government communication because its weakness is “a sore point in the ANC”, but that she knows “nothing” about the establishment of the information ministry. [….]
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