Editorial: Lindiwe Sisulu, focus on your job

When Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu was appointed to this portfolio last May, she told City Press that she would turn it around in six months.

But, a year down the line, the only thing that she has turned around is the procurement operations, which she has been trying to wrest from old officials and give to those closely associated with her.

She has spent much of the past year flexing her muscles and reminding everyone who is the boss.

Her primary obsession seems to be rising to higher office rather than transforming the lives of citizens.

The Covid-19 coronavirus crisis has speeded up things for some communities. That is not due to her diligence and commitment.

READ: Lindiwe Sisulu’s week of hell

It is difficult to sympathise with Sisulu as she volunteers to be a victim of the next Cabinet reshuffle.

Granted, the water sector is highly contested, with business interests always watching for an opportunity to bite into the large infrastructure budgets that housing, water and sanitation command.

Her former Cabinet colleague Nomvula Mokonyane made the water and sanitation budgets the playground of her associates.

Sisulu quickly realised that there was ample scientific evidence that drought was a major issue in the country, and she used that as a rallying point to get more money from Treasury through projects like the Water Master Plan, which would require R900 billion to fund.

But the minister has weakened her legitimate efforts through an unnecessary power grab, as well as borderline interference in operational matters. She has tried to get the communications budget of the water and sanitation departments “centralised”.

She has set up a string of advisory committees, populated by politically strategic individuals.

Sisulu’s chief lieutenant in this power grab is one Mphumzi Mdekazi, a controversial operator who will be her undoing.

A key player in her ANC presidential bid in 2017, he is now seen as the mastermind of Sisulu’s political future.

As one of the most experienced ministers in Cabinet, Sisulu can make a huge difference in providing these most crucial necessities that her portfolio is responsible for.

Surely this is what she wants her legacy to be, not what we currently read about daily.

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