Sunday Times
*How Nzimande's spin doctor faded out in a tailspin...* *S'Thembiso Msomi, The Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 31 October 2010*The Department of Higher Education finally confirmed this week that it was severing ties with spokesman Ranjeni Munusamy. S'Thembiso Msomi looks at the causes of the fallout between Munusamy and minister Blade Nzimande
The first signs of trouble emerged during the early days of President Jacob Zuma's administration.
Putting together a new ministry was always going to be tough, even for a political heavyweight like Blade Nzimande.
He could not afford to fail, especially since his appointment as minister of higher education had been controversial within the SA Communist Party.
Many wondered how he could juggle his job as SACP general secretary while serving as a cabinet minister.
And so when he began selecting his ministerial team, Nzimande put great emphasis on appointing those he most trusted.
Key among these were Nqaba Nqandela - the ministry's chief of staff - and controversial former journalist Ranjeni Munusamy - who ran the ministry's communication wing.
But Nqandela and Munusamy were to clash almost immediately, in most cases over minor issues, such as the allocation of resources and who would go on which trip with Nzimande.
When the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, moved to a new building this year, room opened up for Nzimande's team, but Nqandela and Munusamy had a tiff over who should take which office.
Nzimande and Munusamy became comrades-in-arms during Jacob Zuma's return from the political wilderness.
Although her association with the Zuma movement - which resulted in her spectacular departure from the Sunday Times in 2003 - was initially through Luthuli House and the controversial Shaik family, Munusamy had increasingly become involved in SACP and Cosatu affairs over the past five years.
She became especially close to Nzimande and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, often serving as their unofficial media strategist in their war against former president Thabo Mbeki.
So when she joined the Ministry of Higher Education, she expected to continue to be his adviser and confidante, rather than a mere spin doctor.
But departmental protocols in government are much stricter than at the SACP headquarters, where she had unfettered access to the leader, without having a formal role.
As head of communications, she was a mid-level manager who was now answerable to Nqandela. She could not go over his head and communicate directly with Nzimande.
As the feud grew between the two officials, Munusamy began falling out with the minister himself.
Not much is known of Nqandela in national political circles.But he is an activist. He is the chairman of an ANC branch in the Johannesburg suburb where Nzimande lives, and is active in SACP local structures.
He appears to have got to know Nzimande through the minister's wife, Phumelele, with whom he worked at the Department of Communications some years ago.
Nqandela's detractors at the department denounce him as Phumelele's "eyes and ears" in the ministry, a charge he strenuously denied last week.
But the unhappiness over Nqandela is not limited to the department.Nzimande's comrades at the SACP headquarters accuse the chief of staff of blocking access to the minister.
This, they say, is partly to blame for Nzimande's diminishing public visibility in his role as SACP boss.
When the communist party released Nzimande to cabinet, it was on the understanding he would always be available for consultation with his party office - a promise that appears not to have been kept.
Those in Nqandela's corner say his disciplinarian approach is exactly what Nzimande needs if he is to make a success of his ministry.
Neither side would talk about the causes of the breakdown in the relationship between Munusamy and the minister: one of the terms of Munusamy's contract termination agreement is that they do not go public about the reasons.
But this much is known:Munusamy had differed sharply with Nzimande over his crusade for the introduction of a media appeals tribunal.
The two are also understood to have differed over how to handle the PR nightmare the communist leader found himself in when it was revealed that he had spent taxpayers' money staying at the lavish Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town.
Munusamy had also apparently angered her boss by running to Cosatu House for support in her battles with Nzimande.
She could not have chosen a worse time to do so.There have been murmurs of discontent in the Johannesburg building that houses both Cosatu and the SACP ever since Nzimande and other top communist leaders took up new posts as ministers, MPs, MECs and MPLs following Zuma's 2009 election victory.
In recent months, especially during the public sector strike, this unhappiness reached fever pitch with Cosatu leaders openly accusing their SACP counterparts of "moonlighting" in government.
The tensions have driven a wedge between "leftists" at Cosatu House and their comrades in government, resulting in a growing mistrust and conspiracy theories about each group's political intensions.
So when Munusamy approached Cosatu House, she was seen as providing fresh ammunition to her boss's new opponents. She could no longer be trusted.
When the news broke that Nzimande and his director-general, Mary Metcalfe, were at war and that he had asked her to leave, Munusamy was suspected of having leaked the information.
Then came weeks of negotiating Munusamy's exit package, until, on Thursday, it was announced the communications head would leave the following day.
The acting director-general of the Department of Higher Education, Gwebinkundla Qonde, said:
"We note speculative reporting in the media regarding tensions prompting the departure of senior staff of the department. We wish to state that Ms Munusamy is leaving by mutual agreement and was not under any compulsion to do so."
Although Munusamy still has a lot of people she counts as friends in the Zuma administration and at Cosatu House, it seems unlikely she'll take up another government job any time soon.
As for Nzimande, the fallout has left him even more vulnerable to criticism from political opponents who range from opposition parties and the ANC Youth League to, most recently, his detractors at Cosatu House.
As 2012 approaches - a year in which the SACP and ANC will be holding elective national conferences - the question is: can Nzimande convince his constituencies that he is able to juggle all his posts without causing a crisis in one structure or the other?
So far signs are not hopeful for the SACP firebrand.*From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article735937.ece/How-Nzimandes-spin-doctor-faded-out-in-a-tailspin...*
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