Mr Razzmatazz is not everybody’s cup of tea.
He was regarded as a failure in his stints as Minister of Transport and Deputy Minister of Police.
He twiddled his thumbs for three years as rogue truck drivers hijacked and torched trucks and cargo on the N1 and N3 demanding the dismissal of foreign drivers.
Railway infrastructure fell apart under his watch, leading the twitterati to turn his nickname of “Mr Fixit” into a standing joke.
However, opposition parties underestimate him at their peril.
The new ANC General Secretary Fikile Mbalula finally has the job he was born for.
He is a master at marshalling ANC ground forces.
It is working within the ruling party machinery that Mbalula comes into his own.
He’s a mass mobilisation strategist and a master tactician.
In recent years, the ANC has been losing elections largely because its members at branch and regional levels had not come out to campaign for the party.
Factional battles have broken party unity and sabotaged the ANC during by-elections. Mbalula means a change of direction.
It is his ability to find himself at home in different factions in the ANC that should give opposition parties sleepless nights.
After his election, he hit the ground running by visiting the ANC in Mzala Nxumalo region in northern KwaZulu-Natal after an accident claimed the lives of members who were travelling back from the ANC’s 55th conference at Nasrec.
He did this even though the region had openly voted against him and the slate led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
With him at the helm in Luthuli House, the ANC will contest every ward and every by-election.
Popularly known as Mbaweezy by the youth, he is expected to fight the EFF for the hearts and minds of young black voters.
As Ramaphosa’s new pit bull, Mbalula is expected to take the fight to the president’s detractors who have openly called for his recall from office.
Mbalula has already read the riot act to MPs who defied the party line during a vote in parliament.
“If you want your own conscience, then open your own political party, not here. Here it is democratic centrally and the centre must hold. Whether you like it or not, the centre must hold,” said Mabalula after the ANC conference in December.
Mbalula was instrumental in securing a second term for Thabo Mbeki, played a key role in the rise of Jacob Zuma to power and recently helped Ramaphosa secure a second term despite the Phala Phala Farm robbery scandal.
Pictured above: President Cyril Ramaphosa in discussion with Fikile Mbalula
Image source: @ Marvel Hlungwani
