Until the R150m Digital Vibes scandal exploded into the public domain, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize was the credible and hardworking face of government on the health implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, and government responses to the illness.
Now Mkhize has apologised for a dubious tender award, and direct benefits to his family, including cash and a bakkie to his son Dedani.
Being caught with a hand in the till is as much an ethical disaster for an individual politician as it is for a political party.
As a senior member of the ANC, including being treasurer-general from 2012 to 2017, Mkhize would have become familiar with the way in which the ruling party drew donations from companies who benefited from major projects procured by the state, in much the same way his son was given cash and a bakkie by Digital Vibes.
Public disclosures like a R100,000 donation from Eskom supplier Econ Oil and R6.5m from housing contractor Edwin Sodi are just the tip of the iceberg in ANC earnings.
The ANC has failed dismally – if it has even tried at all – to inculcate any respect among its members for the idea that they and their relatives may not benefit in any way from a government deployment, apart from the normal salary and associated benefits of the post.
More often than not, ANC leaders in government have been compromised through the inappropriate relations their closest relatives have enjoyed with people involved in other, commercially lucrative dealings with the state.
Once a benefit to a relative can be proved, any suggestion that the politician has not benefited directly, as Mkhize steadfastly has claimed, rings hollow
They represent a phalanx of ANC politicians whose children, over the years, have benefited directly and inappropriately from parental government connections.
Consider President Cyril Ramaphosa’s son’s connections to Bosasa and former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane’s relations with the Guptas.
And now Dedani Mkhize.
Once a benefit to a relative can be proved, any suggestion that the politician has not benefited directly, as Mkhize steadfastly has claimed, rings hollow.
It is not enough for him and others to submit themselves to a grilling by party structures like the integrity commission, or even a national legislative committee weighted in favour of the ANC.
What is needed is a clear admission to the public of wrongdoing and a costly resignation from any government position.
As unlikely as it might appear, he may even become the face of a movement to clean up the ANC, inside and outside government.
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