Many centuries ago, if you needed to know something, you could approach the Pythia, generally known as the Oracle of Delphi.

She was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus and praised for her prophecies inspired by Apollo. According to Wikipedia, the Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BCE and her last recorded response was given in CE 393.

I remember watching, entranced and simultaneously horrified, at a rendition of the Oracle in a BBC video (remember videos?) of Robert Graves' I, Claudius.

I turned this weekend to a different kind of oracle: male, not interested in gases other than those given off by cigarettes; not inclined to gibberish except, very occasionally, ANC-speak; and not a denizen of Parnassus but of the executive wing of the Union Buildings.

The subject on which I approached the Oracle of the Union Buildings was the president's recent cabinet shuffle. As some of you might recall, President JG Zuma announced the following earlier this week:

As a result of the death of Radakrishna "Roy" Padayachie, the minister of public service and administration, former defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu was put into that post; and the former minister of correctional services, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, was made minister of defence. 

Then the former minister of transport, Sibusiso Sbu' Ndebele was hoiked out of transport and made the minister of correctional services and his former deputy, Jeremy Cronin, (the good-looking Jeremy, as opposed to Gordin or Gauntlett, and sometimes confused by confused Politicsweb readers with me) was sent to public works as a deputy-sheriff.

A fellow called Ben Martins, to be aided and abetted by one Sindisiwe Chikunga (that'll stop her banging on embarrassingly about the cops in parly), is to be the new minister of transport; Gratitude Magwanishe will be deputy at Public Enterprises; Hlengiwe Mkhize at Economic Development; and Mduduzi Manana at higher education.

"O mighty Oracle," I said, bending low (though we were talking on a telephone), "I understand about Ndebele and Cronin getting the chop from transport, but ..."

"And what," interrupted the Oracle, "is it that you understand?"

"Well," I said brightly, "I know that members of the president's inner circle, or one of his inner circles, including especially the minister of finance Pravin Gordhan and minister in the presidency Trevor Manuel, were - if you'll pardon the language - as pissed as a bunch of angry snakes about the lack of support that e-tolls boss man Nazir Allie received from the transport ministry.

"They thought he'd been left to twist in the wind - that Sbu' had said close to nothing and that Cronin had written a few mildly interesting, Politicsweb-type pieces about transport and Marxist philosophy, but that, when the chips were down, Allie had been lift to dangle."

"What I am quite impressed with," I continued, "knowing how little the president likes confrontation, and how slow he is to be moved to any kind of emotion or action, is that he handed out some stiff and clear punishment. I think Pravin must have been so pissed ...He must have been bending the president's ear something awful. And, you know, if Pravin wants to talk, boy can he talk ...."

"Anyway," I went on, hardly drawing a breath, "the real mystery to me is the case of Sisulu."

"Why?" asked the Oracle.

"Some of the usual chip-wrappers are saying that Sisulu is being demoted by being taken away from defence and made minister of service and administration. They say her behaviour vis-à-vis the soldiers and the unions was bad stuff. They say too that her very un-democratic behaviour in parliament has counted against her.

"Actually, for a change, Mondli Makhanya earned his weekly bread and wrote a strong and entertaining piece in the Sunday Times yesterday. He refers to Sisulu's Putinesque tendencies and says she has the inter-personal skills of Mike Tyson. (Actually, if you've seen the recent documentaries, you realise Tyson's a real softie.) Someone else - oh yeah, Anthony Butler at UCT, usually a fine analyst - suggested that she and Zuma have had a falling-out.

"But the point is that she worked with Zuma in the good, ol' days, in ANC intelligence (yeah, I know it's an oxymoron) and security. They're tight from way back. Second, the family is hardly unimportant. Third, Zuma wouldn't have cared if she'd given MPs and the DA's David Maynier in particular a few heart attacks. He might have been a bit annoyed about her treatment of the SANDF unions. But, if I recall correctly, he supported her."

"There you are," said the Oracle. "Let's think it through this way. Let's look at the issues. One: it's a demotion for Sisulu, from defence to public service. Two: maybe public service is where strengths are needed; maybe it's where it's at if you think about ANC planning documents and strategies. Three: the move is a combination of both."

The Oracle then went to say that the public service is the real battle ground for the ANC now and in the months to come. (He might have mentioned that Gordhan's budget is predicated on capping the public sector wage increase this year - and that if he doesn't, there goes his budget. But the Oracle sometimes avoids facts and figures.)

The Oracle said also that Sisulu had showed great staying power and that "we have to get buy in from the public service to what we're doing ...."

So, it doesn't seem as though Sisulu is being disciplined at all - but is in fact going to be the president's point (wo)man especially in the upcoming wage negotiations with public servants.

I also mentioned to the Oracle that I was gob-smacked about the elevation of Mapisa-Nqakula to the position of minister of defence.

"I don't want to be offensive," I said, "but she's, er, a trifle indolent, not the sharpest pin in the box, and very emotional (as opposed to rational)."

"Well, mebbe," said the Oracle, chuckling, "but she's an ANC person through-and-through and above all she's a woman. For some reason that I perhaps don't fully grasp, being a woman is where it's at in the ANC these days. That's how it works."

What the Oracle did not tell me, however, is what possessed the president to make these moves now (other than the obvious reason, the death of Padayachie), As noted Zuma seems disinclined to confrontation of any sort. Was this the president really being the president or was he merely making a few pre-Mangaung fancy moves?

This article was published with the assistance of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF). The views presented in the article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FNF.

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