As an official who served in the Office of the Deputy President during the Sixth Administration of government, I have been contemplating the experience of my five years privilege of working with Former Deputy President David Mabuza. There are numerous anecdotes of personal development that colleagues can recount as result of their service to this distinctive principal.
Personally, during his 1 827 days that he was in office, from 26 February 2018 to 01 March 2023, the encounter I shared with him was invaluable; it was more than just professional. He also guided us with a kind spirit of a father, correcting our flaws with compassion and encouraging the good work that was assigned to us.
It came as no surprise to me to find that he was born a teacher since, while he later moved into politics, it is a vocation that has always shadowed him as he interacts with us in the corridors of the Union Buildings.
The lessons that I have learned from ubab’uMshengu have been imprinted on my professional life! His statesmanlike demeanour, professionalism, and hard work will be etched in my memory.
1. Working with a principal who possesses a wealth of experience across various sectors, as a Premier and MEC of various portfolios necessitated that we constantly surmount obstacles during briefing sessions to adequately prepare the Him for an event or meeting. In order to fulfil the tasks that the President has assigned to him, he will want to make certain that the information, including the facts, figures, and overall content, is correct and will enable him to provide answers that have a significant impact. This was true to his nature as a Mathematics Teacher and Principal.
If there was an area of the work that you are not certain of or don’t have an answer for, the best thing to do was to be honest in that front and request time to come back with the information. Otherwise, if you thought you could hogwash him, he would stop you immediately and start his response by sternly saying “no” three times (No, No, No). With that introduction you knew that you are under, and would have to work twice as hard next time to ensure that you pass the test.
He would end the session by reminding us that his office is about impact, by saying, “Abantu balambile lha ngaphandle, manje nina niyadlala, nigilethela iscamtho”. It was well known in the office that this meant that you are fumbling in your presentation.
When presenting the proposed package of solutions for his responsibility as South Africa’s Special Envoy to South Sudan, he would always remind us that, “People are dying in that country like flies; please don’t make the spilling of their blood to be in vain. Let’s make sure to come home with an agreement from the Parties to the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity Agreement”.
We would heed the call and camp for weeks ahead of his scheduled visit in Addis Ababa, Uganda and South Sudan. When we receive him during his arrival in Juba, he would greet and jokingly say, “Manje izingane zisale nabani emakhaya nina nigcwele isganga eEast Africa?” That to us was an indication that the briefing documents that he read during the flight made sense, and the solutions that we proposed gave him a good base to prepare for his meetings with the Parties on the difficult task of resolving the number of state and their boundaries.
Co-facilitating the process with the Special Envoys of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Republics of Uganda, Sudan and Kenya, the Former Deputy President engaged in extensive shuttle diplomacy in South Sudan. At the heart of it all was the objective of silencing the guns in South Sudan, building sustainable institutions for promotion of democratic government, building infrastructure to drive inclusive economic growth and development, as well as empowering women and young people whose potential is unlimited.
It is no wonder that tributes are pouring in from colleagues across the continent who we worked with in this area of responsibility, with the common message being, “He was an affectionate, amicable and firm person. It is sad that he will never get to see the fruits of his work after he steered the resolution of the issue of the number of states.”
One is relieved that he got his flowers while he could still smell them when the African Leadership Magazine recognised his role in this area of work during its Person Of The Year Award Ceremony in February 2020.
2. Another lesson in implementing his seventeen delegated responsibilities: be on time for this is not only an illustration of one respecting themselves, but more importantly, about respecting others. Being on time was not only a principle for officials in the office that applied to physical meetings, but also for the virtual life that we were introduced to during the Sixth Administration.
The Deputy President would arrive for a meeting or outreach programme way ahead of the time that was scheduled for his arrival, sometimes even before the arrival of the host Premier and Mayor. It would be really unpleasant for you, as a project leader, to arrive after he has arrived since you would be informed by the protectors that the Deputy President has called for you. When you entered the holding room, you would see the Deputy President sitting alone, drinking his rooibos tea, and after greeting, he would ask, "Baphi kanti labantu bakho?" "Kanti nizodlala lha?"
By the time the hosts arrive, they would find the Deputy President with a pen in his left hand, amending the programme and cutting down on the time of the briefing session saying, “We all got the documents for this visit and know why we are here, so let us go out there and work. The people are hungry for solutions, there is no time for us to be sitting warmly in endless meetings.”
We would offer him another cup of tea before he leaves the briefing room, saying that we want to ensure that he is warm and energized enough as the day ahead is long. This was our technique of delaying him until the media arrived, which had not yet arrived at their allotted time. Once he figured out the delay technique, he would encourage us to get on with the day, and whoever was not present would find us along the road, joking, "Ngiyanibona niyathathazela ngoba besithi abangiboni emaphepheni abazi ukuthi kenzani". He would further say “Don’t worry about them, the people whose lives we touch through our work know the story. In life let your work speak for itself and don’t chase media coverage. Bazosithola endleleni.” Indeed, the work that he led, such as the capacitating of traditional leaders to advance development in Mpumalanga Province, spoke for itself. All traditional leaders across the country used the Mpumalanga Province experience as a base for how development in rural communities should be spearheaded.
3. Apart from the Deputy President arriving earlier than was scheduled, the main cause of delay in reaching the localities where he implemented his responsibilities was because he chose the far-flung areas of South Africa, which were hard to reach. He intentionally searched for those communities who were marginalised either because of their spatial location or experience. The people who struggled to secure opportunities for growth and development when they opened up. To these communities, he made sure to partner with traditional and other local leaders, and take packages of solutions on agriculture, land tenure, addressing social ills and improving education and health outcomes. It was his strength of leveraging on partnership to advance development that led to the formal launch of the South African National AIDS Council Private Sector Forum. This marked a turning-point in the role of business in the country’s response to HIV, TB and STIs, and in the implementation of his delegated responsibility as the Chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council.
4. Dress up in a manner that will inspire hope to the people even before you open your mouth and present solutions. Whether you are meeting the Deputy President at his residence for a briefing session or taking him to the deepest rural parts of South Africa, or seeing him participate in a virtual meeting, Deputy President Mabuza was always wearing a suit and most times this was a black suit with a white shirt. Therefore, as officials going out into communities in the name of his office, we quickly learnt to up our game and make sure that we represent him correctly. If you are from Deputy President Mabuza’s office, the way you look should tell. We were sometimes made fun of by those we met at dry-run meetings for wearing stockings and jackets while others would be in jeans.
5. As difficult as some of the interactions could be with our counterparts and partners, we knew to never display any arrogance in the name of being from The Presidency because this was not in the nature of Deputy President Mabuza. In fact, we would always say that we should never name drop to open doors because if that behaviour ever reached his ears, we knew for a fact that he would not defend us, and we would be on our own. This we gathered from how he expressed his displeasure at people who used their authority for selfish reasons. He would always remind us, “Angizwani nomuntu oluhlaza, kanti nina nikhuliswe njani emakhayeni enu?’
Therefore, to unblock challenges along the way of implementing his responsibilities meant that we needed to sharpen our negotiation and emotional intelligence skills, and provide sound and evidence based advise that would win us the case. While some of the challenges required political intervention, we would defer these to the relevant authorities because the principle in the Office of the Deputy President stood as, “There is only one politician in this office and that is me. The rest of you are here to do your work to support me and this is where it ends.”
6. Finally, we easily submitted to the authority of Deputy President Mabuza because he led by example in submitting to the authority of the President as his boss. At any given moment, he would remind us, “The President is my boss. The President and I are one. Do your work and leave everything else to us.”
There are many more life lessons that can be shared by those who served as officials but also as children and students of Former Deputy President Mabuza. All these are best summarized by an extract from a tribute that Deputy President Paul Mashatile wrote on the Former Deputy President, in a Sowetan Live article that was published on 05 July 2025:
“Mabuza would not have been human if he were flawless. Nobody ever is. So, rather than a devil vs angel narrative, his track record as a political actor is probably better appraised in the context of his time and the society which produced him. The true measure of an activist is how they impact the macro-social landscape that forms individuals, more than the temptation to excoriate them, even as it is sometimes unavoidable.”
Lala ngoxolo baba wethu. We will continue to carry your teachings of putting the people of South Africa first.
