Wikipedia

Geoff Doidge

Geoffrey Quinton Michael Doidge (26 April 1954–11 December 2022) was a South African politician and diplomat who was South Africa's Minister of Public Works from September 2008 to October 2010. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly of South Africa between April 1994 and October 2010.

Geoff Doidge
Minister of Public Works
In office
25 September 2008 – 31 October 2010
PresidentKgalema Motlanthe
Jacob Zuma
DeputyNtopile Kganyago
Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu
Preceded byThoko Didiza
Succeeded byGwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde
Member of the National Assembly
In office
27 April 1994 – 1 November 2010
Personal details
BornGeoffrey Quinton Michael Doidge
(1954-04-26)26 April 1954
Kokstad, Union of South Africa
Died10 December 2022(2022-12-10) (aged 68)
PartyAfrican National Congress

Doidge was a businessman in his hometown, Kokstad, until he joined the First Parliament in 1994. In the Second and Third Parliaments, he served as Deputy Chief Whip of the Majority Party and Chairperson of Committees in the National Assembly. In September 2008, he was appointed to the cabinet by President Kgalema Motlanthe, and he remained in that position after President Jacob Zuma took office in the April 2009 elections. As public works minister, he had a controversial role in the Nkandlagate scandal.

After Zuma sacked him from the cabinet in October 2010, Doidge resigned from the National Assembly. He went on to serve as South African High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and South African Ambassador to Thailand.

Early life and career

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Doidge was born on 26 April 1954[1] in Kokstad, then part of the Cape Province and later part of KwaZulu-Natal.[2] He was the second-eldest child of two farmers and grew up on their farm, Glen Edward, on the Drakensberg foothills.[2] Raised Catholic, he attended Catholic schools and matriculated at Mount Currie Senior Secondary School in Kokstad.[2] Though his paternal grandparents were British, his family was classified as Coloured under apartheid.[2]

Doidge worked as a manager at a Toyota franchise until he and a friend started their own business, an auto parts trader called Parts Centre Kokstad, in 1978. In the latter years of apartheid, he and his wife sold their shares in the business in order to focus on civic activism.[2] During the negotiations to end apartheid, Doidge became involved in structures of the African National Congress (ANC) in East Griqualand and the Transkei, where the party was re-establishing its presence after being unbanned in 1990. He was the chairperson of the ANC's local branch in Kokstad from 1991 to 1995.[3]

National Assembly: 1994–2008

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In South Africa's first democratic elections in April 1994, Doidge was elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament. He served as an ANC whip.[3]

In the June 1999 general election, he was re-elected to his parliamentary seat and additionally was appointed as the Deputy Chief Whip of the Majority Party in the National Assembly.[3] In this capacity he was viewed as an "able bureaucrat".[4] On 2 February 2001, he was also appointed as spokesman and chair of the ANC's delegation in the Standing Committee of Public Accounts. Controversially, he replaced Andrew Feinstein, who had been harangued inside the ANC for his handling of the committee's inquiries into the Arms Deal.[5]

In April 2002, the ANC announced a major reshuffle of its parliamentary caucus, in which Doidge was appointed as Chairperson of Committees, a presiding officer position in the National Assembly.[6] He was reappointed to that position after the April 2004 general election.[7]

Minister of Public Works: 2008–2010

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Near the end of the Third Parliament, Doidge was elevated to the national executive after Kgalema Motlanthe became national president in a midterm presidential election. Announcing his cabinet on 25 September 2008, Motlanthe named Doidge as Minister of Public Works; he replaced Thoko Didiza, who had resigned after the presidential upset.[8][9] The Mail & Guardian described the appointment as Doidge's "reward[] for years of loyal service as an ANC enforcer in Parliament".[10] Andries Nel succeeded him as house chairperson in the National Assembly.[11]

The Mail & Guardian considered Doidge one of the top performers in the cabinet during Motlanthe's brief presidency.[12] After the April 2009 general election, he was reappointed to his ministerial position in the cabinet of Motlanthe's successor, President Jacob Zuma.[13] In October 2009, when Zuma reconfigured the cabinet cluster system, Doidge was also appointed as deputy chairperson of the cabinet's social protection and community development cluster, in which capacity he deputised Social Development Minister Edna Molewa.[14]

Nkandla security upgrades

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While Doidge was in the public works ministry, the Department of Public Works authorised a series of highly controversial security upgrades at the Nkandla homestead of President Zuma. The project was investigated for several years thereafter, long after Doidge left the portfolio, and the investigations implicated Doidge. In December 2013, Doidge's successor in the ministry, Thulas Nxesi, presented the report of an inter-ministerial investigation into the security upgrades; the report absolved Zuma of wrongdoing but recommended that Doidge and his deputy minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, should be investigated further for possible misconduct.[15]

A parallel investigation conducted by the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, was completed in 2014, and its conclusions included that Doidge had misadvised Zuma about relevant legal prescripts and that he and his counterpart in the Ministry of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, "could have provided better executive leadership, especially with regard to speedily assessing the extent and cost of the Nkandla project".[16] In April 2016, Zuma's office belatedly sent official letters of reprimand to Doidge and other former ministers who had mishandled the Nkandla upgrades.[17]

Succession

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In a reshuffle announced on 31 October 2010, Zuma sacked Doidge from the cabinet, replacing him with Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde.[18] In the immediate aftermath of the reshuffle, Doidge resigned from his parliamentary seat on 1 November 2010 and was replaced by Celiwe Madlopha.[19][20]

The Mail & Guardian said that Doidge's abrupt dismissal was "suspicious".[21] It was widely speculated that Doidge had been fired because he had suspended questionable lease agreements between the government and politically connected businessman Roux Shabangu.[22][23][24][25]

Later career and death

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In early 2011, the presidency announced Doidge's appointment as South African High Commissioner in Sri Lanka.[26] After his service in Sri Lanka, he was appointed as Ambassador to Thailand.[2]

He died of cancer on 10 December 2022.[27][28]

References

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  1. ↑ "General Notice: Notice 717 of 2004 - Electoral Commission – List of Names of Representatives in the National Assembly and the Nine Provincial Legislatures in Respect of the Elections Held on 14 April 2004" (PDF). Government Gazette of South Africa. Vol. 466, no. 2677. Pretoria, South Africa: Government of South Africa. 20 April 2004. pp. 4–95. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wechsler, Maxmilian (11 June 2018). "His Excellency Geoffrey Quinton Mitchell Doidge". The BigChilli. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "Geoffrey Quinton Mitchell Doidge, Mr". South African Government. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  4. ↑ "The trials of the back bench". The Mail & Guardian. 21 June 2002. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  5. ↑ "Arms probe: ANCMP will fight". The Mail & Guardian. 2 February 2001. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  6. ↑ "Major ANC Parly reshuffle". News24. 25 April 2002. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  7. ↑ "Asmal gets top Parliament post". The Mail & Guardian. 7 May 2004. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  8. ↑ "Motlanthe's inauguration address inc. names of new cabinet". PoliticsWeb. 25 September 2008. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  9. ↑ "Motlanthe moves to steady the ship". The Mail & Guardian. 25 September 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  10. ↑ "Manto axed from health portfolio". The Mail & Guardian. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  11. ↑ "The ANC's new deployments in parliament". PoliticsWeb. 23 October 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  12. ↑ "DA report card: The good, the bad and the ugly". The Mail & Guardian. 10 December 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  13. ↑ "Statement by President Jacob Zuma on the appointment of the new Cabinet". South African Government. 10 May 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  14. ↑ "Ministerial clusters reconfigured". The Mail & Guardian. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  15. ↑ "I'm not carrying can for Nkandla, says former minister". The Mail & Guardian. 22 December 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  16. ↑ "Nkandla report rips into Zuma's Cabinet". The Mail & Guardian. 19 March 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  17. ↑ "Zuma reprimands ministers, former minister over Nkandla – Presidency". The Mail & Guardian. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  18. ↑ "Zuma announces cabinet reshuffle". Sunday Times. 31 October 2010. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  19. ↑ "Members of the National Assembly". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  20. ↑ "Mdladlana resigns as MP". News24. 15 November 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  21. ↑ "Zuma keeps friends close, some enemies closer". The Mail & Guardian. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "Welcome to Zuma Inc, son". The Mail & Guardian. 12 August 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  23. ↑ "Protector's challenge to the president". The Mail & Guardian. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  24. ↑ "Concerted campaign to keep police lease". The Mail & Guardian. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  25. ↑ "'Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde lied on Geoff Doidge'". Sunday Times. 31 July 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  26. ↑ "From the presidency to 'ice-cream mission' to Zim". The Mail & Guardian. 28 February 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  27. ↑ "ITI statement on the passing of Ambassador Geoffrey Doidge". In Transformation Initiative. 11 December 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  28. ↑ "Former cabinet minister and ambassador Geoff Doidge dies". eNCA. 11 December 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
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