Fearing that some of his colleagues in the leadership were becoming too powerful, Adolf Hitler order a purge.
Unfounded allegations were made that some of them were planning a “putsch.”
Those killed were some of his most trusted lieutenants that had been by his side for years.
After the killings, Hitler attempted to consolidate his power using primarily violence and other clandestine means.
It is still too early to say with any level of confidence exactly what informed the cabinet reshuffle announced on Friday evening.
But there are uncanny similarities between the reshuffle and what in history has come to be known as Hitler’s Night of Long Knives.
It is an open secret within the political commentariat that for some time there had been suspicions of a plot being muted.
Some in cabinet, the back-bench and a few in opposition have been planning what Hitler would have called a “putsch.’
The strategy it would seem was to rally around Thapelo Matsheka, elevate his political stature and ultimately force the president’s hand into appointing him a vice president.
The biggest concern for the clique is that at the rate corruption in government is going the country will be left with nothing unless it is stopped.
For them Matsheka had many of the qualities they hoped could act as a bulwark against all excesses.
He has afterall been making all the right noises on good governance.
That was not to be.
Either the president picked the intelligence or by just sheer luck of coincidence, he stopped them on tracks.
By the time it was all settled, the air was all smoke filled with a pungent-like smell of gun powder.
The Office of the President felt like a war room or should we say a war zone – transferring, sacking, promoting and demoting.
Bloodbath is more like it. Too many bones were left broken.
Too many careers left peer-shaped. And too many hearts left shattered.
But still it fails to capture just why it had to happen to start with. And why once it happened it had to be so brutal.
The Minister of Finance was by far the biggest casualty. Another was the Cabinet Secretary.
Both of them had been moved to lesser positions. They had effectively been declared enemies at court.
The net effect was to break with tradition – first by spurning consensus politics and second disposing of a Finance minister mid-term.
There is a precedent to sacking a Permanent Secretary to the President.
Festus Mogae got rid of Molosiwa Selepeng in a similarly heartless manner that left many shaking in shock and disbelief.
Selepeng had been both a fixer and a confidante to the president.
But it is the speed at which Magosi came in and shortly thereafter left that will surprise many.
He was recruited from SADC at Deputy PSP level.
So important was he to the new government that he came in at a scale higher than that of his boss – the then PSP, Carter Morupisi.
Less than two years on, Magosi is gone, him like others before him, a victim of a fallout with the president.
Thapelo Matsheka and Elias Magosi are gone. Problem solved?
Not a bit.
At the Ministry of Finance, Peggy Serame will inherit empty coffers that had haunted Matsheka. But more worryingly she will be faced with the same mis-governance demands that Matsheka railed against and ultimately cost him his job.
As Finance Minister, Dr Matsheka ruled by cold calculation.
He had wanted to create governance structures that would produce an audit of all covid-19 expenditures. He wanted targets for government. And fought to have a dash bord against which performance could be monitored. That alienated him. And in the end cost him his job.
Serame arrives at the ministry counting on her much-famed proximity to the president.
Emotion, friendship and loyalty will scupper all other considerations in her stay at the ministry.
As the incoming Cabinet Secretary, Emma Peloetletse inherits a dysfunctional machinery that is as frightened of leadership as it clueless of what is expected of it.
Magosi fought against the Covid-19Task Force. Peloetletse is most likely to be its enabler.
She will be expected to steady the ship – a hard undertaking even during the best of times.
How she turns the tide around will no doubt be a matter of immense public interest.
There is no doubt that Masisi is collapsing under the weight of public expectation.
He promised too much and delivered too little.
Covid-19 has been an economic and human catastrophe.
It has also become a cover for both incompetence and also corruption.
Its illogical and even reckless to transfer a Minister of Finance mid-term shortly after presenting what looks like the most difficult budget since the birth of the republic.
Kneejerk, critics will scream.
It looks much bigger than that.
At the heart of it all is corporate (mis)governance.
The country is held hostage by naked greed and naked ambition.
Is it any coincidence that a government that was birthed on the ship of anti-corruption crusade has all of a sudden gone mute on corruption?
This weekend the Office of the President announced that cabinet was going on a working retreat.
In their communique, no mention of the fight against corruption was made – not even in passing.
For this government fighting corruption now feels like a bridge too far.
Corruption has been the biggest failure – but not the only one.
There is a misguided thinking in government that somehow government can create wealth and jobs.
The only wealth that government creates is for the corrupt.
Otherwise the job of government is to facilitate the private sector to thrive, pay taxes, make jobs and create wealth.
The cabinet reshuffle has made a few things plain.
The ruling party, especially in parliament does not have sufficient people capable of running a government. The party simply does not have tough operators.
It is perhaps a clear sign of our time that when looking for skills and talent in government today we turn to people like Mmusi Kgafela and Karabo Gare.
It is also clear that there are no systems in place to take this country to a higher level.
Government is indeed a heavy and leaden beast, bereft of the agility often associated with the private sector.
For it to work, it has to be clear on the mind of those in charge just what it is that they want to achieve. They need an agenda they can share and sell to those following them.
In our instance the president has had a lot to say about transforming the economy.
In the end it has all become a mantra that few now take seriously. Not least because he leads a government and party he has been unable to transform.
After the Friday cabinet reshuffle there is little doubt that the president has expended not just his political capital, but also what little public goodwill he still had.
Will the reshuffle improve delivery? Very unlikely!
Will it improve governance? Certainly not!
The biggest loser has certainly been transparency.
In the end the cabinet reshuffle has been much ado about nothing!
It has produced too many broken souls but will not deliver the pearls in the end.
