Natasha Marrian writes about rumours swirling in political circles that labour minister Mildred Oliphant is the "model employee", who is present every day, in her office, on time, but who then locks her door with no one knowing what she does.  

She did feature on Wednesday in a court judgment that described her removal of labour registrar Johan Crouse as "irrational" and "invalid".  In a second scathing indictment on the minister’s actions in respect of the same matter, the court said that stripping Crouse of his position demonstrated the minister’s political proximity to a Cosatu faction led by president S’dumo Dlamini, while her action had been intended to shield the general secretary of chemical union Ceppwawu.  In another odd twist around the elusive Oliphant, it emerged that the department’s chief financial officer, Bheki Maduna, who was suspended in 2016, was reinstated last week.  Meantime, Oliphant hasn’t appeared before Parliament for years.  Marrian says that Oliphant needs to emerge from the shadows and tell us what she has been up to.  Labour is too critical a portfolio to have a minister who pops up now and again under circumstances that just get curiouser and curiouser.

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