Give Him A Chance

Norma Gigaba has full faith that her husband will make a success of being the new finance minister.

- Gabisile Ngcobo

SHE reclines on a white leather sofa in her spacious living room, elegant in a floral dress. Her hair is sleek, her nails are immaculate, her brows are salon perfect and her make-up is faultless.

In other words, this is Nomachule “Norma” Gigaba as her quarter of a million followers on Instagram have come to know her: groomed, stylish and designer-label loving – the woman who enjoys sharing pictures of herself jetting to such places as New York, Dubai, Rome and London.

But she’s not the same person she used to be, she says – she’s not the “Mrs Gigabytes” of social media fame who lent her nickname to her own brand of clothing last year.

“Long before I created my Instagram account I was Mrs Gigabytes because I was in IT,” she says. “But I’ve been thinking about it – do I really want to be Mrs Gigabytes when I’m 50 or 60 years old? Just imagine, ‘Gogo Gigabytes . . .’ It’s cool now but do I want to invest in a name I’m going to drop later?

“People still call me that but I know in time they’ll forget. I want my [real] name to be known because that’s who I am.”

She’s also, of course, Mrs Malusi Gigaba, wife of the country’s new finance minister who was appointed in highly controversial circumstances.

Life hasn’t changed a lot for the Gigabas since that late-night phone call from President Jacob Zuma offering Malusi the job of holder of the country’s coffers.

Replacing Pravin Gordhan with Malusi was the biggest move in Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle and had disastrous repercussions – South African banks lost nearly R90 billion, the rand plummeted and a swell of anti-Zuma sentiment spread across the nation.