And while Marcus has to manage this storm when she takes over from Tito Mboweni in November, she has more pressing issues to attend to. There is the matter of a global financial crisis and a South African economy in recession.
"The appointments in the core resource envelope of the country suggest that the ANC does not have confidence in the blacks of African descent," said Duma Gqubule, director of advisory firm Kio.
He is one of the few transformation advocates prepared to comment on the record. Gqubule said the appointments suggested the ANC was more concerned about the financial markets that tended to unjustifiably associate competence with non-African blacks.
He said the appointment of ministers Trevor Manuel (National Planning Commission), Pravin Gordhan (finance), Ibrahim Patel (economic development), Rob Davies (trade and industry), Barbara Hogan (public enterprises) and Marcus reinforced the perception.
But ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe defended his party's position.
"The ANC has always been a non-racial organisation that fights to eliminate gender, race and class contradictions. Some people want to unbundle black to mean African. They want to nullify the traditional definition of black," he said.
Mantashe said nobody had raised such concerns with the ANC
