THE South African Communist Party has condemned the ‘sustained attacks’ on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma over the last few weeks on the decision to ban cigarettes while the alcohol sales ban was set to be lifted from Monday, June 1.
Dlamini-Zuma is facing the brunt of the criticism for the government’s decision on the continued cigarette sales ban, with the opposition Democratic Alliance saying she must be fired with immediate effect for lying to South Africans about the evidence she relied on to ban the sale of tobacco products during the lockdown.
SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo said in a statement on Thursday that Dlamini-Zuma is being singled out from Cabinet and attacked for decisions that have been taken collectively by the national coronavirus command council (NCCC), the cabinet and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“There can be no other conclusion than that the attacks on Dr Dlamini-Zuma are underpinned by dubious intentions. The agenda comprises a drive to project the Cabinet as divided and pit the President against the Minister or vice versa,” said Mashilo.
“The SACP calls upon the Alliance and all formations of our movement to close ranks and decisively confront and expose the attacks on Dr Dlamini-Zuma for what they are – a divisive agenda that seeks to weaken the entire ANC-led movement and divert government from leading the fight against the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The SACP will not fold its arms and stand aside in the face of these sustained attacks, and we further call upon our SACP cadres, and indeed all the cadres of our movement as well as all other democratic South Africans, to strengthen their active role in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.”
On Thursday, Cabinet also condemned the attacks on Dlamini-Zuma and detailed the role of the National Coronavirus Command Council and the process that goes into deciding on regulations.
“Cabinet condemns in the strongest possible terms false suggestions that individual members of the executive are responsible for recommendations that emanate from the NCCC or decisions taken by Cabinet,” the statement read.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president Julius Malema has also defended Dlamini-Zuma for standing firmly behind the decision to ban the sale of cigarettes during the lockdown, saying criticism of her was “nonsensical and unacceptable”.
“In terms of the Disaster’s Management Act Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is the most powerful. She understands that responsibility very well and she will not cry because she is being criticized,” said Malema.
“The banning of cigarettes in South Africa benefits the multi-national companies and it will hurt the small companies who will struggle to operate when the economy is opened. We have been observing an uneccesary attack on Min Nkosazana Zuma. It’s nonsensical and unacceptable. We all know where Nkosazana comes from with her battle against tobacco. It’s a principled stance she has taken.”
However, the Democratic Alliance accused Dlamini-Zuma of lying to South Africans in her justification for the continued ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The party’s interim leader John Steenhuisen said if this is indeed the case, then President Ramaphosa surely has no choice but to fire her from his cabinet.
“On 29 April, in a televised briefing of the regulations for Level 4 of the lockdown, Minister Dlamini Zuma claimed that government’s decision to prohibit the sale of tobacco products was partly based on “more than 2,000” public submissions supporting such a ban. These alleged submissions formed part of 70,000 public submissions made to government at the time,” said Steenhuisen.
Steenhuisen said according Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA), the applicants in the case, there weren’t more than 2,000 submissions attached as evidence by Dlamini-Zuma.
“Instead there were only 1,535 submissions and of these, 47.2% had nothing to do with cigarettes or smoking, 23.3% were in favour of smoking and only 29.6% supported the ban. This amounts to just 454 submissions. Clearly the minister was lying to South Africans in order to further her own pre-determined agenda,” he said.
“But the fact that Minister Dlamini Zuma took the decision to make up a number of alleged supporting submissions and then lie to the people of South Africa in her briefing should be grounds for immediate suspension from her position. If the president wants to salvage some credibility for government’s response to this crisis, he cannot allow her to evade accountability on this,” he said.
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)
