Staff Reporter
EFF leader Julius Malema says his party will disrupt Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address if the president does not fire Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan for misleading the country on the extent of the crisis within the power utility-Eskom.
Malema’s ultimatum to Ramaphosa comes few days after his deputy David Mabuza told journalists in Kimberly that Gordhan and the Eskom board misled the president when they told him there would not be load shedding before January 13.
Mabuza’s remarks led to the resignation of Eskom chairman Jabu Mabuza last Friday.
Labour federation Cosatu has also called for Gordhan to be sacked after the country was hit, yet again, by a round of rolling blackouts despite assurances from Ramaphosa that there would be no load shedding throughout the festive season.
Addressing EFF supporters ahead of Wednesday’s by election in Schweizer Reneke in the North West province, Malema warned Ramaphosa the red berets would disrupt his state of the nation address if he failed to act against Gordhan.
“I want to tell Cyril Ramaphosa today that if he can’t fire Pravin before the state of the nation address, the state of the nation address shall be about Pravin. We will stand up there, we will stop him from speaking, we will tell him you must fire Pravin because we must protect South Africa’s assets.
“If Ramaphosa is not prepared to protect our assets by firing Pravin then Ramaphosa must go.”
It remains to be seen if Ramaphosa will act against Pravin this time around following previous calls for him to be removed.
Last year, the president refused to take action against the public enterprise minister following the Public Protector’s recommendation for disciplinary or remedial action against Gordhan for his role in the establishment of the so-called ‘rogue unit’ within the South African Revenue Services (SARS).
In a report on her investigation into the unit which was released last year, Busisiwe Mkhwebane found that the division, approved by Gordhan, was in violation of section 209 of the constitution.
Mkhwebane found that only the president of the country had powers to sign off on such an intelligence-gathering unit.
At the time, Malema slammed Ramaphosa for his failure to take action against Gordhan, saying it was an insult to the constitution.
“Ramaphosa is continuing to treat Pravin Gordhan as a god that is not subject to the law, like all of us. Above all, like Zuma, he is not protecting the constitution by complying with the remedial action of the public protector.”
Mkhwebane had also made a similar finding against Gordhan for his role in the payment of early retirement benefits to former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay.
