PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has hit back at the Democratic Alliance (DA) for interfering in ANC’s factional battles following the suspension of the governing party’s Secretary-General Ace Magashule on Wednesday night.
Ramaphosa faced a barrage of tough questions in the National Assemble about the COVID-19 vaccine programme, economic recovery and efforts to end gender-based violence.
DA’s leader John Steenhuisen told Ramaphosa that he is busy with internal ANC factional battles while South Africa was falling behind in the vaccine programme.
This was after Magashule was suspended as Secretary-General on Wednesday night over corruption claims related to the asbestos tender in the Free State when he was Premier.
Ramaphosa responded: “I am just wondering what Mr Steenhuisen ate at lunch because it does seem like he’s a very angry young man and I don’t know what he ate.”
The president said his party’s factional battles have nothing to with Steenhuisen or the DA.
“When you were involved in your own battles in the DA you never heard a single one of us say anything. We did not comment because it’s not our space – what happen in the DA is your business. And what is happening in the ANC is also not your business. It’s an ANC business.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president Floyd Shivambu also raised a point of order asking who Ramaphosa represented because he was suspended by ANC’s Secretary-General on Wednesday night.
“Who is representing the ANC today? The information we have is that Mr Ramaphosa is suspended from the ANC. We want to know if he is representing his jacket or what. He is not permitted even by his own organisation. It is false to say he is in charge,” said Shivambu.
Despite several attempts by the EFF to block Ramaphosa from answering oral questions in Parliament, Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli interjected and finally dismissed the questions as irrelevant and out of order.
- Inside Politics
