Ramaphosa in danger of insurrection within his cabinet

20 July 2021

The DA notes the contradictions within the South African cabinet regarding whether the violence and destruction in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last week was in fact an insurrection.

These contradictory messages between the Presidency and security cluster are more than a communications crisis. They symbolise the incoherent handling of the government response to the violent outbreaks in KZN and Gauteng.

State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo and the Minister for Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, reportedly refuses to label the anarchy that led to deaths of at least 215 people, caused damage to multitudes of businesses all over these provinces and have severely disrupted supply chain management of food, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities, as an insurrection.

While the Deputy Minister of State Security, Zizi Kodwa, the Acting Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, and the head of the domestic intelligence branch, Mahlodi Muofhe, concurred with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assessment of the situation. This disagreement as well as the necessity for the Joint Standing Committee on Defence to call for coherence in the characterization of the violence and looting, shows clear evidence of the different ANC factions within Ramaphosa’s cabinet and that the President has lost control over them.

Unless President Ramaphosa quells the mutiny rising in his ranks by shuffling his cabinet and getting rid of deadweight Ministers clearly out of touch with reality and unable to fulfill their mandates who are only there to cash an exorbitant salary every month, he and indeed the whole country will be at the mercy of a cabinet gone rogue and sitting ducks for any future insurrections.

Issued by Solly Malatsi, DA Shadow Minister for the Presidency, 20 July 2021