Steenhuisen slams Ramaphosa 'double standards' over deputy minister axing

DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen has strongly rebuked President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing him of “double standards” for axing deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, while ANC ministers “lying to parliament” and “accused of state capture” remained untouchable.

Speaking during a debate on the vote on the division of revenue bill in the National Assembly, a visibly irate Steenhuisen suggested to MPs that Whitfield had been removed from his job as deputy trade and industry minister for raising awkward questions about the appointment of "dodgy" candidates to the board of the Industrial Development Corporation, and the debacle over the awarding of lotto licences to a politically connected consortium.

The Presidency stunned on Thursday morning when it announced that Ramaphosa had invoked section 93 of the constitution to remove Whitfield from his position.

Ramaphosa did not disclose his reasons for axing Whitfield, but government sources with intimate knowledge of the matter said it was related to his insubordination over his travelling to Washington at the height of stormy relations between South Africa and the US earlier this year as part of a DA delegation, without the president’s approval.

But taking MPs into his confidence on the issue, Steenhuisen told parliament that Whitfield’s repeated written requests to travel were ignored and not responded to by Ramaphosa.

“The facts of this matter contradict this flimsy reasoning. In fact, on the 12 of February, deputy minister Whitfield had written to the president requesting permission to travel,” Steenhuisen said.

“Ten days later he had not received a reply or any response whatsoever about the trip. Whitfield subsequently wrote to apologise if he had caused offence. Again, he received no response. Then yesterday, months after the incident and without a further word on it, the president unilaterally removed a DA deputy minister without even giving his largest coalition partner the courtesy of discussing the issue.”

Steenhuisen went on to describe the dismissal of Whitfield “as the calculated political assault on the second-largest party in the GNU” and a “product of flagrant double standards”.

The leader of the blue party argued it was hypocritical for Ramaphosa to fire Whitfield while state capture accused ministers such as David Mahlobo, VBS-corruption accused Thembi Simelane, and Nobuhle Nkabane, accused of lying to parliament over SETA boards, remained in their jobs.

“The people of South Africa are expected to accept that the likes of Simelane, Nkabane and Mahlobo are protected, while Andrew Whitfield is removed?

“But perhaps there is something even deeper at play here. Like all DA ministers and deputy ministers, Andrew Whitfield was succeeding at his job.

“He had opposed an attempt to make suspect appointments; he was standing in the way of the looting that will follow from the transformation fund — and all of this in a department mired in corruption allegations involving the tender for the National Lottery.

“Given this flagrant double standard, one is left with no choice but to conclude that hard-working DA members of the executive are now being fired for fighting corruption, not for committing corruption.”

Steenhuisen said the DA was giving Ramaphosa “the next 48 hours” to fire Simelane, Mahlobo, Nkabane and other ANC members implicated in corruption and other forms of wrongdoing.

“If they fail to do so, the ANC will inflict grave consequences on South Africa. Make no mistake: what happens next is entirely on the ANC and President Ramaphosa. They did not have to do this. They triggered all of the events that follow. Should the ANC fail to meet our ultimatum, all bets are off and the consequences will be theirs to bear.” 

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