Presidency criticises minister’s public rebuke of Cyril Ramaphosa

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s criticism of President Cyril Ramaphosa is a reflection of her own performance.

“There’s a reality that some individuals may project their own failures onto the president. The president does not work alone, he works with a team of people — and when somebody that is part of that team says the president has failed, they may very well be projecting their own failure within that team and not necessarily the failure of the president,” Magwenya said. 

Speaking during his weekly media briefings in Cape Town, Magwenya was responding to a question on calls for Ramaphosa to step aside pending the outcome of the investigation into the Phala Phala scandal. 

In an interview with the SABC, Sisulu said as per the ANC’s resolution, Ramaphosa should step aside until his name is cleared. She reportedly said: “I am uncomfortable with the way it is applied and I would propose as we go into the next conference anybody who we feel has serious allegations against them should step aside.

“For instance, the Phala Phala issue for me would call for that until all of us are quite certain that there is nothing wrong, nothing illegal about that. But for as long as it keeps hanging on the president, it keeps hanging on everyone else. It is not fair to us, it is not fair to the president either.”

Magwenya said members of the cabinet reported directly to the president and therefore had a direct line to him.

“The expected professional decorum is that should they have any concerns about their work, the president and the state of various matters about the country, they will address those issues directly to the president,” he said.

On calls being made on public platforms and the media, Magwenya said: “That does seem to deviate from the expected and well established decorum of the working relationship.”

Asked whether Ramaphosa felt undermined by his subordinates and intended taking action against them, Magwenya said: “Any individual within [the cabinet] that steps out of the established decorum, that behaviour is more of a reflection on them that it is on the president. The president has never publicly berated any of his cabinet members.” If Ramaphosa has concerns about the performance of his ministers, he raises that in private, Magwena said.

“The president is not naïve or blind to the fact that we are in a period of contestations within the governing party and so different individuals in their capacity within the governing party will choose to exercise their rights in whichever way or manner.”

Magwenya said the Phala Phala farm scandal was under investigation and “you would expect cabinet members to know better that we allow the investigations to be concluded before any pronouncements are made”.

The calls, he said, “can be taken as noise that is generally there and the president does not feel undermined, he is alive to the dynamics”.

Asked whether Ramaphosa had made his submission to the section 89 independent panel of experts, which gave him 10 days to respond to any of the submitted information — from October 28 to November 6 — Magwenya said the president would meet the deadline on Sunday.

“The president will deliver his submission to the inquiry panel by November 6 as per the published rules of the panel. Those rules do not provide for a direct in-personal engagement so the president will comply with that deadline and those rules.”

The details of Ramaphosa’s submission would be made available once the panel had concluded its work.

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