The DA demands action on Cabinet corruption, but its brinkmanship may hand the ANC unchecked power.
John Steenhuisen and the DA may be playing an especially risky game of brinkmanship, by challenging President Cyril Ramaphosa to get rid of the alleged bad apples in his Cabinet… but will they really pull down the government of national unity (GNU) around them?
Steenhuisen’s hard-hitting speech in the National Assembly yesterday put the ball in Ramaphosa’s court: if you can fire our deputy minister, Andrew Whitfield, why can you not do the same to the others in your Cabinet who have clouds hanging over their heads?
And, let’s face it, the DA leader has a point. Accountability and consequences have become conspicuous by their absence when it comes to the ANC and its cadres who are accused of dodgy conduct.
In reality, some of those accused of corruption – or involvement in state capture – not only survive, they thrive, being promoted to other positions in government.
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Since Ramaphosa took over as head of state more than seven years ago, his claims of cracking down on corruption in a “new dawn” of hope have come to nothing.
Possibly it is time to pressure him.
But, maybe, this will backfire and give the ANC what it wants – no righteous opposition peering over its shoulder.