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.