EFF rains on Ramaphosa’s public holiday parade after Boks victory

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has rained on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s parade to declare a public holiday in honour of the Springbok World Cup victory.

Ramaphosa kept his promise and declared December 15 a public holiday to celebrate the Springboks victory to become the only team in the world to win the Rugby World Cup four times.

“We declare this to be a day of hope, a day of celebration and unity. Our sports men and women have shown us what is possible,” said Ramaphosa.

Opportunistic and deceitful

The red berets rejected what it called Ramaphosa’s “opportunistic and deceitful” announcement to declare December 15th as a public holiday in honour of the Springboks‘ 2023 Rugby World Cup victory.

“In a typical ANC fashion, Cyril Ramaphosa committed to give the people of South Africa a public holiday if the Springboks triumph at the Rugby World Cup in France, and now that the time to deliver has arrived, he has betrayed his own promises like the liar he is.

“The 15th of December falls within a holiday period in South Africa, wherein a majority of labour intensive industries are already closed, schools are closed and many South Africans are home with their families. To make matters worse, the 15th of December falls before the 16th of December, which is deemed as the Day of Reconciliation in South Africa and is in actual fact an existing public holiday,” said the EFF.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa declares 15 December a public holiday to celebrate Springboks victory

World Cups

The Springboks secured a victory in the Rugby World Cup final match against New Zealand on Saturday.

During his address on Monday evening, Ramaphosa pushed the holiday to December to avoid disturbing the matric exams, and to also include the Proteas in the celebrations.

He called on South Africans to rally behind the Proteas, who are currently playing in the Cricket World Cup.

“We should also applaud our cricket team who have been performing well in the Cricket World Cup. I spoke to the Proteas captain, Temba Bavuma, and encouraged them to remain focused and told him that the entire nation supports and stands behind them. I also told him that I intend to travel to Mumbai in India to watch them play in the finals,” said Ramaphosa.

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