DA laments reshuffle as missed opportunity to boot Dlamini and Mokonyane

In a statement shortly after the announcement of a cabinet reshuffle by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the official opposition said it viewed the changes with mixed feelings.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane said he welcomed a commitment to making the cabinet “more capable”, but it was Ramaphosa’s “second missed opportunity in nine months to fire delinquent ministers such as Bathabile Dlamini and Nomvula Mokonyane”.

He said the executive could also have been cut down still further.

“It was a missed opportunity to cut down the size of this bloated executive, as we have called on him to do, and we contend that it is entirely possible for a more effective executive to operate with around 15 ministries. Merging telecommunications, postal services and communications into one ministry and recycling Siyabonga Cwele onto Home Affairs does nothing to achieve this and is little more than a reshuffling of dead wood,” said Maimane.

He pointed out that the DA’s court action to have Dlamini fired was still ongoing and today was the extended deadline for Ramaphosa to answer on whether he would oppose their application.

“His failure to fire Dlamini is all the answer that we need,” said Maimane. Shortly after Maimane released his statement, Ramaphosa in fact announced that he would be opposing the DA’s court action.

Maimane said Dlamini had brought the country’s social grants system to the brink of collapse and played “Russian roulette” with the welfare of 17 million South Africans while she was in charge of social development.

“She is a Zupta deployee who the Constitutional Court said ‘was reckless and grossly negligent’ in her handling of the Sassa grants crisis, and ordered her to pay costs. The court also found ‘very strong’ evidence that Dlamini gave false testimony, and recommended that the NPA investigate charges of perjury against her. It is inconceivable that such a person could hold executive office in any constitutional democracy. Bathabile Dlamini deserves to be fired, and President Ramaphosa’s failure to do so suggests he endorses her conduct,” alleged Maimane.

He said her “delinquency” was “followed closely” by former minister of water and sanitation, and communications, now Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane”, who he alleged had destroyed the water and sanitation department.

“That department remains effectively paralysed by corruption, incompetence and maladministration. She chose Dudu Myeni to run the Mhlathuze and Umgeni waterboards, proving her reliability as a Zupta deployee, so how she now finds herself on environmental affairs defies reason,” said Maimane.

“A ‘New Dawn’ cannot be built on the same liars and Zupta loyalists who helped keep Jacob Zuma in power and out of prison. Dlamini and Mokonyane’s watch must end and President Ramaphosa failed to end it.

“This Cabinet reshuffle represents no real change. The decks have simply been reshuffled to please ANC insiders.”

Maimane accused the president of putting the ANC ahead of the country.

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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