The DA has slammed Minister in the Presidency Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma after she accused the party of “bribing” some community members in North West to take to the streets and call for the immediate removal of premier Supra Mahumapelo.
Several people have been arrested since Wednesday following violent protests and looting by residents of the provincial capital, Mahikeng, and nearby villages calling for the premier to step down amid allegations of corruption and service delivery failures in the province.
Taking to Twitter on Saturday morning, Dlamini-Zuma said she had received news from anonymous community members who claimed that DA members in North West were bribing some protesters to cause chaos in the province, but she later deleted the tweet.
Dlamini-Zuma’s deleted tweet
Dlamini-Zuma has distanced herself from the controversial tweet and apologised to the DA, saying those were not her views on the ongoing protests and claimed that her account was hacked. The minister said she took responsibility for the tweet as it was her official Twitter account that had sent out the message.
She tweeted: “My sincere and deepest apologies to @Our_DA, it’s supporters and leadership for the previous tweets. They are NOT my views. My account has been hacked and this sinister act is most unfortunate at a time when I’m paying my last respects to my comrade [ANC stalwart Zola Skweyiya].”
However, the DA wasn’t convinced by Dlamini-Zuma’s excuse that her Twitter account was hacked. Party leader Mmusi Maimane criticised the ANC for taking it’s time to deal with the protests in North West and urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to listen to the people of Mahikeng and fire Mahumapelo immediately.
Ramaphosa on Friday vowed to “speedily” address the complaints raised by protestors after cutting short his trip to the UK for the Commonwealth Summit to attend to the violent protests in the province.
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