EFF lays criminal charges against Ndabeni-Abrahams, Manana

The Economic Freedom Fighters has laid criminal charges against Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and former deputy higher education and training minister Mduduzi Manana for allegedly breaching national lockdown regulations.

“EFF National Spokesperson @vuyanipambo at Douglasdale Police Station laying criminal charges against Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams and Mduduzi Manana for breaching lockdown regulations as stipulated by government,” said the party.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ndabeni-Abrahams met yesterday after a photo was circulated on social media showing the minister at the home of Manana during the lockdown and social distancing period.

He had summoned her to explain to him why she appeared to have broken lockdown regulations, after Manana posted a photo of their meal together, which sparked condemnation and calls for her to be fired.

The presidency then announced that Ramaphosa had placed Ndabeni-Abrahams on special leave for two months – one month of which would be unpaid.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ndabeni-Abrahams apologised to Ramaphosa, the National Command Centre and South African society at large for breaching lockdown rules put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19.

This after Manana’s controversial statement in which he said Nabeni-Abrahams came to his home to pick up gloves, hand sanitiser and masks for students in Fourways who had been working on “Digital Services” in the fight against Covid-19. Manana said he had stock of such personal protective equipment at his home because of the work of the Mduduzi Manana Foundation.

Manana appeared to contradict his own caption in his earlier, now deleted, Instagram photo of their lunch.

Manana claimed that he had merely invited Ndabeni-Abrahams for lunch upon her arrival because he was being “courteous”.

He apologised for supposedly having posted the picture without clear context, creating the impression that it had been “a social lunch”.

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