Manyi’s ATM slams Ramaphosa’s ‘lethargic and exhausted’ Sona

The African Transformation Movement (ATM), the political party which snapped up Afrotone Media Holdings owner Mzwanele Manyi to head up its policy and strategy department, has released a statement saying the coverage of issues in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech was “comprehensive”, we’ve “heard” all the same “promises” before.

The statement takes issue with various statements made by the president.

It  lists “ambiguous” claims made by Ramaphosa, which the party says it notes with “great concern”.

These include Ramaphosa’s commitment to creating 275,000 jobs, which the party says is not enough and shows the president to be “removed from the realities on the ground”, the closing of liquor shops near schools, which the party says will “destroy black enterprises” and Ramaphosa’s “glorifying” the post office instead of holding it accountable for its role in the Sassa debacle, among others.

They also say Ramaphosa paid a lack of attention to our “porous borders” and forgot to tell multinationals to “stop their transfer pricing shenanigans”.

It concludes by saying Ramaphosa’s government is “lethargic and exhausted”.

The only “notable events” at the Sona, according to the party, was the “peaceful delivery” of the speech and the announcement of the election date.

Last year, the ATM made headlines when it was reported that the party was lobbying former president Jacob Zuma to join them as its president.

ANC insiders and close associates of Zuma told The Citizen that Zuma was approached but wanted no part in it.

Caesar Nongqunga, the president of the Twelve Apostles Church in Christ, formed the ATM last year in the wake of Zuma being recalled by the ANC as the president of the republic.

On January 9, Manyi explained that he’d joined ATM, leaving the ANC.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Additional reporting by Charles Cilliers)