‘Pontius Pilate’ Ramaphosa is complicit in ANC graft – FF Plus

The fact that President Cyril Ramaphosa is talking about deep-rooted problems in the ANC on social media through tweets serves as proof that he is unable to address these problems effectively in another way, the Freedom Front Plus says.

The party’s leader, Dr Pieter Groenewald, says in a hard-hitting statement that the president “is behaving like Pontius Pilate as he does not want to be the one to take action and address the problems in his own party, instead, he is shifting the responsibility to take action to the ANC”.

“The president can, however, not shirk his responsibility and the blame so easily because he was the deputy president of the ANC since 2012 as well as the deputy president of South Africa since 2014. He was part of the process of cadre deployment and he was aware of the extensive corruption-related problems in the ANC.

“He cannot wash his hands in innocence now. The president is complicit in the corruption of the ANC and the government because he has been aware of it for years but kept quiet about it,” Groenewald said.

He added that to once again blame Apartheid and use it as a scapegoat – implying that it is the cause of corruption – just serves as further proof that the president is utterly unable to address the problem in an honest manner.

“He is blame-shifting to try and shirk his own responsibility.”

In his tweets, Ramaphosa essentially admitted to the world that he is powerless and that corruption in the ANC is out of control, Groenewald says.

“The tweets he sent out over the weekend in which he recognises the problem of corruption and mentions various steps to eradicate it are indeed insightful, but opposition parties, like the FF Plus, identified these steps years ago and repeatedly insisted on various platforms, in parliament for instance, that action must be taken accordingly,” the statement read.

“The president has now admitted that people in the ANC are being unfairly advantaged as regards job opportunities, but that is old news. The FF Plus has been objecting to ANC cadre deployment in the government for years as it leads to incompetence and poor service delivery, which are detrimental to the whole of South Africa.”

Groenewald says it is ironic that Ramaphosa is admitting to these problems now because until recently, he maintained that his first priority is the ANC and that he will put the party’s interests before those of the country.

“This serves as more proof that he is not competent to be president because any president who is willing to put his party’s interests before the interests of the country does not deserve to fill that position.”

Ramaphosa is very good at identifying problems, but not at solving them, Groenewald says. “With his election as president in 2017, he promised that serious efforts will be made to eradicate corruption. But it only became worse.”

The FF Plus says that President Ramaphosa must start acting like the president of the country; like one who puts South Africa’s interests first and who listens to the constructive criticism offered by opposition parties. Only then will he be able to rise above the mire of corruption and fraud committed by ANC cadres, the party says.

It is equally important to ensure that the guilty ones are not re-deployed or merely dismissed, they must be criminally prosecuted and even locked up if necessary.

(Compiled by Carina Koen)

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