Ramaphosa to oppose DA’s application to force him to fire Dlamini

The presidency has announced that President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided to oppose the DA’s application to force him to fire Minister Bathabile Dlamini, as a matter of principle.

There was speculation ahead of his cabinet reshuffle announcement that Ramaphosa would give Minister of Women Dlamini her marching orders, particularly because today was the deadline for him to decide on whether to oppose the DA’s legal challenge against his decision to keep Dlamini in cabinet. However, this did not happen.

He is expected to argue in legal papers that he will be defending his executive powers to appoint and fire ministers. He had until the close of business today to respond to the DA’s court application.

Weeks ago, the presidency indicated Ramaphosa would probably not be opposing, but that has changed, presumably at the instruction of the ANC.

Originally, the DA was opposing both Dlamini and Malusi Gigaba’s retention after both ministers were found by the courts to have lied under oath. Gigaba has since already resigned.

The DA is seeking an order declaring the appointment of Dlamini “unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid” after the Constitutional Court found her reckless and negligent in the social grants debacle when she was minister of social development.

The latest judgment against her stemmed from the matter brought by two civil rights groups – the Black Sash and Freedom Under Law – which wanted to protect the social grant system when the contract between the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) expired in March 2017.

The court was left with no choice but to extend the CPS contract for another year as Sassa could not take over the payment of social grants. The Black Sash pushed for Dlamini to pay legal costs as she acted “unreasonably and negligently” in handling social grants.

The views of the Black Sash were shared by a Section 38 Inquiry mandated by the court and chaired by retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe into Dlamini’s role in the 2017 social grants crisis.

In his report, which was submitted to the court, Ngoepe found that Dlamini misled the inquiry about appointing the ‘workstreams’, a parallel function within Sassa established in July 2016 that comprised advisers hand-picked by Dlamini to investigate Sassa’s capacity to take over social grant payments from CPS.

Froneman had scathing words about Dlamini misleading the inquiry and, effectively, the court.

Dlamini might still face criminal prosecution for perjury. Froneman ordered that the findings from the Ngoepe inquiry be handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to consider whether Dlamini lied under oath and if she should be prosecuted for perjury.

The court Dlamini to personally pay 20% of the legal costs incurred by the groups who took her to court.

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers. Background reporting, Ray Mahlaka, Moneyweb)

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