Ramaphosa warned ‘public uprising’ could force him OUT of office

South Africa now has a government under pressure, and an opposition party on the warpath. The DA has warned President Ramaphosa that he could be removed from office by the general public – unless he makes some urgent law changes.

Ministerial perks inflame political tensions

The ANC have been lambasted once again over the past week, after it was revealed that ministers and senior politicians ‘are exempt from load shedding’. It’s one of the many perks detailed in the Ministerial Handbook, which allows these elected officials to live a life of luxury.

With millions of South Africans scrambling to get through a cost of living crisis, the fact that government ministers are enjoying a relatively free ride isn’t sitting well with the critics. DA Shadow Minister Leon Schreiber has given a list of demands to Mr. Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa warned about ‘public uprising’

He has asked for the Ministerial Handbook to be ripped up completely, and replaced by a new code of conduct. According to Schreiber, ‘limited and properly-costed Cabinet benefits’ should be introduced instead. The Blues also want Cyril to apologise for ‘undermining the public’.

• However, should these requests go unacknowledged, Schreiber warned that a public mobilisation would threaten Ramaphosa’s presidency:

“We only need to look to countries like Tunisia and, more recently, Sri Lanka, for examples where corrupt governments that had been in office for many years were forced from office over seemingly isolated incidents.”

“I want to warn the President that, given the scale of public outrage over his Handbook, if he refuses to accede to the DA’s demands, he will be putting our democracy in danger. Society will mobilise against him and his government.”

“The public revolt will be against the ANC itself. It is against decades of suffering and decline engineered by the ANC. It it is in Ramaphosa’s own best interests, as well as in the interest of our democracy, that he concedes to the DA’s demands on the Ministerial Handbook.” | Leon Schreiber

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