Andrew Whitfield axing: DA's John Steenhuisen feels disrespected by President Ramaphosa
Steenhuisen says Ramaphosa disrespected the DA by not responsing to Whitfield’s request to travel on party business when ANC MPs regularly do the same.
DA leader John Steenhuisen addresses a press conference in Cape Town following the axing of Andrew Whitfield as deputy minister. Picture: Democratic Alliance.
CAPE TOWN - Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says he feels disrespected by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who used his executive powers to fire MP Andrew Whitfield as a deputy minister on Thursday without giving Steenhuisen the opportunity to warn him.
Steenhuisen believes Whitfield’s dismissal for an overseas trip for which he did not obtain presidential approval is excessive when considering Ramaphosa has not acted against those implicated by the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into state capture.
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Steenhuisen says Ramaphosa disrespected the DA by not responding to Whitfield’s request to travel on party business when ANC MPs regularly do the same.
He says his offer to move Whitfield to another portfolio, as Ramaphosa did in the case of Minister Thembi Simelane, was rejected.
"I can think of no more remarkably disrespectful thing to do to a fellow leader than to undermine them in their own party. And the actions taken around the firing of Andrew Whitfield could only have been served to undermine me in my own party. And I imagine if I had done that to the president, I would have received a furious reaction."
In a retaliatory move, the DA says it won’t participate in the upcoming national dialogue.
It says civil society should refuse to back the talks with an estimated price tag of over R700 million, until Ramaphosa acts decisively against corruption.
"This dialogue should not proceed until such time as those who are guilty of corruption and maladministration and those who have not lived up to the standards of the ministerial handbook are held accountable in the same way that Andrew Whitfield has been done."