Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Andrew Whitfield says President Cyril Ramaphosa has not given him a reason for his dismissal.
Yesterday, the Presidency announced Whitfield’s removal, who is from the largest Government of National Unity (GNU) partner, the Democratic Alliance DA.
The DA has since given Ramaphosa 48 hours to reconsider his decision, threatening dire consequences for the GNU.
He says, “I received a letter on Wednesday and that letter didn’t provide any explanation but thanked me for my service and reiterated the President’s legal prerogative to appoint and disappoint, in this case.”
“One of the reasons may very well be that I travelled to the US (United States) earlier this year. I did request permission from the President, after 10 days I had not received a response and I undertook to go, obviously at risk, but I undertook to go because my party had asked me to go.”
Criticised
Action SA has criticised Ramaphosa’s decision to fire Whitfield.
The party is calling on the President to dismiss all 42 deputy ministers and implement broad reforms to hold them accountable for incompetence, poor performance and misconduct.
Action SA Parliamentary Caucus Leader Athol Trollip says, “If he is going to fire Whitfield, then he must fire all the deputy ministers because we don’t believe that having deputy ministers makes any sense whatsoever.”
Trollip says, “We have noticed their performance in Parliament over the last year, they add no real substantive value, they have no executive authority and we have one of the biggest cabinets in the world and simply cannot afford it. We believe that you could run this country with 20 ministers and that’s what we should be doing.”
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