Calls grow for Ramaphosa to get rid of Cele, Dlodlo and Mapisa-Nqakula

Any president should be worried and act when his defence and state security ministers contradict him publicly – and now is the time for President Cyril Ramaphosa to show he has backbone and get rid of them.

Ramaphosa is under pressure not only within the ruling ANC, but also from the public to fire Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo and Police Minister Bheki Cele.

But he is facing a dilemma: Cele was one of his foot soldiers, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.

The ministers embarrassed the president by implying he was a liar about the violence being part of an failed insurrection or a coup and refuted his claims publicly. Ramaphosa was hung out to dry, defending his statement.

Independent political commentator and former Azanian Peoples Organisation leader Pule Monama said the three must go.

“I strongly believe Ramaphosa must try and find a job as an ice cream seller, that way he will succeed in pleasing all and sundry.

“Clearly there is a big disconnect between himself and his Cabinet, especially the most important state security cluster. Several times now members of this cluster have publicly and embarrassingly contradicted him,” he said.

People’s Liberation (PL), a civil society body, echoed the call for Ramaphosa to reshuffle his Cabinet and fire 80% of his ministers as a matter of urgency.

PL’s chair Phumudzo Mukhwathi said: “We are calling for the president to fire ministers Cele, Mapisa-Nqakula and Dlodlo, as well as Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, for betraying the South African citizens and our economy.”

Mukhwathi said a well-organised economic sabotage began a long time ago with the vandalism of trains, cable theft, the burning of trucks on highways and an increased number of cash heists that Cele failed to deal with.

Gauteng premier David Makhura lashed out at the security cluster for their shoddy handling of the violence and looting that occurred in Gauteng, despite information the province gave them.

He said the mayhem was not a surprise as they received information that malls and road would be targeted.

“There were physical meetings, we handed information to the security establishments but intelligence and security was paralysed. Why?” Makhura said.

He asked for the security establishment to account for their failure.

“SA has no state security functionality … and we at risk to terrorist and international groups and organisations. If it was not for the organisations on the ground who saved the day, we would have a very different story today,” he said.

The Cabinet remained divided with Mapisa-Nqakula, Dlodlo and now the KwaZulu-Natal ANC standing on one side, with Ramaphosa and his allies – Deputy Minister of State Security Zizi Kodwa, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Makwetla and Makhura – on the other side.

Cele was fingered for the police being lax in dealing with lawlessness, first in Nkandla and again during the violence and looting that followed.

Dlodlo insisted the intelligence structure had done its job to inform the police, but they failed to act.

But, in some quarters, Dlodlo’s version was disputed, as her spooks allegedly failed to pass on information about a plan to spread the violence and economic sabotage by hijacking freight trucks and using them to blockade arterial roads.

Her intelligence department was accused of failing to predict the violence and looting would spread to Gauteng.

Cele, Dlodlo and Mapisa-Nqakula were nowhere to be seen at the height of the looting. Cele’s “disappearance” was
hailed by Zuma supporters on Twitter.

– ericn@citizen.co.za