President Cyril Ramaphosa sidestepped questions in parliament on Thursday about the bitter ANC infighting that threatens to tear apart the governing party and disrupt the government’s response to the Covid-19 induced economic crisis and the vaccination drive.
"[You] waffle about factional battles. When you [the DA] were involved in your own factional battles, we never commented. What is happening in the DA is not our business, and what is happening in the ANC is not your business," Ramaphosa said in response to a question from DA leader John Steenhuisen.
Earlier in the day, however, Ramaphosa reportedly told ANC MPs privately that he was dismayed by the actions of ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, who immediately hit back against the decision to suspend him and against the president.
During a question and answer session in parliament, Steenhuisen asked Ramaphosa about the slow pace of the vaccine rollout and suggested that the infighting within the ANC would further hurt the government’s response to Covid-19.
"You are so caught up in the internal battles of the ANC while a third wave looms in SA," Steenhuisen said, adding that SA is one of the worst-performing countries in Africa whenit comes to the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
EFF leader Julius Malema also asked Ramaphosa about his status within the party and as head of state.
"I am confused whether you are legitimate and anything you do now will amount to fraudulent activities," Malema said during a rowdy session.
Ramaphosa, who was swept to the top leadership of the ANC in 2017 on an anticorruption ticket and on promises to crack down on widespread graft that has corroded almost every layer of government, sidestepped Malema’s question.
The power struggle played out in the ANC on Wednesday after Magashule, who faces corruption charges over a contract to audit homes with asbestos roofs when he was premier of the Free State, dug in his heels and refused to accept that his party membership had been suspended pending the conclusion of his corruption trial.
In an extraordinary and bizarre move on Wednesday night, Magashule claimed the unilateral power to suspend Ramaphosa — who has been fending off allegations that he won an internal party election in 2017 in a campaign tainted by money laundering — as party president on unspecified corruption charges.
The party resolved recently that leaders and members charged with corruption and wrongdoing, including Magashule, should voluntarily step aside or be suspended.
Magashule faces 21 charges of corruption, fraud, theft and money laundering in a case linked to a R255m asbestos contract signed when he was Free State premier. He has previously said that only branches of the ANC can remove him at a special conference. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The internal squabbles within the ANC could derail the government’s drive to revive SA’s economy, which has been devastated during the Covid-19 crisis. The infighting could also hamper the vaccination drive, opposition parties said. Vaccines are widely regarded as the best hope to end the devastating health and economic effects emanating from the pandemic.
Despite having Africa’s biggest recorded Covid-19 caseload, the government is struggling with the rollout of Covid-19 vaccine programmes amid delays and health and safety protocol hurdles.
SA started its vaccination drive in February, with front-line health-care workers receiving priority. The rollout to the general population, however, has still not started.
Ramaphosa said the government had finalised contracts with pharmaceutical companies that are sufficient to vaccinate 41.5-million people by the end of the year.
"We are not in the business of making transactions over the lives of our people, we are acquiring vaccines to save the lives of our people, not advancing our own interests," Ramaphosa said in response to a question from Malema.
The president also said the government is monitoring the situation in India closely and an announcement on an appropriate response would be made in the coming days.
Calls have been made for SA to restrict travel to and from India. The country is facing a second deadly surge of Covid-19 and now has the world’s fastest-growing caseload, which has led to hospitals running out of beds and oxygen and left morgues and crematoriums overflowing, Reuters reported this week.
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