‘Ramaphosa chooses ruling party above South Africans’: Mashaba

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of choosing the ruling party above South Africans by protecting under-fire Dipuo Peters.

The presidency confirmed Peters’ suspension from Parliament following a decision in the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests after the damning findings of the State Capture Commissions which found she tried to stop investigations into R14 billion corruption at PRASA while Transport Minister.

“Consequently, Peters was sanctioned and suspended for one term. The suspension, which will be without pay, became effective on 28 February 2024 and will end on 28 March 2024,” the statement read.

Mashaba said instead of firing the former Transport Minister for her role in hiding Prasa corruption, President Ramaphosa again chose the unity of the ruling party over the interest of South Africans by simply suspending Peters as Deputy Minister of Small Business Development for one month.

“How is it possible that someone who actively tried to cover up billions in state capture corruption gets away with a slap on the wrist by remaining in Ramaphosa’s administration,” he asked.

Ramaphosa not interest in fighting corruption

He stated that the president’s move shows once again that he has no interest in fighting corruption and restoring the rule of law in South Africa and would rather protect those guilty to maintain unity in the ruling party above the interest of our people.

Mashaba added; “In fact, Ramaphosa himself made use of state agencies to protect himself from Phala Phala scrutiny.

“The suspension of the Deputy Minister furthermore highlights how deputy ministers play little to no role in the core functioning of ministries and therefore reinforces ActionSA’s belief that all deputy ministers should be eliminated.

“They serve no role aside as a patronage network for those loyal to the President while costing South African taxpayers millions.”

He reiterated that under an ActionSA government, corruption will be declared public enemy number one to ensure that can re-establish the rule of law in the country.

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“No one would be protected from corruption under ActionSA, and where people are found guilty of corruption, we will increase the minimum sentence to fifteen years imprisonment without the possibility of a fine or parole.

“An ActionSA government would also introduce new criminal classifications for corruption, including establishing the contravention of the Executive Ethics Act and abuse of political influence as a criminal offence.

“And we would lobby for the amendment of the Constitution to establish an independent Chapter 9 anti-corruption agency that specialises in addressing corruption. We would re-establish and capacitate the Scorpions to deal with high-priority corruption cases and ensure its independence,” he remarked.