The EFF has slammed the Democratic Alliance over its admission that it has been doing the bidding of big business by among others ‘propping up and protecting’ President Cyril Ramaphosa.
DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille made the admission during a meeting with the SA Chamber of Commerce’s London Chapter in the United Kingdom.
“Most of the business community really wanted us to prop up Cyril Ramaphosa. And protect him from the EFF and MK. That’s what they wanted us to do,” she was captured on video as making the point.
The EFF has long been alleging that Ramaphosa was a stooge of white capital citing among others his involvement in the Marikana Massacre and dealings with compromised multinational company Glencore which was engaged in a legal standoff with Eskom over inflated coal prices and unpaid penalties.
No one has been held accountable for the killing of the 34 striking mine workers and while Glencore has been censured in USA and Britain for having admitted to bribing politicians across the African continent in return for protecting it when it engages in unethical conduct.
The EFF warned Ramaphosa that he could find himself out in the cold when his term of office comes to an end in 2029.
“They have protected Ramaphosa and his ANC with serious monetary resources because he is one of their best products and a quintessential leader through whom they can manipulate government processes at will, as well as legitimise their presence in government affairs. In almost all historical accounts, it is always the case that when handlers are done with their puppets, they cast them out in the cold in order to identify another one,” said the EFF in a statement.
The party said Ramaphosa was part of a number of black leaders that it believes were being used to protect the interests of white business particularly against transformation seeking majority.
“Ramaphosa’s proximity to white interest is no exception to this phenomenon for when they are done with him, they will identify and groom another confused leader within the former ruling party. The DA will then exploit them in the same way they are using Ramaphosa as a conduit through which they siphon state resources to advance their pro-capitalist and neoliberal agenda,” said the EFF.
It is not the first time that Zille makes comments that bring Ramaphosa’s credibility and commitment to the ANC or its objectives into question.
She has claimed in several media interviews that the so called Government of National Unity was essentially a disguised coalition with the ANC.
Zille said the party negotiated directly with Ramaphosa after the 2029 general elections and that he ( Ramaphosa) asked that he be allowed to call it a GNU in order to fool his ANC colleagues into believing it was a multiparty forum.
The President has already benefited personally from including the DA and Freedom Front + in his cabinet as the two immediately withdrew from a multiparty push for him to answer for the multimillion dollar Phala Phala scandal which saw huge sums of foreign currency stolen from his farm in Limpopo.
The South African Communist Party, an ally of the ANC in the Tripartite Alliance has rejected the GNU and consistently points out that Ramaphosa has never bothered to dispute Zille’s assertion that it’s a DA-ANC arrangement.
“It’s a sell out position. History must judge them harshly and history will judge them badly because they betrayed our people. They have handed back power to the white settlers,” the SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila is on record as saying.
Meanwhile as the DA, Freedom Front +, Trade Union Solidarity and Afriforum pushed for Ramaphosa not to sign parts of the Bela Bill into law, the ANC’s Gauteng provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi who is also the Premier urged the President to sign the outstanding sections into law warning him that “ betrayal was not an option”.
“Let’s implement it, Mr. President“
“We stand firm! Betrayal is not an option! BELA Act must be implemented NOW!” said Lesufi in some of the posts.
The ANC is yet to challenge Zille on her claims and has instead been trying to quell internal anti GNU voices internally.
Zille’s admission has sparked a debate about how much does big business (mostly foreign owned) is getting away with in South Africa.