Ramaphosa’s cabinet must go: 5 reasons for the DA’s Motion of No Confidence in Ebrahim Patel

22 March 2022

Following the DA’s tabling of a Motion of No Confidence in the cabinet of President Cyril Ramaphosa, the DA has been unpacking the reasons behind the Motion and clarifying why the cabinet, as a whole, should be fired and why the Motion should be carried.

It has become commonplace in President Ramaphosa's cabinet for Ministers to not understand the depths or extent of their portfolio and to dodge accountability. One such individual is Minister Ebrahim Patel who has singlehandedly contributed to the loss of billions of Rands to the fiscus due to his errand ways.

Not only did Patel, Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), have no backbone when he wholeheartedly supported the efforts of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in banning tobacco and alcohol products during the early stages of the State of Disaster, he went as far as frivolously banning seemingly random items including toys, roast chicken and flip flops.

Whole businesses closed down as a direct result of this, not the mention the astronomical impact to the fiscus.

Here are five reasons why Patel should be fired:

1. Missing in action on the post-looting violence in KZN

The DA spent 10 days trying to get Patel and Parliament’s Portfolio Committee for DTIC to come to KwaZulu-Natal to assess for themselves the sheer extent of the devastation and destruction during the week of looting that took place in July 2021. On 20 July 2021, the DA formally wrote to him to request his presence in KZN and more especially in Durban, where billions of Rands in investment have gone up in smoke. He ignored the DA’s call.

2. Abuse of power through frivolous Covid-19 regulations

Minister Patel’s abuse of powers when he instated arbitrary and frivolous regulations cost us dearly. Trade and industry are prerequisites of a functioning economy, and in the face of a global pandemic and an overzealous state hell-bent on barring hard-working people from earning a living, one would expect the Minister charged with protecting the economic freedoms of all who live in South Africa to rise to the challenge and fulfil his mandate.

Alas, the Minister instead opted to engage in the epitome of frivolity by banning the sale of flip-flops and roast chicken, amongst other things. He also opted to endorse Minister Dlamini-Zuma’s irrational bans on alcohol and tobacco products.

Whilst it was indeed entirely possible for the Minister to have put in place reasonable regulations that merely limited the negative externalities associated with excessive alcohol consumption, he instead chose to place an outright ban on alcohol sales which also cost the economy dearly.

3. Enabling abuse of taxpayer money

In a response to a DA parliamentary question, Patel revealed that the Group Chief Operations Officer (GCOO) for his department had incurred over R2 million in travel expenses since 2011. This included 26 trips to various locations ranging from the United States of America to several European countries.

4. Socialist policies designed to harm the economy

In an unprecedented step that would have had far-reaching consequences for the credit industry, a “discussion document”, leaked from Patel’s Department, sought to remove adverse consumer credit information from credit bureaus. This cumulatively would have had the effect of allowing indebted consumers to continue incurring more debt which they were still liable for once the State of the Disaster expired. What Patel was proposing was nothing short of populist and suicidal for the credit industry.

5. False promises during a national health emergency

The national ventilator project, largely described as the “brain-child” of Patel, continued pushing out the deadline for the delivery of 10 000 ventilators. With the initial deadline set for June 2020, postponements were made repeatedly to the end of September 2020.

It is evident that this minister, responsible for Trade, Industry and Competition, has clearly acted irresponsibly with his portfolio, the fiscus which was in dire need of billions to expand healthcare capacity, and with people’s lives, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs and countless shattered livelihoods.

South Africa has no more capacity for any of his irresponsible actions. He should be let go, without delay.

Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA Shadow Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, 22 March 2022