Ramaphosa’s Cabinet must go: 5 Reasons for the DA’s Motion of No Confidence in Lindiwe Sisulu

10 March 2022

Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Manny de Freitas MP.

In her 28 years as Minister in various portfolios, Lindiwe Sisulu has shown she cares much more for her political career than the people she’s sworn an oath to serve.

DA Leader John Steenhuisen tabled a Motion of No Confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet on 14 February 2022, and Tourism Minister Sisulu’s head must certainly roll.

From casting aspersions on the judiciary; leaving the tourism sector – crucial to the revival of the country’s economy – in the lurch; and allowing millions of South Africans to remain in squalor as Minister of Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation, while sparing no expense for herself to jet-set around the world; here are five reasons the DA believes Minister Sisulu must be fired:

Attack on the judiciary

In an opinion piece, Minister Sisulu, launched a direct attack on the judiciary and appeared to cast aspersions on its integrity. In doing so, she violated her oath of office and undermined the constitutional principle of separation of powers between the Executive and Judiciary. In a functional democracy, a member of the Executive who launches a calculated and damaging attack on the integrity of the Judiciary would be summarily fired by the Head of the Executive.

Department of Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation’s failed Covid-19 response

A special report by the Auditor-General (AG) on the financial management of Government’s Covid-19 initiatives found out that the Human Settlements Command Centre (HSCC), established by Sisulu when she was still the Minister of Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation, had effectively failed to coordinate the Department’s response to the crisis. Allocated a multi-million rand budget, the AG report concluded that the HSCC had flouted national housing standards and policy in the provision of emergency housing.

High flying Gucci Minister

A response to a DA Parliamentary question revealed that President Ramaphosa’s leading globetrotter in 2020 was the then Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, who undertook no less than 38 overseas jaunts at the taxpayers’ expense. This is an extraordinary amount of international travel which reveals Sisulu’s insatiable appetite for gallivanting at taxpayers’ cost instead of focus on delivering derive services.

The vast majority of these flights were likely in first or business class. According to the new Ministerial Handbook that President Ramaphosa’s government published under pressure from the DA in November 2019, ministers and their deputies are only limited to economy class flights if the trip is shorter than two hours.

Missing in action as Tourism Minister

The tourism industry was one of the hardest hit sectors by the disruptions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is still struggling to regain lost footing, and requires a hands-on Minister with a clear plan on how to revive the sector. However, since her appointment Minister Sisulu has been missing in action. Tourism players have waited in vain for government support to revive their operations and the Minister has missed a number of committee meetings in Parliament to account for her performance. The tourism sector is a big economic driver for South Africa and the fact that Minister Sisulu is absent shows she either does not understand this, or simply do not care about ordinary South Africans struggling to survive.

Enabling wasteful expenditure

When she was still the Minister of Human Settlements, Sisulu established National Rapid Response Task Teams (NRRTTs) that were staffed by individuals such as ex Fees Must Fall leader, Chumane Maxwele; ex PAC leader, Thami Ka Plaatjie; and ex COPE Regional leader, Mbulelo Ncedana. Between March 2019 and the announcement of the State of Disaster in 2020, the Water and Sanitation NRRTT alone billed the almost bankrupt Department of Water and Sanitation over R3.7 million in travel and accommodation expenses. A former aide to Sisulu, Mphumzi Mdekazi, claimed more than R1.76 million on travel and accommodation since May 2019. This was in addition to the already hyper-inflated monthly salary of R142 920 that he received as an Advisory Committee Member for 15 days of work a month.

These five examples are a mere drop in the hat for Minister Sisulu who has managed to leave a wake of destruction at every Department she’s headed. The only lives Minister Sisulu has bettered are her own and those of her comrades and cronies. Her decades as Minister in various capacities shows a calculating callousness towards South Africans, and Minister Sisulu cannot be allowed to milk taxpayers to further her own enrichment and agenda any longer.

Issued by Manny de Freitas, DA Shadow Minister of Tourism, 10 March 2022