Ramaphosa’s censure of Ndabeni-Abrahams is the easy way out

8 April 2020

Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite and a video by DA Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Phumzile Van Damme MP

The President’s announcement this morning that he has censured Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is better than nothing, and far more than we have come to expect of the governing party, but we cannot praise a fish for attempting to move a fin in order to swim.

We note Ndabeni-Abrahams’s apology, but it is a little too late.

As Minister, a leader and an MP, Ndabeni-Abrahams has a responsibility that exceeds that of the public in setting the example while our country tries to contain a global pandemic that has infected over a million and killed over 80 000 globally. She ought to know better.

We are very worried that Ndabeni-Abrahams’s actions may result in disobedience of the order to stay at home.

The anger at South Africans who have stayed at home; lost their jobs and incomes because they stayed at home; those who run risk of getting criminal records because they did not stay at home; those who were beaten and humiliated; and the families who lost loved one due to brutal enforcement of the order to stay at home is understandable.

It was for that reason that we thought it important for the President to send out a strong message to the public by both firing her and laying a criminal complaint against her.

Should President Ramaphosa not lay the criminal complaint, he should at the very least address the nation together with the Minister of Police and the National Police Commissioner to assure the nation that SAPS will indeed act against Ndabeni-Abrahams.

Our country faces a major crisis, the biggest since the dawn of democracy, it cannot be business as usual.

Issued by Phumzile Van Damme,DA Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, 8 April 2020