ATM lists grounds for wanting Ramaphosa removed as president

President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: African News Agency (ANA) Archives

President Cyril Ramaphosa. Picture: African News Agency (ANA) Archives

Published Feb 6, 2020

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Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa faces his first motion of no confidence for misleading the country when he promised there would be no load shedding between December and January.

The African Transformation Movement (ATM), which has two members of Parliament, on Thursday listed various reasons it wants Ramaphosa removed including his failure to act against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Eskom’s board of directors for misleading him about load shedding.

The power utility’s board and executives promised and assured Ramaphosa that between December 17 and January 13 there would not be any load shedding.

However, load shedding was back just a few days into the New Year forcing acting Eskom executive chairperson Jabu Mabuza to step down citing the failure to fulfil the commitment that there would be no load shedding until January 13.

Mabuza’s exit followed Deputy President David Mabuza publicly revealing that Gordhan and the Eskom board had misled Ramaphosa about load shedding.

The ATM also cites Ramaphosa’s failure to disclose to Parliament the R500 000 donation from late controversial businessman Gavin Watson, the head of the equally notorious facilities management company African Global Operations, formerly known as Bosasa.

ATM president and MP Vuyolwethu Zungula accused Ramaphosa of failing to reveal the identities of the funders of his successful CR17 campaign to be ANC leader.

”We’ve got a president who preaches transparency but walks the opposite direction,” Zungula said.

The party also blames Ramaphosa for failure to tackle crime, landlessness, unemployment, poor economic growth, porous borders, poor service delivery and halting the collapse of state-owned entities, which it states among the 15 non-exhaustive grounds for his removal.

The motion of no confidence will be placed on Parliament’s order paper, according to the ATM, and will be the first Ramaphosa faces since he took office in February 2018 after his predecessor Jacob Zuma resigned after being recalled by the ANC.

Zuma faced eight motions of no confidence but survived all of them with the last being six months before his removal in August 2017.

Political Bureau

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EskomCyril Ramaphosa