Durban - Deputy President David Mabuza is at home and well, his spokesperson assured South Africans on Sunday evening.
“The Office of the Deputy President has received numerous calls from concerned South Africans regarding the health status of Deputy President David Mabuza.
“We would like to assure South Africans that the Deputy President is at home and well. Anything contrary to this is a malicious and unfortunate rumour,” Matshepo Seedat said in a statement.
On Sunday morning, City Press reported that contrary to assertions mid last year that Mabuza was cleared of the many of the wrongdoings pinned on him during his reign as Mpumalanga premier, a new report says that was not the case.
Mabuza’s rise to be the second in command after President Cyril Ramaphosa in June last year was temporarily halted by ethical glitches when the ANC’s Integrity Committee raised objections.
He was then forced to postpone his swearing-in both as an MP and deputy president until he met with the committee. Days later, Mabuza was sworn in.
In a sudden turn of events, the committee says it never cleared him as widely reported in the media and ANC circles.
City Press said according to a report, ANC National Executive Committee member Lindiwe Sisulu had “expressed shock and distress that she had no knowledge of the handling and processing of the Mabuza matter and other cases that were not yet on the NEC’s agenda”.
The newspaper said the report to the ANC NEC detailed Sisulu’s appearance before the Integrity Committee for calling it “toothless, inconsistent and ineffective in protecting discipline in the governing party” in the media.
According to City Press, the report stated that the committee was “pressurised” to interview Mabuza and ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe the night before Ramaphosa’s inauguration “despite the fact that a schedule for interviews had already been finalised”.
“The morning after the inauguration, front page newspaper headlines said the deputy president had been cleared by the integrity committee.”
The committee then “issued a statement for the attention of the NEC to the effect that the committee had not cleared anyone”.
“The integrity committee stated very clearly that it would not be intimidated or manipulated in this manner. The statement was not acknowledged or tabled,” the report read.
Sisulu said she did not know why no one on the NEC asked for the committee reports or even asked what the committee was doing.
In response to a request for comment regarding the latest revelations, Seedat said the deputy president presented himself to the committee upon being offered the opportunity to do so.
“(He) willingly subjected himself to a process that allowed him to answer to whatever allegations had been made against him. The deputy president stands by and supports the call to renew the ANC as he equally supports the call for ethical leadership across society.
“At no point did he put pressure on anyone as he had already declined to be sworn in as a Member of Parliament with a cloud over his head. It would, therefore, be amiss and undesirable to comment on such assertions. That is why we believe the ANC is capable of commenting on its processes,” Seedat said.
Later on Sunday, Seedat issued the statement on Mabuza’s health.
Political Bureau