The House She Built a Source of Conflict

There was a time when everything seemed to be going right for Amara . She was a beautiful woman, not only in appearance but in the way she carried herself. She grew up in a loving home, surrounded by parents who worked hard and believed that their children should never lack opportunities. Her father was a respected man who worked tirelessly to provide for the family, while her mother was equally hardworking. They raised their daughters with discipline, kindness, and the belief that education and hard work were the keys to a good life. Amara was the elder daughter. Her younger sister, Nadia , was also intelligent and ambitious. The two sisters grew up watching their parents work together, and they learned an important lesson from them: nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice. As the years passed, both sisters became successful in their own ways. Amara worked hard, saved her money, and eventually achieved something she had dreamed about since she was young. She bought a beauti...

Ramaphosa distances himself from dozens of Zuma's key appointments

 Mawande AmaShabalala

28 April 2021 - 19:51
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and Dr Tshepo Motsepe arriving at the state capture inquiry on Wednesday.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and Dr Tshepo Motsepe arriving at the state capture inquiry on Wednesday.
Image: Thapelo Morebudi/The Sunday Times

As deputy president of the ANC and chair of its deployment committee, Cyril Ramaphosa knew nothing about a host of key senior public appointments made under  the Jacob Zuma administration.

ADVERTISEMENT

These included appointments to law-enforcement agencies, state-owned companies, boards and as executives. Ramaphosa said this to the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture on Wednesday.

The inquiry sought to understand what role Ramaphosa, as head of deployment, played in the “patronage appointments” of characters, among others, such as Brian Molefe, Matshela Koko, Berning Ntlemeza, Tom Moyane, Dudu Myeni, Dan Mantsha, Siyabonga Gama, Arthur Fraser and Shaun Abrahams, all of whom left with a dark cloud hanging over their heads.

The commission wanted to know how the boards of Prasa, Transnet, Eskom and SAA were appointed during the Zuma years and whether Ramaphosa had a hand in them.

Ramaphosa said he knew nothing about most of the named individuals as the ANC deployment committee never processed them.

“You will find that a number of those never even featured in the deployment committee,” said Ramaphosa. “Let us accept that some of those deployments were done in a particular era, and in a particular way.

ADVERTISING

“Right now as we look at that past slate, we are able to say we actually need to do things differently.”

Ramaphosa said it was unfortunate that most of the Zuma appointments “ended up being deployments that were not fit for purpose”.

“I would not be able to particularise each one of them because they happened as they did but I would say the deployment committee would not have dealt with a whole lot of those.”

Asked if he knew whether Zuma's appointments were made for dubious reasons and were  influenced by outside forces at the time, Ramaphosa said that only came to light later when the manifestation of state capture was as clear as broad daylight for all to see.

“Some of those appointments would have happened in that course of time and one, with hindsight, then became aware that there was a common thread and if you joined the dots you would find that there was something that was amiss that was happening.

“These state capture issues only became evident in time as we moved on. That is why I even referred to the statement by comrade Fikile Mbalula when he mentioned in the NEC meeting how he came to know about his appointment. Even at that time we were not alive that there was state capture ... something horribly wrong [was] going on.” 

TimesLIVE


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

This New Ultralight Aircraft May Be World’s Fastest Single-Engine Business Jet

Fighting Drug addiction

Ultra-Widebody Volkswagen Bus "Volkswide" Looks Like a Porsche Racing Van