DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen says he has never claimed to have a university degree.
EFF spokesperson Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has ridiculed Steenhuisen’s qualifications on social media.
Steenhuisen used his address during a debate in the National Assembly to set the record straight and hit back at the EFF.
“Like the old English upper classes who kept the working class rocked out of Parliament with their Oxford degrees and Cambridge qualifications. They do not want ordinary South Africans to be part of the decision-making process in this house. Let me make it clear. I do not have a university degree. I have never pretended to have it. I wrote for BA in Politics and Law, but because of duty pressures and financial pressures, I could not finish it. I am not afraid of this … and you can as much as you like … I am not ashamed of this because I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a public representative.”
Steenhuisen says by ridiculing his matric certificate the EFF was trying to deflect attention away from the allegations it faces relating to the VBS scandal.
“They know the best form of defence is to attack. They went by unleashing on Minister [Pravin] Gordhan and myself. They escape the scrutiny of their party dodgy dealings. They are hypocrites and their leader’s lavish lifestyle. We are not afraid of this little band of wannabe revolutionaries with their academic postering. They think that by quoting Franz Fanon and Karl Marx, it makes them friends of the working class. You do not need a degree to see the EFF for what it is. It’s an elitist who steal from the poor and the down-trotted.”
This is how social media reacted to Steenhuisen not having a higher education qualification:
