The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to apologise to South Africans and scrap the Ministerial Handbook in its current form.
DA is accusing Ramaphosa of secretly abusing his power by dishing out expensive perks to his ministers. It further says ministers are treated like royalty at the expense of taxpayers.
Without taxpayers or Parliament being informed, Ramaphosa’s secret amendment to the Ministerial Handbook creates substantial additional space for the employment of ANC cadres in ministerial offices – costing taxpayers at least R87 million more per year.https://t.co/8l3caKZ1Pi
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) October 16, 2022
The DA has given the President until Friday to act and implement its demands or it will mobilise South Africans and march in Pretoria. The party has also announced that it has laid a complaint with the office of the Public Protector.
The DA shadow minister of public service and administration, Leon Schreiber explains, “We were able to uncover and expose these costly amendments that the president has dictatorial powers to force taxpayers to pay millions more for ministerial packs without even having to report it to parliament. It’s an insult to our democracy, it is a conflict of interest that Ramaphosa unilaterally and secretly decides on packs for himself and his cabinet colleagues even when these packs cost the people of this country dearly. Now the DA has already laid a complaint with the public protector over the apparent fact that there is no law that provides for the existence of the Ministerial Handbook, in our view, it’s clearly inconsistent with our Constitution that the president can hide the milking of taxpayers from this parliament”.
VIDEO | Ministerial Handbook | Free water, electricity, perks for ministers is political madness: COSATU
