As calls grow for President Cyril Ramaphosa to take action against tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu, ANC insiders fear that firing her could jeopardise his chances of winning a second term when the party holds its national conference in December.
The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) has called for Sisulu’s sacking after her attack on the constitution and judiciary. It says she breached the oath she took when she was appointed to the cabinet.
Casac, alongside the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Corruption Watch, the Defend Our Democracy campaign, Freedom Under Law, the Helen Suzman Foundation and Judges Matter, earlier in the week issued a statement saying Sisulu's comments must “be repudiated in the strongest terms”.
Sisulu's office insists she was within her rights to write an opinion piece in which she made the criticisms of the constitution and the judiciary.
ANC insiders say Ramaphosa is unlikely to fire Sisulu as this would portray her as a victim and could win her sympathy votes ahead of the ANC’s national conference. Sisulu is believed to be campaigning to challenge Ramaphosa.
In 2005, then deputy president Jacob Zuma’s campaign to become ANC president gained momentum after he was fired by then president Thabo Mbeki. Zuma eventually defeated Mbeki at the ANC conference in 2007. Ramaphosa's allies said the president would not want to make the same mistake.
DA leader John Steenhuisen yesterday told the Sunday Times that his party would exert parliamentary and public pressure on Sisulu to apologise and retract her comments.
But Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo called on Ramaphosa to take harsher steps against the minister by firing her.
“She has breached her oath of office which requires her to 'obey, respect and uphold the constitution and all other laws of the republic’.
"Her attack on the constitution, the rule of law and the integrity of the members of the judiciary undermines this solemn oath. The president as head of cabinet appoints ministers and may dismiss them,” Naidoo said.
He said because Sisulu took an oath of office, she does not enjoy the freedom to attack the constitution.
“She has launched a direct attack on the very foundations of our constitutional democracy. In my view she should have resigned before making such comments — she would then not be bound by her oath of office and could say what she likes. Her responsibilities as a member of cabinet constrain her freedom of speech.
She has breached her oath of office which requires her to 'obey, respect and uphold the constitution and all other laws of the republic’
— Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo
“The president must take appropriate action, which is to dismiss her. Failure to do so threatens the integrity of cabinet as a whole, and confidence in the government to respect the rule of law.”
Sisulu's spokesperson Steven Motale said the minister does not believe she breached her oath of office.
“Like minister Sisulu, Mr Naidoo is well within his rights to freely express his views. However, minister Sisulu disagrees with his claim that she breached her oath of office. In writing her opinion piece, minister Sisulu was exercising her right to freedom of expression which is enshrined in the constitution.
“On calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to sack her, minister Sisulu fully understands that she serves in cabinet at the pleasure of the president,” he said.
Presidency acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale had not responded to questions at the time of going to press.
The ministers' oath reads: " I ... swear/solemnly affirm that I will be faithful to the Republic of South Africa and will obey, respect and uphold the Constitution and all other laws of the Republic.”
In her opinion piece, Sisulu said that under the constitution the political elite had been co-opted and invited to “the dinner table” while poor Africans who elected them “go to bed hungry, waiting for crumbs from the table”.
She also had harsh words for black judges — “interpreters of law” — who she said were mentally colonised and behaved “worse than your oppressor”.
“We have a neoliberal constitution with foreign inspiration, but who are the interpreters? And where is the African value system of this constitution and the rule of law? If the law does not work for Africans in Africa, then what is the use of the rule of law?" she wrote.
Steenhuisen said his party would report Sisulu to parliament’s ethics committee where she would be grilled about her comments.
Sisulu's attack on the constitution and the judges has divided the nation, as well as the ANC.
She has been showered with praise by those in the anti-Ramaphosa faction, but the president’s allies have condemned her comments.
Justice minister Ronald Lamola told the Sunday Times that it was wrong for Sisulu to blame the constitution for the failure of the governing party.
“The reality is that there have been challenges in terms of implementation of some of the policies even by ourselves as the executive and as a governing party, and we cannot blame the constitution for our failures.
"It’s ourselves who must take self-criticism and say how do we implement and ensure that there is transformation as called upon by the constitution,” he said.
“That is wrong — it’s us, we must take the blame, we must correct and learn from our mistakes of the past 25 years of the constitution, and I think we are more wiser now with the experience that we have in governing in the past 25 years to implement and move with more economic transformation issues, including the land reform.”
Lamola's sentiments were echoed by Sibongile Besani, a member of the ANC’s national executive committee and head of the presidency at Luthuli House.
“If there are limitations, in terms of implementing the prescripts of the constitution, you cannot blame the constitution. The issue here may have not stretched the constitution to its limit or adequately.”
Sisulu's comments were “more of an attack than a debate”, Besani said.
“The ANC presidency supports that constitution. We do not have a problem with the discourse or the debate but we differentiate between an attack and a debate, so this input is more inclined to be an attack than a discourse.”
We must take the blame, we must correct and learn from our mistakes of the past 25 years of the constitution, and I think we are more wiser now
— Justice minister Ronald Lamola
Besani said it had become a trend within the ANC for leaders to adopt radical positions for “convenience”, even if they had opposed these radical positions before.
“Look, it’s a fact that some of the people who were at the forefront of muzzling and disbanding the radical approach of the youth league now are flirting with the radical narrative,” he said.
He declined to comment on what action the president was likely to take.
However, an insider in the presidency said Ramaphosa was inclined to take a “principled position”.
“He believes in the constitution and the rule of law. He is not a naïve person, he knows what is at play. He understands the nature of the beast called politics. He understands the contestations that are carried through in the organisation.”
However, the provincial secretary of the ANC in Mpumalanga, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, who is believed to be aligned with the faction that wants change in the ANC leadership, said Sisulu was “brave” for writing the article.
“I’m saying from where we are and where we stand she is really brave. She has taken the bull by its horns.”
Ntshalintshali said, however, that this does not necessarily translate into support for Sisulu at the December conference.
“We cannot be seen to be supporting comrade Lindiwe simply because she has expressed a view… we don’t have any problem with her but our branches must be given a space to lobby and be lobbied,” she said.
— Additional reporting by Aphiwe Deklerk
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