President Cyril Ramaphosa is said to have cancelled plans to attend the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Mahama last week after discovering that country planned to roll out the red carpet for his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
The Sunday Times has learnt that Ramaphosa was advised by an advance team in the West African country that he should stay away. International relations minister Ronald Lamola went in his stead.
Insiders said the South African delegation discovered Zuma — a fierce rival of Ramaphosa’s who launched the breakaway MK Party — had been invited after requesting the programme of the event.
But Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya yesterday denied that his decision to pullout of the event had anything with Zuma's presence - saying such claims were "lies".
A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Ghanaian foreign ministry had denied the Accra government had invited Zuma after being confronted by the SA delegation.
“They said they suspect it’s the ruling party that invited him. The organisation of that event was chaotic from the onset,” the source said.
“The organisers were not talking to delegations. We ended up getting the programme. We picked up that JZ was invited. In terms of diplomatic etiquette this is not done. You can’t invite an opponent of your ally.
“Jacob Zuma started a political party that contested an election. What message are they sending to us when they invite someone who is no longer one of us?” the source said.
“When we inquired, no explanation was forthcoming. The ministry of foreign affairs said ‘it wasn’t us’. Obviously JZ was invited by someone.
“It was an irritation. They were very clumsy.”
Government officials sought to downplay Ramaphosa’s decision to give Mahama’s inauguration a miss, claiming the event clashed with preparations for the ANC’s January 8 rally last Saturday.
People sometimes read too much into the head of state’s non-attendance of an inauguration
— Sydney Mufamadi, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s security adviser
"The president had a busy schedule that week leading up to the ANC January 8 celebrations. The initial plan was for him to travel in and out of Ghana. However, in the end, it was not feasible for him to honor the Ghanaian inauguration invitation. There was no intelligence that was presented to the president about his visit to Ghana or any concern that was expressed about his attendance of President Mahama's inauguration," said Magwenya.
"This is another lie being peddled by faceless cowards who are hell-bent on embarrassing the president. If their information is credible, they should come out and publicly own it and not be sources in the shadows," he said.
Ramaphosa’s security adviser Sydney Mufamadi said he had not “engaged” Ramaphosa on the Ghana inauguration, but he knew the president had been occupied with January 8 planning.
“People sometimes read too much into the head of state’s non-attendance of an inauguration,” said Mufamadi.
The MK Party publicised Zuma’s visit to Ghana on its social media platforms. Zuma’s delegation included party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela and head of presidency Magasela Mzobe. A video of Zuma arriving at the event and being embraced by Mahama was posted by the official MK Party X account. He also addressed a group of business people after attending the inauguration.
Zuma was expelled from the ANC last year. Last week he wrote to the party threatening legal action to force it to reinstate him.
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