Johannesburg – President Cyril Ramaphosa has withdrawn, for now, benefits including free water and electricity for ministers residing in official government residences.
This comes after the DA gave the president an ultimatum to withdraw amendments to the Ministerial Handbook which were, they alleged, passed off in a veil of secrecy in April, this year.
The DA had threatened to report the matter to the Office of the Public Protector, if Ramaphosa did not withdraw the amendments by October 21.
Speaking at a Presidency media briefing on Monday, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said: “President Ramaphosa has ordered the withdrawal process of the Ministerial Handbook for 2022.
“The withdrawal of the handbook will give effect to the 2019 version of the executive guide, pending a review,” he said.
He said the impression that the amendments were made in secret were false and that the president appreciated the public sentiment on the matter.
DA MP Leon Schreiber said the withdrawal of the handbook amendment was “a famous victory against ANC cadre corruption and for the people of South Africa”.
“The DA has won our battle to force President Cyril Ramaphosa to withdraw the amendments he secretly made to the Ministerial Handbook back in April.
“It was the DA that exposed these changes over the past two weeks, whereby Ramaphosa planned to force taxpayers to pay for unlimited amounts of free water and electricity for the same ANC ministers and deputy ministers who robbed our country of these services.
“The DA also exposed that the new handbook would have nearly doubled the number of ANC cadres employed in ministerial offices, which would cost the public at least R87 million more every year,” he said.
Schreiber said the DA will persist in its efforts to completely see reform as the handbook gave licence to “dictatorial powers to force taxpayers to pay for ministerial perks, without even having to inform Parliament or the public”.
“This means that Ramaphosa is entirely at liberty to reintroduce the perks he has just withdrawn at any moment, without any parliamentary oversight.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and presents a danger to our constitutional democracy, which is why the DA will continue to pursue the complaint we lodged with the public protector last week.
“Instead of Ramaphosa having dictatorial powers to dish out patronage to his Cabinet colleagues, it must be Parliament through an open, transparent and participatory process, that decides on any limited Cabinet benefits that may be appropriate in particular cases. We hope that the public protector will agree with us on this,” he said.
