News24 | UPDATE | Pleas for lighter Whitfield sanction fell on deaf ears, says Steenhuisen

DA leader John Steenhuisen and federal council chairperson Helen Zille at a media briefing in Cape Town, where the DA announced it would not participate in the National Dialogue.

• The DA has announced its next steps against President Cyril Ramaphosa, who fired deputy minister Andrew Whitfield this week.
• Whitfield was axed for travelling to the US without Ramaphosa’s approval.
• The axing led to a standoff between the two biggest parties in the government of national unity.

Before former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield was axed, DA leader John Steenhuisen asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to reconsider his decision, dock Whitfield’s salary or publicly reprimand him.

But the suggestions fell on deaf ears, and Steenhuisen did not even have enough time to inform his party about Ramaphosa’s decision.

Whitfield was fired this week for travelling to the US without Ramaphosa’s approval.

The axing led to a standoff between the two biggest parties in the GNU, and on Thursday, the DA gave Ramaphosa two days to dismiss several ANC ministers whom the party said were implicated in corruption.

On Saturday, the DA announced its withdrawal from participation in the upcoming National Dialogue over Whitfield’s axing and what it described as “serious disrespect”.

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The National Dialogue will see civic society and South Africans come together to find solutions to South Africa’s crises, from unemployment to gender-based violence and other social ills.

Apart from the withdrawal from the National Dialogue, the DA is considering a motion of no-confidence against Ramaphosa and won’t be supporting the budget votes of ANC ministers accused of corruption.

Steenhuisen said his belief was that there are different scales of transgressions and different ways of dealing with different types of transgressions.

Steenhuisen said:

Furthermore, he said Whitfield wrote to the president 10 days before the US trip and requested to travel - not for official purposes.

“He travelled for a party function as many ANC people travel for party functions regularly around the world to meet with some of the people that we had been building a relationship with in the United States to ensure that we do not end up being kicked out of AGOA and ensure that South Africa’s agenda remained firmly on the plate.

“There was no meetings at the White House and there was no way Andrew Whitfield was going in an official capacity. He was there as a member of the DA.

“It was a party-funded trip. It was not paid for by government and despite following up repeatedly for days, he never got a response. To this day, he’s never received a response and that is not only rude, it is unprofessional,” Steenhuisen said.

He said he would have accepted it if Ramaphosa decided to deny Whitfield’s request.

READ | FIRST TAKE: GNU limping again as DA threatens Ramaphosa with recall

“I also recommended to the president in my interaction with him that perhaps there are other mechanisms that we could use, either a public admonishment, perhaps a docking of pay. I even said we would look at shuffling portfolios, which is the same remedy that was used for Minister [Thembi] Simelane when her allegations around the VBS Bank originally bred.

“She was moved from justice to housing and I suggested perhaps we could move him if there was a problem with him in that particular position. There was insistence that he now had to be fired. I don’t think it’s fair that you try and earn tough guy credentials by going after a DA member when you’re not prepared to be the tough guy and going after your own members who are breaking the executive ethics code,” he said.