Cyril caught off guard by secret Cabinet memo leak

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was taken by surprise when DA MP Alf Lees revealed Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s plan of bringing a special appropriation Bill that will see SAA being granted a R10 billion bailout through the sale of government-owned Telkom shares.

The information is contained in a top secret Cabinet memo that startled MPs when it was revealed by Lees in parliament during a question and answer session yesterday.

Gigaba presented the plan to Cabinet. It is meant to pay the struggling national carrier’s R6.8 billion debt which, to date, treasury has been struggling to raise.

Ramaphosa said the plan was part of an ongoing discussion on how to improve the performance of struggling state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

“Hypothetically, the sale of state assets to fund others ... we need to debate that. It’s not as easy to say do you sell Telkom shares to fund this and that. You look at matters in totality. Another way of looking at it is whether to do a share swap,” he said.

Ramaphosa was slated by opposition MPs when he initially suggested that Lees would face jail time for being in possession of the secret memo.

Lees is protected by parliamentary privilege and will not face any charges for revealing information of any kind in parliament as an MP.

“I wasn’t threatening. If indeed he has the document and it is marked secret, you must leave it to those whom it was intended for.

“The issue is clearly a matter … we continue to discuss matters of SOEs … issues such as those need to be discussed by Cabinet. If that proposition comes, it will be dealt with by parliament,” Ramaphosa said.