KZN takes down Cyril
Opposition say petty ANC politics behind removal of Ramaphosa portrait from the legislature
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature has snubbed Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa by removing his portrait from its wall.
Sowetan has established that the picture was there after the 2014 general elections, together with that of President Jacob Zuma and the premier, who was Senzo Mchunu at the time.
If you visit government offices in all the nine provinces, the portraits of the president, deputy president and the leader of that province are displayed.
Yesterday, the legislature’s spokesman Wonder Hlongwa said in terms of the legislature’s protocol, the only photographs displayed are those of the president, premier and speaker.
“The allegation that the photographs of the deputy president were removed from other official photographs displayed in the legislature is devoid of the truth,” Hlongwa said.
But Sowetan has seen pictures showing that after every general election since 1994, the portraits of deputy presidents had been displayed in the KZN legislature, as is the practice nationwide.
The province, after the 1994 elections, even had the portrait of the last apartheid government president, FW de Klerk, who became deputy president with then-president Thabo Mbeki, under Nelson Mandela’s government of national unity.
The move by the legislature has left opposition parties seething.
DA KwaZulu-Natal leader Zwakele Mncwango confirmed that Ramaphosa’s portrait was removed.
“These guys are desperate for power. Their fights in the ANC have become personal. The ANC is more like a snake which eats its own tail.”
Mncwango said government institutions must be respected, regardless of who holds the position.
“In this case, all they have to do is to respect the position that Ramaphosa holds. Ramaphosa is the deputy president of the country.”
Mncwango said Ramaphosa’s picture was probably removed at the time when Mchunu’s picture was removed in May last year.
Mncwango said the DA would write to the KwaZuluNatal provincial legislature speaker Lydia Johnson and premier Willies Mchunu for an explanation on why Ramaphosa’s portraits have been removed.
IFP national chairman Blessed Gwala said it was strange that Ramaphosa’s picture has been removed from the legislature.
“As far as I know, his picture has always been there. If it is not there it means somebody has removed it or some people have taken a decision to remove it,” Gwala said.
Gwala described the removal of Ramaphosa’s picture as a crime, saying: “The legislature is not an individual’s property.”
NFP spokesman Sabelo Sigudu said it was not a surprise that the KwaZulu-Natal legislature has no picture of the deputy president.
Sigudu threw the ball into the hands of Johnson and the premier, saying they should account on why party politics influenced decisions of the legislature.
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, under the leadership of Sihle Zikalala, is backing former African Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a rival of Ramaphosa’s, to be the ANC’s first female president.