Cyril lashes errant MPs
Ramaphosa says group ill-disciplined to attack party chief whip Mthembu
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa wants action taken against MPs who publicly attacked ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu over the debate on state capture in parliament this week.
He said it could be interpreted that these MPs favoured state capture.
“I take a very dim view in the manner this issue was raised. They came across ... this is how it might be looked at and interpreted, that these people [are] in favour of state capture,” he said during an interactive session with parliament’s Press Gallery Association.
The ANC presidential candidate said the ANC MPs who accused Mthembu of colluding with the DA on the scheduling of this week’s state capture debate, had showed an extreme lack of discipline.
Ramaphosa said the MPs should have raised their concerns internally rather than in an open press conference.
The MPs, who could be seen as supporters of President Jacob Zuma, are part of a group that recently arrived uninvited at ANC headquarters, Luthuli House in Johannesburg, in a failed mission to persuade party leaders to instruct parliament to abort its inquiry into state capture allegations.
They include Mervyn Dirks, Loyiso Mpumlwana, Sibusiso Radebe and Moloko Maila.
Ramaphosa said the necessary party structures were dealing with the matter after Mthembu reported the group to party bosses.
“That is a serious ill-discipline. My view is that MPs who attacked their own chief whip in the most public way did show great ill-discipline. If they have concerns about the chief whip they should have raised it in the party. They should have raised it with the chief whip himself. The matter is being discussed,” he said.