POLL | Do you think Cyril Ramaphosa will remove Lindiwe Sisulu from cabinet?

There are growing calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to sack tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu for her perceived attack on the constitution and judiciary in her opinion piece published on January 7. 

Sisulu ruffled feathers with her piece titled “Hi Mzansi, have we seen justice?". In it, the minister took aim at the governing party, judiciary and the constitution for failing the poor.

However, firing her might give her presidential ambitions a boost and compromise Ramaphosa's bid for a second term at the December elective conference, ANC insiders told Sunday Times.

Sisulu said SA, despite adopting a new constitution in 1994, had failed to reverse injustices against black people who remained victims of colonialism.

“If we look around, we see a sea of African poverty. Let’s not fool ourselves and one another; the primary motivation for the evils of colonialism was and still is economic. It is organised crime, the robbery of other people’s land and resources as well as the exploitation and use of their labour.

“It is also about the reduction of these people to mass consumers and exclusion from the ownership of the means of production and wealth creation.”  

She lambasted leaders who engaged in “stomach politics” for their self-enrichment at the expense of the poor, and suggested the judiciary was filled with “mentally colonised” Africans “who have no African or Pan African inspired ideological grounding”.

Sisulu said they failed to ensure justice for black people who were disposed of their land during colonialism. 

Sisulu was slammed by the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac), the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Corruption Watch, the Defend Our Democracy campaign, Freedom Under Law, the Helen Suzman Foundation and Judges Matter, who said her comments must “be repudiated in the strongest terms”. 

ANC insiders said Ramaphosa did not want to repeat the mistake made by former president Thabo Mbeki, who fired the party's then deputy president Jacob Zuma in 2005 and was later defeated by him in the elective conference in 2007. 

Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo said Ramaphosa needed to fire Sisulu as she had violated her oath of office to respect the constitution.

The minister's spokesperson Steven Motale dismissed this. 

“Like minister Sisulu, Mr Naidoo is within his rights to freely express his views. However, minister Sisulu disagrees that she breached her oath of office. In writing her opinion piece, minister Sisulu was exercising her right to freedom of expression which is enshrined in the constitution,” said Motale. 

Acting chief justice Raymond Zondo and justice minister Ronald Lamola are among those who have condemned Sisulu's comments.