South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC)’s top leadership is not happy with the public conduct of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to place him under leash for now, APA learnt on Wednesday.
What has annoyed the ANC’s top cadres were Mboweni’s disclosures of his disagreements with government policy as outlined in recent tweets that made public the discords with his fellow cabinet colleagues.
In one of the tweets, the minister complained that “not so long ago, I was a free man, no political constraints. Then I agreed to voluntarily to join government. Free but not free!!”
In the tweet he added: “You have to obey the majority/collective decisions (of the Cabinet)! Sometimes it feels like swallowing a rock!”
The irate party brass also blamed Mboweni for not supporting the government’s continued sales ban of tobacco products during the seven-week lockdown, apart from distancing himself from the executive’s decision to reserve coronavirus tourism relief funds for struggling black-owned small businesses which have taken a big financial hit during the pandemic.
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile on Wednesday confirmed that the party’s top six officials had indeed discussed Mboweni’s public conduct and were not pleased with him washing the party’s linen in public.
“Yes, we did discuss Mboweni’s conduct and our view is that colleagues must work together. We know that in any organisation, including cabinet, people will have different views. But at the end of the day, once a decision has been taken, we want everyone to own up to it,” Mashatile said.
According to him, the top brass has requested Ramaphosa, as both ANC leader and president of the country, to speak to Mboweni about a change in his conduct and to respect collective decisions.
There has been no response from the party presidency on Mashatile’s comments.
Mboweni, a former governor of the South African Reserve Bank, is known as a free-spirit when it comes to his public pronouncements.
NM/jn/APA