David Mabuza doesn’t take Tito Mboweni’s tweets about SOEs seriously
David Mabuza doesn’t believe that Tito Mboweni was speaking on behalf of the government when he said that ailing State Owned Enterprises should be privatised.
The deputy president David Mabuza said there’s “no manga manga business,” and added that it’s not the way they should approach the debate. He explained:
“This debate cannot be approached this way, and I don’t really take the minister of finance seriously when he’s making comments.”
The comments left the opposition MPs shocked as Mabuza made his statement of challenging the view of the Finance minister.
He added that the finance minister’s comments “are his own,” and that he will only take Mboweni seriously when “he’s articulating government positions,” but not when he’s talking about “his views when he’s tweeting.” Mabuza added:
“I am not going to entertain a tweet by the minister. I am not going to take that seriously, it’s not a government position, thank you very much.”
Deputy President David Mabuza raises eyebrows. On @tito_mboweni‘s call to possibly sell-off SOEs:
— Graeme Raubenheimer (@GraemeRauby) March 12, 2019
“I don’t really take Minister of Finance seriously when he’s making comments…we’ll take the minister serious when he’s articulating government positions”#MabuzaQandA @OpenNewsSA
Narend Singh, chief whip of the IFP who was the first to speak after the Mazzone question, quipped that he was somewhat surprised that there was such disagreement with “members of the executive, a deputy president nogal” and the finance minister.
This public dissent in a week when former president Jacob Zuma and president Cyril Ramaphosa clashed swords publicly about the State Security Agency report released by Ramaphosa’s office is yet more ammunition for opposition parties who can clearly sense a growing split in the ruling party.
Mazzone returned to the issue when given the opportunity, and the Deputy President doubled down on his position. He said “whatever the minister of finance said relating to privatisation, which is not the position of the government, it’s the opinion of the minister.”
Mabuza replied: “The president stood here and said there’s no intention to privatise Eskom or SAA, period. Whether the minister wishes so, that’s his opinion. There’s one thing that I’ve learnt when you’re a minister when you’re in this position, you desist to be an individual. You work within a collective and don’t just stand and say whatever you want to say.”
Someone please nudge @tito_mboweni to reply to David Mabuza saying he doesn’t take him seriously. The waiting is killing me. ? #MabuzaQandA #DavidMabuzaQandA
— Mondli Zondo (@MoZondo) March 12, 2019