John Steenhuisen.(Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu) 
DA leader John Steenhuisen has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of triggering a “calculated political assault” on the DA, after the sudden axing of its deputy minister of trade, industry and competition, Andrew Whitfield, on Thursday.
“Should the ANC fail to meet our ultimatum, all bets are off and the consequences will be theirs to bear,” Steenhuisen warned in a speech to the National Assembly.
Read more: DA FedEx to meet after Ramaphosa axes party’s deputy trade and industry minister
The Presidency announced on Thursday that Ramaphosa had removed Whitfield from his position. Providing no reason for this, Presidency spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told Daily Maverick: “The President has thanked the former deputy minister for the time he served in the role.”
However, he said the move was not a “wholesale Cabinet reshuffle”, suggesting rather a targeted removal of Whitfield.
Following news of Whitfield’s removal, the DA’s Federal Executive called a meeting on Thursday afternoon to deal with the issue.
Daily Maverick understands that Whitfield was fired after an allegedly unauthorised trip to the US in late February, alongside DA MP Emma Powell. Powell told Daily Maverick at the time that their delegation met with, among others, Africa advisers at the National Security Council, Democratic senators from the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations including Chris Coons, and the legislative staff director for Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
The delegation also met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s key adviser.
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However, Steenhuisen, in his speech, said Whitfield had requested permission from Ramaphosa for this trip on 12 February, but never received a response.
“Shortly before Cabinet met yesterday, he [Ramaphosa] informed me that he intends to remove Andrew Whitfield as deputy minister of trade, industry and competition. I requested 24 hours to speak to Whitfield and my party. However, before I could even do so, just three hours later, Whitfield received a letter informing him of his removal.
“The apparent reason for this sudden and ill-considered decision is that Whitfield did not obtain permission to travel abroad earlier this year,” explained Steenhuisen.
However, he said, “The facts contradict … [this] flimsy reasoning. In fact, on 12 February, Whitfield had written to the President requesting permission to travel to the United States, as required by the Ministerial Handbook. Ten days later, he had still not received any response from the Presidency, and departed on the trip.
“Whitfield subsequently wrote to the President to apologise if it caused offence. Again, he received no response.
“Then yesterday, months after the incident and without a further word on it, the President unilaterally removed a DA deputy minister without even giving his largest coalition partner the courtesy of discussing the issue,” said Steenhuisen.
Read more: While ANC-DA Cabinet talks continue, leaked letters reveal parties at odds
‘Flagrant double standard’
It’s important to note that nowhere in the speech does Steenhuisen call for Whitfield’s reinstatement, but rather for Ramaphosa to fire a bunch of his allegedly errant ministers.
Ramaphosa has been criticised for failing to remove ministers and deputy ministers facing serious allegations of corruption and fraud. Former Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize resigned on the eve of a Cabinet reshuffle in 2021, when his position became untenable after he and his family were found to be inextricably linked to a corrupt contract given to the company Digital Vibes.
Last year, Ramaphosa reshuffled Thembi Simelane from her position as justice minister to the Human Settlements portfolio, after a Daily Maverick and News24 investigation revealed that she had received a R500,000 “loan” from a company that had brokered investments with the looted VBS Mutual Bank.
On Thursday, Steenhuisen called the “drastic unilateral action” against Whitfield the “product of a flagrant double standard”.
“While a DA deputy minister is removed for not getting a response to seeking permission to travel, Thembi Simelane remains in Cabinet despite being implicated in the VBS looting. Nobuhle Nkabane remains in Cabinet despite apparently misleading Parliament over an attempt to deploy corrupt cadres to Seta [Sector Education and Training Authority] boards.
“Serial underperformers, as well as people implicated in State Capture, continue to sit around the Cabinet table. Instead of being summarily fired, Simelane was merely asked to submit a ‘report’ on the allegations against her to the President and moved to another portfolio.
“In the past, even ministers who had serious Public Protector findings [against them] were merely admonished or had their pay docked. David Mahlobo is implicated in the most serious corruption by the State Capture commission, yet he continues in the position as deputy minister of water and sanitation.
“Yet a DA deputy minister is dismissed with the flimsiest of excuses,” continued Steenhuisen.
He said the party called on Ramaphosa to “fire Simelane, Nkabane, Mahlobo and other ANC ministers and deputy ministers implicated in corruption within the next 48 hours”.
“If they fail to do so, the ANC will inflict grave consequences on South Africa. Make no mistake about it: what happens next is entirely on the ANC and President Ramaphosa,” warned Steenhuisen.
He said the next 48 hours would be “the moment of truth”.
‘Something deeper at play’
Rather than Whitfield’s jaunt to the US being the reason he was sacked, Steenhuisen suggested there was “something even deeper at play here”.
According to Steenhuisen, Whitfield had “opposed an attempt to make suspect appointments” and was “standing in the way of the looting” that would follow Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau’s contentious R100-billion transformation fund, which was published for public comment earlier this year.
“All of this in a department mired in corruption allegations involving the tender for the National Lottery,” added Steenhuisen.
Read more: Government plans national lottery: A shift toward state control amid concerns of corruption
“Given this flagrant double standard, one is left with no choice but to conclude that hardworking DA members of the executive are now being fired for fighting corruption, not for committing corruption,” said Steenhuisen.
‘I treated silence as consent’
Daily Maverick contacted Whitfield with queries, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
However, speaking to John Perlman on 702 on Thursday evening, Whitfield maintained that Ramaphosa gave no reason for his axing.
“The trip was obviously a DA trip. I had written to the President 10 days prior to departure to comply with the requirement to request leave to travel abroad, and after nine days of waiting, we needed to book a flight, and I felt that I had waited reasonably long enough and [had] followed up every day… with the Presidency and received no response other than they had acknowledged receipt,” he said.
“I assumed that because I went to the United States without the expressed permission of the President in spite of the fact that he had the letter for 10 days — I have it on good authority that he was very aware of the letter — chose not to reply to the letter, either in the affirmative or the negative, and I treated silence as consent,” he added.
Daily Maverick requested comment from Magwenya, but had not received a response by the time of publication. DM