The FW de Klerk Foundation condemns the vitriolic attack by EFF Deputy President, Floyd Shivambu, on Ismail Momoniat at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance on 5 June 2018. This indicates yet again the abuse of parliamentary privilege and more significantly, the rabid race politics of the EFF.
Shivambu objected to the presence of Treasury Deputy Director-General Ismail Momoniat at the meeting. He asked why Director-General Dondo Mogajane did not appear and concluded that this undermined African ‘representativeness’. He went so far as to say that Momoniat’s presence undermined African leadership. An EFF statement reasserted Shivambu’s comments, “Momoniat has no regard for black, particularly African leadership in National Treasury and this includes his disrespect of Director-General and African Ministers and Deputy Ministers. To him, leadership that deserves respect is only those of Indian, Coloured or White origin. In virtually everything that National Treasury does, Momoniat dictates.”
The crude and cheap race politicking by the EFF, while unsurprising, demonstrates again, the party’s disdain for the values of a non-racial constitutional democracy but significantly too, a lack of understanding of policy-making within Treasury.
Shivambu and the EFF have roundly been criticised by most right-thinking people as stoking racial fires and undermining the process of transformation and cohesion in South Africa. South Africa deserves better.
Issued by the FW de Klerk Foundation
7 June 2018
