DA wants answers on Ramaphosa's 'shambolic peacekeeping PR stunt'

The DA will submit urgent parliamentary questions to determine the cost to taxpayers of President Cyril Ramaphosa's “shambolic political stunt”, DA leader John Steenhuisen said on Saturday.

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has described Steenhuisen's statement on the matter as full of inaccuracies and wrong assumptions — “as always”. 

The DA was referring to the president's Ukraine-Russia peacekeeping initiative.

“Not only did the Presidency lie about being unaware of missile strikes on Kyiv while Ramaphosa’s so-called peace mission was in town, but his administration’s sheer incompetence caused a planeload of his bodyguards, journalists and apparently unauthorised weapons to be denied entry to Poland and Ukraine,” Steenhuisen said.

“Cyril Ramaphosa must be held accountable for the millions of rand in taxpayer funds wasted on his failed PR stunt.

“We will be submitting a full set of questions to the Presidency to obtain a detailed breakdown of the security detail accompanying President Ramaphosa on this trip, as well as the total cost to the SA taxpayer.

“We will be submitting questions to national minister of police Bheki Cele to determine what ammunition and other materials were sourced and loaded onto the aircraft, as well as the cost of all materials.

“Finally, I will be writing to the auditor-general requesting that the cost of this peacekeeping trip be declared as fruitless and wasteful expenditure, given due diligence was not carried out on the part of the South African state.

“It is now clear that this trip was designed to spin Ramaphosa out of trouble over his ongoing support for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He even flew an entire contingent of journalists to Europe in the obvious hope that they would help save his collapsed political image,” Steenhuisen said.

Responding, Magwenya said: The Presidency will respond to their parliamentary questions and provide facts that will assist the DA and South Africans. When asked if he wanted to comment on the “inaccuracies and wrong assumptions”, he said: "No, we will address them in our parliamentary responses."