President Cyril Ramaphosa is prepared to work with any public protector, he said during the ANC letsema campaign in Greater Tzaneen, Limpopo at the weekend.
The president was responding to questions from the media after the full bench of the Western Cape High Court declared on Friday that advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s suspension was invalid.
“Our reaction has already been made public that we’re going to get guidance from the Constitutional Court because any action by the president, which is deemed invalid, has to be adjudicated upon by the Constitutional Court,” he said.
“I can work with any public protector, it is never really a difficulty because everything we do is guided by laws and provisions of our constitution.”
Ramaphosa reiterated that he will cooperate with law-enforcement agencies in relation to theft at his Phala Phala farm in 2020, and on allegations of corruption levelled against him.
Addressing the community at Highpoint about their struggles to find jobs, the president said: “I know that this is an overriding challenge that many of our people have, especially the young people.
“These indeed are the challenging times for the people of our country. As this challenge is rising, particularly with fuel prices [going up], the government intervened to try and cushion the bad impact for our people, which lasted for quite a bit.
“But the cost of living is still high and we know that this time, our people are indeed struggling. And the struggle was also made worse by Covid-19, which did not make matters easy for us. Through Covid-19, we lost 2-million jobs at one go.”
He said South Africa has only started to regain some of the lost jobs in the past quarter, which recorded an increase in employment figures.
“But we know that it is still a difficult time for many of our people. That is why we responded with a stimulus package to help workers through the UIF [Unemployment Insurance Fund], which paid out R70-billion.
“That is why we came up with assistance measures for companies that were in trouble so that they can get assistance and some loans, and that is why we introduced the R350 special grant to assist our people,” he said, adding that the ANC branches will decide if they want him to serve a second term.
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