South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has moved swiftly to discipline his Minister of Communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, for violating the country’s coronavirus regulations.
On Sunday, Ndabeni-Abrahams was pictured in a post on the former deputy minister of higher education Mduduzi Manana’s Instagram page, enjoying a lunch with her husband at his home, directly contravening the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Manana is a controversial figure who was previously in the public eye when he was caught on video assaulting a woman in a Johannesburg nightclub. Recently he has been preparing to start a YouTube ‘connoisseur real estate show’. A publicity video for the show which is to due air from July shows him in his home has been shared on social media.
This prompted many South Africans to call for action to be taken against her. On Wednesday President Ramaphosa revealed that after meeting with Ndabeni-Abrahams, he had asked her to take a two month leave of absence, one month of which is to be unpaid.
Ndabeni-Abrahams was also directed by Ramaphosa to address the nation and issue a formal apology.
In a short video she released in the course of the day, the minister asked South Africans to forgive her and apologised to the President and to the nation at large, and urged them to obey the regulations.
However, some South Africans are saying the punishment is no more than a slap on the wrist and is not enough. Many have taken to social media to call for her arrest, arguing that she breached lockdown regulations and must face the same punishment as ordinary citizens have faced for doing so.
In response to calls for Ndabeni-Abrahams to face the law, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, said, “As to allegations that the minister violated the lockdown regulations, the law should take its course”.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has filed a criminal complaint against Ndabeni-Abrahams, and has called for her to be removed from the cabinet.
