![](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/0630a71c-4a2f-51b2-8695-639befdf0107&operation=CROP&offset=0x227&resize=1080x608.jpg\")
<\/div>\nJohannesburg – The back and forth battle between President Cyril Ramaphosa and his senior member of Cabinet, Lindiwe Sisulu, continued on Friday with no end in sight.<\/p>\n
Analysts believe that now, no matter how Ramaphosa decides to approach Sisulu (or not), he would be on the back foot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The gloves came off this week after the Presidency issued a statement that Ramaphosa had \u201cspecifically admonished the minister\u201d about her attack on the judiciary and suggested that Sisulu had retracted her \u201cunsubstantiated, hurtful comments\u201d about the judiciary.<\/p>\n
But, Sisulu\u2019s quick response to the released statement branded Ramaphosa a liar. She denied the statement.<\/p>\n
Sisulu said, in that Wednesday night meeting, Ramaphosa had shared his challenge with one aspect of the article on the judges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cUnder no circumstances did I commit to any retraction or apology since I stand by what I penned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sisulu added: \u201cThe content of the president’s statement in its current form is unfortunate as it is not what we agreed on. In this regard, I wish to distance myself from such,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Then, later on Thursday evening, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele issued a second statement saying that the Presidency stood by its statement, and it had nothing further to add.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nBut again, on Friday, Sisulu issued a statement on the matter, this time hitting back at the president’s media team, claiming they misrepresented her meeting with Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
In that statement, Sisulu said she respected the Office of the Presidency and the president but was \u201ctroubled\u201d by the media team\u2019s \u201cdeliberately mischievous\u201d actions.<\/p>\n
She said the president took issue with her expression relating to the judiciary and he proposed that a third person or intermediary assist the particular and solitary line he found an \u201coffensive expression\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe had a mature and sensible meeting and thus concluded on good terms. In fact, yesterday, Thursday, the president called me and read the specific sentence as redesigned that he had found offensive. We ended our discussion on an amicable basis,\u201d Sisulu said.<\/p>\n
She said that as was an accepted and lifelong practice, she respected the Office of the Presidency and the president. However, she wanted to place on record that she was troubled \u201cthat the president’s media team was deliberately mischievous\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 at no point in the conversation was (the minister) firstly admonished or secondly expressed regrets resulting in agreeing to withdraw or apologise for her article, but agreed to reconsider the particular line relating to the judiciary which the president had raised issue with and was to share with her,\u201d read the statement issued by Sisulu\u2019s spokesperson, Steve Motale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nPolitical analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said that while he understood Ramaphosa was trying to do damage control, he underestimated Sisulu\u2019s determination<\/p>\n
Seepe said the tit-for-tat between the two senior members of the ANC was indicative of a party that lost touch with its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are no longer concerned or dealing with service delivery, but rather about personal issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nSeepe said that following the back-and-forth public argument on who said what, Ramaphosa was in checkmate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever he does now, he cannot win. If he chooses to fire her, questions would be raised on whether he was threatened by her presidential campaign. If he chooses not to do anything, his grip on his Cabinet members would be brought into question. Sisulu has checkmated Ramaphosa,\u201d Seepe said.<\/p>\n
Bheki Mngomezulu from the University of the Western Cape said the manner in which this saga played out was unnecessary and resulted in many politicians making mistakes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nMngomezulu said it would have been better if Ramaphosa had spoken in private to Sisulu and then issued a joint statement \u201cshowing they were reading from the same script\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither the president does not have the right-thinking advisers, or he acted out of emotion and responded to the national pressure of addressing Sisulu publicly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever it is, (Ramaphosa\u2019s) has jeopardised his image and leadership,\u201d Mngomezulu said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe ANC’s National Executive Committee started a crucial four-day this week where the party was expected to finalise a roadmap for its policy and elective conferences in June and December this year and the party’s input into Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address to be delivered on February 10.<\/p>\n
The spat between Sisulu and Ramaphosa is expected to heighten tensions within the ruling party and is expected to be a subject of discussion at the meeting.<\/p>\n
[email protected]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nPolitical Bureau<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Johannesburg – The back and forth battle between President Cyril Ramaphosa and his senior member of Cabinet, Lindiwe Sisulu, continued on Friday with no end in sight. Analysts believe that now, no matter how Ramaphosa decides to approach Sisulu (or not), he would be on the back foot. The gloves came off this week after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cUnder no circumstances did I commit to any retraction or apology since I stand by what I penned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sisulu added: \u201cThe content of the president’s statement in its current form is unfortunate as it is not what we agreed on. In this regard, I wish to distance myself from such,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Then, later on Thursday evening, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele issued a second statement saying that the Presidency stood by its statement, and it had nothing further to add.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But again, on Friday, Sisulu issued a statement on the matter, this time hitting back at the president’s media team, claiming they misrepresented her meeting with Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
In that statement, Sisulu said she respected the Office of the Presidency and the president but was \u201ctroubled\u201d by the media team\u2019s \u201cdeliberately mischievous\u201d actions.<\/p>\n
She said the president took issue with her expression relating to the judiciary and he proposed that a third person or intermediary assist the particular and solitary line he found an \u201coffensive expression\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe had a mature and sensible meeting and thus concluded on good terms. In fact, yesterday, Thursday, the president called me and read the specific sentence as redesigned that he had found offensive. We ended our discussion on an amicable basis,\u201d Sisulu said.<\/p>\n
She said that as was an accepted and lifelong practice, she respected the Office of the Presidency and the president. However, she wanted to place on record that she was troubled \u201cthat the president’s media team was deliberately mischievous\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 at no point in the conversation was (the minister) firstly admonished or secondly expressed regrets resulting in agreeing to withdraw or apologise for her article, but agreed to reconsider the particular line relating to the judiciary which the president had raised issue with and was to share with her,\u201d read the statement issued by Sisulu\u2019s spokesperson, Steve Motale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said that while he understood Ramaphosa was trying to do damage control, he underestimated Sisulu\u2019s determination<\/p>\n
Seepe said the tit-for-tat between the two senior members of the ANC was indicative of a party that lost touch with its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are no longer concerned or dealing with service delivery, but rather about personal issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Seepe said that following the back-and-forth public argument on who said what, Ramaphosa was in checkmate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever he does now, he cannot win. If he chooses to fire her, questions would be raised on whether he was threatened by her presidential campaign. If he chooses not to do anything, his grip on his Cabinet members would be brought into question. Sisulu has checkmated Ramaphosa,\u201d Seepe said.<\/p>\n
Bheki Mngomezulu from the University of the Western Cape said the manner in which this saga played out was unnecessary and resulted in many politicians making mistakes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mngomezulu said it would have been better if Ramaphosa had spoken in private to Sisulu and then issued a joint statement \u201cshowing they were reading from the same script\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither the president does not have the right-thinking advisers, or he acted out of emotion and responded to the national pressure of addressing Sisulu publicly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever it is, (Ramaphosa\u2019s) has jeopardised his image and leadership,\u201d Mngomezulu said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The ANC’s National Executive Committee started a crucial four-day this week where the party was expected to finalise a roadmap for its policy and elective conferences in June and December this year and the party’s input into Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address to be delivered on February 10.<\/p>\n
The spat between Sisulu and Ramaphosa is expected to heighten tensions within the ruling party and is expected to be a subject of discussion at the meeting.<\/p>\n
[email protected]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Political Bureau<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Johannesburg – The back and forth battle between President Cyril Ramaphosa and his senior member of Cabinet, Lindiwe Sisulu, continued on Friday with no end in sight. Analysts believe that now, no matter how Ramaphosa decides to approach Sisulu (or not), he would be on the back foot. The gloves came off this week after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}