A number of Facebook posts claim politician Bantu Holomisa has called for the resignation of the entire cabinet of South Africa.
The cabinet is made up of the president, the deputy president and national department ministers. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet of 64 people was announced in May 2019.
Holomisa is co-founder and president of the United Democratic Movement, or UDM, a smaller political party.
Many of the posts were of the same identical message, repeatedly posted by the same person to several different Facebook groups. The message has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
This is immediately suspicious behaviour as similar tactics are often used to expose as many people as possible to scams and misinformation and the posts have been flagged as possibly false by Facebook’s fact-checking system.
But, suspicious as it may seem, is this claim true?
Holomisa did call for the cabinet to resign in a 5 August 2020 media release.
The UDM leader called for South Africa’s parliament to remain in place, while its cabinet would be replaced with a temporary committee “comprised of representatives from civil society and the judiciary; with no political component”.
Holomisa’s call came in response to a renewed discussion of corruption in South Africa, brought on by allegations of misuse of Covid-19 relief funds.
Ramaphosa has announced the creation of a ministerial committee to investigate allegations of corruption, and said in a 3 August newsletter that those attempting to profit from a disaster were “like a pack of hyenas circling wounded prey”.
Despite this, many in South Africa, including Holomisa, feel the president and his ruling African National Congress have not done enough to stop corruption.
The UDM president told news organisation eNCA: “We cannot expect the ANC to investigate itself.”
Members of other political parties have expressed sympathy with Holomisa’s suggestion, although some have warned that dissolving the cabinet would be impractical or even unconstitutional.
So while it may not come to pass, the claim that Holomisa has called for the South African cabinet to be dissolved is true. – Keegan Leech
The cabinet is made up of the president, the deputy president and national department ministers. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet of 64 people was announced in May 2019.
Holomisa is co-founder and president of the United Democratic Movement, or UDM, a smaller political party.
Many of the posts were of the same identical message, repeatedly posted by the same person to several different Facebook groups. The message has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
This is immediately suspicious behaviour as similar tactics are often used to expose as many people as possible to scams and misinformation and the posts have been flagged as possibly false by Facebook’s fact-checking system.
But, suspicious as it may seem, is this claim true?
‘We cannot expect ANC to investigate itself’
Holomisa did call for the cabinet to resign in a 5 August 2020 media release.
The UDM leader called for South Africa’s parliament to remain in place, while its cabinet would be replaced with a temporary committee “comprised of representatives from civil society and the judiciary; with no political component”.
Holomisa’s call came in response to a renewed discussion of corruption in South Africa, brought on by allegations of misuse of Covid-19 relief funds.
Ramaphosa has announced the creation of a ministerial committee to investigate allegations of corruption, and said in a 3 August newsletter that those attempting to profit from a disaster were “like a pack of hyenas circling wounded prey”.
Despite this, many in South Africa, including Holomisa, feel the president and his ruling African National Congress have not done enough to stop corruption.
The UDM president told news organisation eNCA: “We cannot expect the ANC to investigate itself.”
Members of other political parties have expressed sympathy with Holomisa’s suggestion, although some have warned that dissolving the cabinet would be impractical or even unconstitutional.
So while it may not come to pass, the claim that Holomisa has called for the South African cabinet to be dissolved is true. – Keegan Leech
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