The Democratic Alliance (DA) noted that should President Cyril Ramaphosa fail to announce the removal of Deputy President Paul Mashatile from his Cabinet in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA), it will use collated information to lay criminal charges against Mashatile.

The DA, on Friday, handed over a dossier with an accompanying letter detailing damning allegations of corruption levelled against Mashatile, to Ramaphosa’s office at the Union Buildings.

DA leader John Steenhuisen said that South Africa cannot be presided over by a Deputy President against whom corruption allegations are “piling up by the day”.

Steenhuisen noted that over the past few months, a series of explosive exposés had been published by numerous investigative journalists outlining the extent to which Mashatile is allegedly engaged in a web of corruption and State capture spanning almost two decades - behaviour that Steenhuisen says has become commonplace under the African National Congress (ANC).

“These would constitute clear violations of the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act, the Public Finance Management Act, and the Executive Members’ Ethics Act. With this dossier now in hand, President Ramaphosa can no longer claim ignorance that his ‘Number Two’ is heading a State capture scheme the likes of which was last seen under Jacob Zuma,” he said.

Steenhuisen noted that the DA would also file an Executive Members’ Ethics Act complaint against Mashatile for his violation of the Executive Ethics Code.

He said that in all of the party’s submissions to law enforcement, it would highlight the fact that Ramaphosa was now personally in possession of the dossier against Mashatile, and that his failure to act potentially implicated him in the corruption racket.

“This set of actions represents but the start of what will be a sustained campaign to hold both Ramaphosa and Mashatile accountable. The DA will continue to fight this corruption using every channel at our disposal,” Steenhuisen added.

He said had Ramaphosa carried out the lifestyle audits of his executive, as promised in his first SoNA at the beginning of his term, all of these alleged corrupt dealings would have come to light.

Steenhuisen alleges that five years later, the South African national executive is still comprised of numerous Ministers facing severe allegations of corruption.

“Yet another broken promise from a bystander President for which there have been no consequences,” the DA leader said,

Meanwhile, Steenhuisen highlighted that South Africa plummeted to its lowest-ever ranking on the global Corruption Perceptions Index, confirming that corruption was even worse under Ramaphosa than it was under Zuma.

He said it was “precisely Ramaphosa’s paralysis” regarding the illegal actions of his Cabinet members and ANC cadres that continued to hollow out South Africa’s public service and chip away at investor and public confidence in government.

“If a fish rots from the head down, then President Ramaphosa clearly sees it fit to preside over a corrupt government with a rotten Deputy. South Africans have learnt from painful experience that Ramaphosa lacks the courage to do the right thing. That is why the DA will now step up to lead by intensifying our campaign for Mashatile to be held accountable via other avenues,” he said.