Never mind the matrics big moment on Thursday evening, for as basic education minister Angie Motshekga made her 2021 matric results announcement, the presidency released a bombshell statement.
The statement read that President Ramaphosa had “admonished” his tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu for her opinion piece published in early January where she criticised our judges and constitution while adding that Sisulu would retract her comments and apologise to the SA judiciary.
“I accept that my column has levelled against the judiciary and African judges in particular unsubstantiated, gratuitous and deeply hurtful comments,” said Sisulu.
“I retract unequivocally my hurtful comments. I recognise that many women and men, judges past and present, have served their country in the judiciary with dedication and patriotism and some have made sterling sacrifices in the fight against apartheid and colonialism.
But in an about-turn nearly two hours later, Sisulu came out guns blazing and gave the presidency the middle finger, claiming Ramaphosa was lying.
“I wish to categorically disown this statement in its entirety as a misrepresentation of the said meeting I had with the president. The president and I met on Wednesday at 21:00 at his house,” she said in a statement
She added, “Under no circumstances did I commit to any retraction or apology since I stand by what I penned. The 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.”
Sisulu said she would be releasing a full statement in the next 24 hours. One can only speculate as to what she will say next.
It seems like Sisulu is trying to force the president’s hand into being fired, reports Daily Maverick and the meeting between the pair is devolving into an outright gunfight for the ANC presidency.
While the presidency for its part stands by its statement and in a terse second statement released after Sisulu retracted her retraction it said, “the Presidency has nothing to add to the earlier statement.”
But being “ANC royalty” means you should never have to explain yourself or apologise for any of your actions, just like any other royal, writes Rebecca Davis for Daily Maverick.
Davis writes that you can count on one hand the number of times Sisulu has apologised for something and in the past when she has been confronted with evidence of her failings, her standard response has been to turn it around on her accuser.
“…in a manner that would almost be comical in its childishness, if it were not so breathtakingly inappropriate from a Cabinet minister,” comments Davis.
On the currency front, the rand closed yesterday 0.8% stronger against the dollar and is still trading at R15.20 this morning. “The rest of the emerging market space was also on the front foot, with the Brazilian real trading almost 1% stronger. The outlier on the EM front is Russia, with geopolitical issues between them and the US placing a dampener on the currency,” comments forex trading house TreasuryONE.
In commodities, gold continues to have a good week, currently trading at $1,841, platinum is slightly weaker at $1,035 and palladium is at $2,047. “Nickel stockpiles has stabilised yesterday but there remains tight supply of the metal. Oil has slipped from yesterday’s 7-year highs of $89.00 on higher US inventories and some profit-taking,” says TreasuryONE.
Brent crude is currently trading at $87.10 a barrel.
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:
SA Business
South Africa gets $750 million World Bank loan to bolster COVID recovery effort – Reuters
2022 Banking fees compared: Capitec vs FNB vs Nedbank vs Absa vs Standard Bank – BusinessTech
South Africa’s matric pass rate improves slightly to 76.4% despite ‘extremely difficult circumstances’ – Daily Maverick
Global Business
Bank of England to raise rates again in February as inflation surges: Reuters poll – Reuters
Netflix faces rocky road after pandemic wins – BBC News
Elon Musk’s Neuralink is hiring a clinical trial director as it moves towards testing chip implants in humans – Business Insider
Markets
Asian markets fall after weak showing on Wall St, oil tumbles – Reuters
Gold down, but heads for second consecutive weekly gain – Investing.com
Nasdaq 100 enters correction as tech stocks resume slide – Bloomberg
Opinion/In-depth
The curious case of Zandile Mafe and the ghost of Dimitri Tsafendas – Daily Maverick
6 questions and answers about Apple: Why the stock has not been a buy – Seeking Alpha
How COVID gave African countries the opportunity to improve public health – The Conversation
Video
Whistleblower Athol Williams on Bain & Co’s strategic ransacking of SARS – Biznews
CES 2022: The future of mobility – Deutsche Welle
Hospital greed is destroying our nurses. Here’s why. | NYT Opinion – New York Times
Image: GCIS
