NATIONAL NEWS - speculation continues around deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa’s possible axing, his campaigners say they are ready for the move, adding that they are also ready to fight back.
Following President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle last week, Ramaphosa’s supporters said they knew of the president's plan to also axe the deputy president.
Ramaphosa recently told Parliament he serves at the pleasure of the president, adding that if he was to be fired, he would accept it.
The deputy president's campaigners say that they are aware of an alleged intelligence report that they claim President Jacob Zuma will use to fire Ramaphosa and charge him with treason.
But they say they are not moved.
One of his campaigners Madoda Sambatha says: “If he were to do that, we should, therefore, give him an award of being a moemish of the century.”
He says that if the move happens it will benefit the deputy president.
“If this thing happens, the deputy president of the ANC will have moral support in South Africans.”
The deputy president's supporters say they are working behind the scenes to prepare for the president's decision and to respond.
DENIALISM
On Friday, President Zuma’s spokesperson said there was no basis for reports that the country’s leader would axe his deputy, speculation about which has weighed on the currency and bonds.
“It’s rumours and gossip and we don’t comment on them at all,” Zuma’s spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga told Reuters.
Answering questions in Parliament on Thursday about whether he might be sacked, Ramaphosa, a front-runner in December’s African National Congress leadership contest, said he could not speculate on rumours.
