Cyril-Tito clash over Zambia Tweet. Who is right?
President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken the unusual move of publicly lambasting Finance Minister Tito Mboweni. His tone was that of a principal scolding a naughty schoolboy, with an announcement he has 'strongly reprimanded' Mboweni for threatening to 'mobilise' if reasons for the removal of Zambia's Central Bank Governor, by President Edgar Lungu, weren't forthcoming.
Mboweni's original Tweet disappeared from his time-line. But the finance minister shared Ramaphosa's announcement.
There is a school of thought that Mboweni should not step out of line and is accountable to his 'manager' Ramaphosa. But, many of Mboweni's 865k followers rallied to his defence.
A comment from the DA's Leon Schreiber sums up why Mboweni appears to have the moral high ground. "Simple, you can steal…as much as you want to, just don't speak! That's a huge crime," says Dr Schreiber, of the conspicuous absence of reprimands for the corrupt and the captured among the ANC's leadership.
PS: On an uplifting note, Tygerberg Hospital doctors have come up with a novel way to protect themselves from Covid-19. They are sporting, as my Cape Town colleague Jarryd Neves reports, refashioned snorkel masks 'usually worn to take in the gorgeous scenery to be found under the water surface'. More on that, plus pictures, here.