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President Ramaphosa’s failure to make good on his much-promised but never-delivered commitment to lifestyle audits for cabinet ministers is yet more evidence that his cabinet must go.

I will be submitting questions to the president, to establish exactly why he has failed to make good on this long-standing promise to the nation.

Should the DA’s motion of no confidence in his cabinet pass, it will at least set the clock back to day one, and he can deliver lifestyle audits on his new and hopefully much improved cabinet.

If he and his cabinet did not fear the prospect of independent lifestyle audits for cabinet ministers, the process would have been completed long ago, as it has been in the DA-run Western Cape.

It is now four full years since Ramaphosa first promised lifestyle audits for cabinet members, in his State of the Nation Address in February 2018. “This is something we have to do, starting with the executive of the country,” he said.

On 31 August 2020, Ramaphosa again pledged to conduct lifestyle audits of all ANC leaders and public representatives.

In November 2020, the Presidency committed to completing lifestyle audits for cabinet ministers by March 2021. A year later, and nothing has happened.

Yet yesterday, public service and administration minister Ayanda Dlodlo admitted that no progress has been made on lifestyle audits for ministers, claiming that these are less urgent than for directors.

Let’s be clear. Cabinet ministers must be first in line for lifestyle audits. The fish rots from the head.

Let’s also be clear about why Ramaphosa has failed to fulfil his promise to the nation. He can’t afford to push them through, as that would mean exposing the corruption in his own cabinet. This he cannot and will not do, because for him, ANC unity takes priority over the wellbeing of the nation and people’s dire need for an honest cabinet that gets things done for them.

Alternatively, his own cabinet has simply ignored his multiple directives or failed to deliver on his promises.

Contrast this with the DA-run Western Cape, where DA premier Alan Winde promised independent lifestyle audits and delivered them, completed, nine months later.

This is the DA difference. The DA spends public money to get things done for people, whilst the ANC national government is failing dismally to deliver on its most basic responsibilities.

Life in South Africa will not improve while this rag-tag mob of crooks and free-loaders is running the country. They must go.

Issued by Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen MP