President Ramaphosa not ill but at home, says spokesperson. Picture: Kopano Tlape/GCIS
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s absence from some of the ANC activities in Bombela where the party has been preparing for its upcoming January 8 Statement has set tongues wagging.
This comes after the ANC announced that Ramaphosa has been excused from taking part in the weekend activities in Mbombela due to an unexplained “emergency”.
The ANC reported that deputy president Paul Mashatile will be standing in for Ramaphosa while he deals with this emergency.
News of this emergency has resulted in rumours and speculations, with many assuming that the president has taken ill, while many others have attributed his absence to an emergency meeting dedicated to the emergence of the MK Party which has been hosting its own election campaigns across the country.
On Sunday, presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, took to social media to address the rumour mongers, saying: “A malicious rumour has been doing the rounds about the president's health and that he has been hospitalised.
“The president is fine, he was never hospitalised, and there was no emergency. He attended a meeting and decided to spend the rest of the day at home ahead of a busy week.”
The rumour mill which started on Sunday came after ANC national spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, announced that Ramaphosa had cancelled some of his scheduled appearances at a church service in Mbombela alongside other commitments with the ANC cadres forum in Bushbuckridge.
At the time, Bhengu-Motsiri indicated that there was a pressing emergency matter that Ramaphosa was attending which prevented him from being part of the day’s activities in Mbombela.
Ramaphosa’s rumoured ill health comes barely a week after the same was said about former president Thabo Mbeki last week.
This forced the Thabo Mbeki Foundation to issue a statement dismissing this fake report which took off on social media.
The Star