Should he stay or should he go? Pravin Gordhan has Mzansi all a Twitter
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Calls for the removal of public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan have sparked a debate online and divided social media.
This after Gordhan was called out by EFF leader Julius Malema, who said the upcoming state of the nation address (Sona) will be disrupted should President Cyril Ramaphosa not remove the minister.
TimesLIVE reported that Malema made the threats during his address in the North West on Sunday.
“I want to tell Cyril Ramaphosa today that if he can’t fire Pravin before the state of the nation address, the state of the nation address shall be about Pravin.
“We will stand up there. We will stop him from speaking. We will tell him you must fire Pravin because we must protect SA’s assets. If Ramaphosa is not prepared to protect our assets by firing Pravin, then Ramaphosa must go.”
Malema's call comes after deputy president David Mabuza said Gordhan “mislead” Ramaphosa about the situation at Eskom.
“They’ve misled the president, but right from the day we went there with the president I insisted on maintenance. Maintenance of these power stations is very important,” Mabuza said.
On Twitter, many who have been dissatisfied with the services of key state-owned entities joined the online debate, calling for the axing of Gordhan.
Black First Land First (BLF) started a petition to Ramaphosa to have Gordhan removed. So far, more than 1,000 people have signed.
“For load-shedding to end, Pravin Gordhan must go. There are competent and tested South Africans who can end load-shedding again, namely Dr Ben Ngubane, Brain Molefe, and Matshela Koko, but they won’t be asked to come and rescue Eskom because Gordhan considers these patriots as his opponents.
“The consequence of it all is the continued load-shedding by misleading the president and the nation.”
However, others said the call was a baseless attack.
Here is what Tweeps had to say.