Ministers had their fair share of laughter during their swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa may have made an honest mistake during the swearing-in ceremony of Cabinet ministers and their deputies as members of the national executive. However, his reaction to it left South Africans wondering if it was intentional.
Steenhuisen, recently appointed minister of agriculture, lacks tertiary education, making him a target of ridicule by fellow politicians whenever the opportunity arises.
‘Dr Steenhuisen…’
When the country least expected it, Ramaphosa added salt to the wound on Wednesday during the swearing-in ceremony.
As he was reading the names of the ministers to be sworn in by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Ramaphosa referred to Steenhuisen as “doctor”, only to backtrack with a laugh.
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Ramaphosa called upon Dr Leon Amos Schreider and “Dr” John Henry Steenhuisen… “Did I say Dr or Mr?” much to the ministers’ amusement.
The president later apologised for missing some titles.
“I may have missed a prefix in any one of those. If I did, by not mentioning either doctor or whatever, or inkosi, may I be forgiven. I now request the chief justice to either swear or affirm the ministers into office,” he said.
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The president was not the only one who left the ministers in stitches with his blunder.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, was reminded of his past encounter with a judge who sentenced him for armed robbery in 1996.
McKenzie’s prison trauma resurfaces
Zondo initially requested McKenzie to repeat his oath as he had said it “too fast”. When he got into it, McKenzie threw shade at Mantashe, who had earlier made a blunder of his own.
McKenzie undertook “not to divulge, like Mr Mantashe, directly or indirectly, any secret matter entrusted to him.”
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When Zondo asked him to take a seat to sign his oath, he said: “The last time a judge asked me to take a seat, he made me sit for 10 years.”
Earlier, Mineral Resources and Petroleum Minister Gwede Mantashe undertook “to divulge” secret matters instead of the opposite, much to the amusement of his colleagues.
Watch Mantashe’s blunder below
“There is a problem, Mr president,” Zondo responded to Mantashe’s blunder.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Pemmy Majodina’s struggle was with the english word “conscientiously”.
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She had to repeat it several times until she got it right with the chief justice’s assistance.
