Ramaphosa is 'useless, spineless', must resign says South African billionaire

Calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign are mounting, though he is showing signs that he is not fazed.

This time South African billionaire Rob Hersov has said Ramaphosa was an embarrassment and should resign immediately.

Hersvov did not mince his words as he went as far as describing Ramaphosa as a failure, a disgrace, a disappointment and labelled his Cabinet as "clowns".

Hersov was speaking at the BizNews Conference this week. He also conceded that every time he stood up and spoke at conferences like this, he lost friends, contacts and it cost him a lot of money.

"So I don't know why I'm doing this, and if you see that sort of sniper red light flickering in the room, duck because it's after me, okay, it's not after you," joked Hersov.

"So I'm just going to start by saying Ramaphosa is a disgrace. He is a disappointment. He is an absolute embarrassment to this country and he should immediately resign. But I started with a little bit more, that I absolutely am going to tell you why that man (Ramaphosa) is a useless, spineless failure. And it's a bit of an embarrassment that the speaker opened the introduction of me by saying that, you know, our family gave Ramaphosa the chance

to step up. So if I'm to blame, I apologise to all of South Africa, all of Africa and the world for such a disgrace being the president of our country," said Hersov.

He pierced through Ramaphosa's Cabinet of 27 ministers, and pointed out that each minister has a DG.

"And look, when I flicked down very quickly the ages of these corrupt clowns, criminals … Other than one or two, most of the ministers are my age and a lot of them are older. All of them are incompetent. They have been moved from ministerial posts to ministerial posts without any skills. And not a single one of these people has ever been in business, so they don't know how to run organisations. They don't worry about the bottom line, they just worry about what they are getting out of it. This clown Cabinet runs the country. It's disgusting, it makes me angry when I look at some of these people," he said.

While he questioned the competence of some ministers, Hersov mentioned a handful of ministers whom he said were good or might be on the right track. Those included Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, and Human Settlement Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane.

"There is some good there but there's a lot of bad and a lot of evil. And I've got to say that if you put Police Minister Bheki Cele at the top of the evil list, he'd be number one, two and three; what a disaster, what a useless piece of ... I'll stop right there. So these useless people are running our country and these useless people are going to get voted in in 2024 unless the coalition get their act together. And unless the 55% of the population who didn't vote, get out and vote. About 55% of our voting population did not vote. We need all of you to get up, donate and vote for the opposition," said Hersov.

Amid Hersov discussing how the country was being governed, he mentioned a few individuals, some in business, academics, ANC and other sectors as a solution to the Cabinet.

"Enough is enough. I said last year that South Africa is not investable from a foreign direct investment standpoint. Why would a foreigner put a cent into this country? You've got BEE theft, you've got EWC theft. You've got an incompetent Cabinet of clowns, you've got over-regulation, and you've got elites raping and pillaging this country, and a disorganised opposition at the moment but coming together, why would anyone invest in this country?" asked Hersov.

Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya was contacted for comment but by deadline he had not replied.