By Alessandro Parodi and Sfundo Parakozov
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South African President Cyril Ramaphosa fired a senior member of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party as deputy trade minister, causing further friction with his party’s main coalition partner.
Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) and the DA have clashed over this year’s budget and policies to address racial inequality, but the multiparty government formed after a steep drop in ANC support at last year’s election has held.
The president’s office did not give a reason why Andrew Whitfield had been removed as one of two deputy ministers of trade, industry and competition on Wednesday and said no wholesale cabinet reshuffle was planned.
But DA leader John Steenhuisen said the reason was that Whitfield had travelled abroad without Ramaphosa’s permission.
Steenhuisen said Whitfield had written to seek permission for the trip to the United States earlier this year but had received no response.
He called Whitfield’s removal from cabinet “a calculated political assault on the second-largest party in the governing coalition” and said Ramaphosa should instead fire ANC officials implicated in corruption scandals.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya did not respond to a request for comment on Steenhuisen’s remarks.
Political and financial analysts said they expected the coalition government to stay intact despite the latest public spat between the ANC and DA.
Earlier in the year the rand currency and government bonds dropped sharply over fears the DA could quit the coalition because of disagreements over the budget, but there was no steep sell-off on Thursday.
Steenhuisen said his party would vote on Thursday in favour of the Division of Revenue Bill, one of the key pieces of legislation underpinning the budget, despite Whitfield being sacked.
The DA’s Federal Executive is due to meet later on Thursday for further deliberations.
(Additional reporting by Nellie Peyton and Siyanda Mthethwa;Writing by Alexander WinningEditing by Gareth Jones)
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