Editorial: God Stella, do the right thing and resign

Only last week, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the minister of communications, in an interview with City Press, sought to dispel the belief that she enjoys special protection even if she behaves in a rogue fashion.

She used colourful words to describe perceptions about her, saying: “There is the Trinity –God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But others think there is also God Stella.”

In words that could have been a premonition, she said: “All I know is that I serve at the pleasure of the president. If tomorrow he does not want me, I will go.”

Ndabeni-Abrahams was saying all of this to make the point that she had not deliberately tried to offend people and that she was solely driven by a desire to serve South Africans.

Read: Ramaphosa places minister on special leave for violating lockdown rules

But the huge gap between her sweet-sounding words and her actions has since proved to be bigger than Kimberley’s Big Hole.

She broke the physical distancing regulations intended to stop the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus by visiting the equally suspect Mdu Manana at his house, where they and others had lunch together and even posed for a picture.

The president has since put her on ice for two months and docked her salary for one month.

She ought to be ashamed for her flagrant disregard for rules that ordinary people are being kicked, punched and jailed for ignoring.

Although the president acted in an unprecedented fashion, there is still a case for arguing that he could have taken it further by firing her, since her bad behaviour is becoming a pattern and she is showing signs of acting with impunity.

Yes, we know that she was strategic in helping Ramaphosa win the ANC leadership race and then the presidency. But she is mistaken if she thinks that allows her to act with wanton impunity. She should, out of self-respect, resign from office if she believes the government rules are too inhibiting and cumbersome for her, as someone who is clearly stuck in her carefree ways.

She has since apologised for her conduct, but it is hard to believe that she is truly remorseful as this was the second incident of her wayward behaviour for which she had apologised since last year.

But South Africans will no longer brook her rogue tendencies and she might find herself on the street much sooner than she expected.

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City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.