Manyi fends off journalists
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Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel has accused government spokesman Jimmy Manyi of being a racist over his remarks about an "over-concentration of coloureds" in the Western Cape.
A man with lots of hats, Jimmy Manyi kept that of “cabinet spokesman” clamped on firmly when he faced journalists on Thursday – the first time since Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel joined the chorus decrying him as a racist.
“Today I am wearing one hat. Cabinet spokesperson. That’s all we’re going to deal with. I know some of you are interested in a whole range of things, but I will not allow the cabinet airtime to be abused,” Manyi said.
Making it clear he would not answer questions about anything other than decisions of the cabinet, Manyi said: “Just to deal with this thing quickly … cabinet did not discuss the issue (of Manuel’s letter) so I will not take questions on that.
“Yesterday, I responded to say I have no comment on the matter and I continue not to have any comment on the matter.”
Journalists pressed on regardless, however.
Did Manyi feel his effectiveness as cabinet spokesman had been undermined, given that he had “become the story”?
“You be the judge,” he fired back.
Did he still feel confident in functioning as the spokesman when a senior cabinet minister had lost confidence in him?
“I feel very confident. Can’t you read the confidence just by looking at me?”
Why was the controversy over his controversial remarks (about the over-concentration of coloured people in the Western Cape) not being discussed, especially as a cabinet minister had responded so strongly?
“I have no clue,” he said.
He did reveal that he and Manuel had shaken hands when the two came face to face at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting in Pretoria.
“He was at the cabinet meeting and we were cordial to each other, we shook hands.”
Manuel on Wednesday said he wrote the letter to Manyi as a “compatriot”, in order to deliver a “wake-up call” about constitutional principles being thrown “overboard”.
His letter, which accused Manyi of racism of the “worst order”, followed the union Solidarity’s publication on YouTube of a television interview Manyi gave last year on employment equity provisions, when he was still director-general of labour. - Political Bureau
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