In his response to the SONA debate, President Cyril Ramaphosa sought to deal with COPE leader, Terror Lekota and EFF leader, Julius Malema first before getting to crux of the occasion.

Ramaphosa addresses Lekota “sell-out” rumours

Remember, Lekota, on Wednesday, turned South Africa on its head when he accused Ramaphosa of selling out the liberation movement.

Read – “Cyril sold us out to apartheid cops” – Mosiuoa Lekota’s shock claim

“When it was difficult, you wrote to the special branch saying that we put communist ideas in your head. In doing so, you condemned us to the special branch! I say this to you,because the special branch rewarded you as they always rewarded their victims and sent you home.” Lekota said.



Lekota’s accusations spurred the red beret to call for a commission of inquiry into the claims.

“The EFF takes seriously, the allegations made by the leader of COPE, Mosioua Lekota that President Ramaphosa collaborated with apartheid Special Branch and sold out his comrades, in order to avoid imprisonments around 1972 and 1974. “As a result, the CIC Julius Malema has written to President Ramaphosa to allow the Chief Justice to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate these allegations in order to clear the matter once and for all,” the EFF responded in a statement.

Before touching on matters of importance like concerns around Eskom, unemployment and education, Ramaphosa addressed the two opposition leaders.

Read – EFF calls for commission of inquiry after Lekota bombshell

He denied Lekota’s accusations, putting his word on his father, Samuel Ramaphosa, that he refused to turn state witness.

Ramaphosa: “I never sold us out”

Under all the pressure and harassment he endured, Ramaphosa swore that he remained loyal and committed to the power of the liberation movement.

He said all of this to alert Lekota and Malema to the dangers of spreading rumours of this nature.

Ramaphosa brought to attention the rhetoric that surrounded former president Nelson Mandela when it was alleged that he had turned against the liberation movement and sold South Africans out.

Read – Response to SONA debate: Cyril Ramaphosa at a crossroads

“Walter Sisulu told me that you look at the character of your leader. That will tell you . Peddling stories like this kills people,” he said.

This character, Ramaphosa stated, is what formed his decision when he had heard that Malema and the EFF were an MI6 project.

Ramaphosa brings up EFF-MI6 rumours

This, according to Ramaphosa, was linked to Malema’s 2015 trip to London. Back then, the party alleged that they had been invited by Oxford Union, Chatham House, HARDtalk and others to embark on the tour.

Read – SONA Debate live stream: Watch Cyril Ramaphosa’s response here

“We did not request to speak at Oxford Union. Oxford Union wrote to us and requested that the CIC [commander in chief] come and address them. It is the same with Chatham House [independent policy institute], HARDtalk [BBC current affairs show], etc. “We had similar invitations in Botswana last year, but the Botswana government then resolved to ban the EFF leadership from ever coming to Botswana. We also had to speak in Zimbabwe this year and it was cancelled due to xenophobic violence in South Africa,” EFF’s Mbuyiseli Ndlozi had said in a statement.

The rumours that had developed from the controversy of the trip, Ramaphosa said, were quickly ignored by him because of what he had known about Malema’s character.

Malema, apparently conceding to the president’s response, could do nothing but shake his death in laughter with his comrades.