Dlamini-Zuma Denies Pulling The Strings in Government

Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has denied claims that she alone is the politician who has been instigating the controversial restrictions on cigarettes and alcohol during the nationwide lockdown.

Speaking during a briefing of the NCCC, in which various ministers outlined their respective portfolio’s response to the latest changes to the Disaster Management Act following the shift to Level 2 lockdown, she said that she does not make the final decisions.

“People are giving me too much credit that I do not deserve,” she said. “I do not run the government. I am part of a collective in government, but I don’t run it.”

“The way people have been putting it, it is as if the entire cabinet, I tell them ‘we are going to limit the sale of tobacco, now we are going to sell tobacco, now the booze is limited, now it can be sold… no, I don’t do that,” she said.