Ramaphosa NOT Sick, Says SA Presidency

A spokesperson for Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed rumours that the president of South Africa was hospitalised due to illness.

South Africans began speculating that their president was sick when his ruling party, the African National Congress, excused him from a meeting in Mbombela, Mpumalanga on Sunday, 7 January, due to an unexplained “emergency”.

Social media users immediately began contemplating the reason behind Ramaphosa’s absence, with some suggesting that he had been admitted to a military hospital in the country’s capital city, Pretoria.

“A malicious rumour has been doing the rounds about the President’s health and that he has been hospitalised. The President is fine, he was never hospitalised, and there was no emergency,” presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said via Twitter later the same day.

“He attended a meeting and decided to spend the rest of the day at home ahead of a busy week,” Magwenya explained.

Ramaphosa is expected to deliver a public statement on Monday, 8 January, as his party gears up for the approaching presidential elections.

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