Ramaphosa laughs off rumours of ill health

Ramaphosa was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the wreath-laying ceremony at the gravesite of the late Dr Enos Mabuza at Louwville Cemetery in Mpumalanga on Monday.

The party is hosting a series of events in the province before its 112th birthday rally at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.

Ramaphosa’s absence from some activities in Mbombela on Sunday set tongues wagging, with speculation that his health had taken a turn for the worse.

The rumour mill went into overdrive after the ANC announced that its deputy president, Paul Mashatile, would be standing in for Ramaphosa while he deals with “an emergency”.

At the time, ANC spokesperson Bhengu-Motsiri indicated that there was a pressing emergency that Ramaphosa was attending to, which prevented him from being part of the day’s activities in Mbombela.

'I had meetings, then I continued working at home, clearly on the instructions of the officials, saying that 'we want you to be well preserved because the next six days will be very vigorous for you as a president',” Ramaphosa said on Monday.

“So the news of my illness and the news that I was in ICU are extremely exaggerated; I am fit as a fiddle, I have no illness whatsoever, I didn't collapse."

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya also took to social media on Sunday in an effort to quell the rumours.

"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. He attended a meeting and decided to spend the rest of the day at home ahead of a busy week," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).