SA Twitter goes wild after Dali Mpofu tells Gordhan to ‘shut up’

Advocate Dali Mpofu seems to have rather set off a firestorm on Twitter for telling Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and his lawyer to “shut up”.

Tensions no doubt reached boiling point at the State Capture Commission on Tuesday evening, 23 March 2021, when Gordhan’s legal counsel, advocate Michelle le Roux, interrupted Mpofu. He (Mpofu) had just objected to Gordhan making closing remarks, merely minutes before proceedings were to conclude.

“Chair, I’m on the floor. Really, I can’t stand this kind of behaviour. This cannot be happening for the third time. Miss le Roux must shut up when I am speaking,” a visibly upset Mpofu said.

“You too Mr Gordhan…you also shut up.”

‘Shut up’: Will Dali Mpofu ever apologise for his outburst?

Clips of Dali Mpofu’s outburst has been doing the rounds on Twitter for several hours and has raised all kinds of questions. Many are divided as to both Mpofu and le Roux’s conduct. While some are less than pleased with the tone and choice of language Mpofu used towards his learned colleague, others have instead come to his defence, arguing that she should not have interrupted him in the first place.

If you’re expecting Mpofu to apologise, as others have suggested on Twitter, don’t hold your breath. Responding to another tweet referring to the incident, he said the whole saga was a game of “let’s blame and attack the interruptee, not the interrupter”.

“I’d rather die 1,000 times than succumb to such indignity and disrespect! It will never happen. They can go jump in the nearest lake,” Mpofu said on Twitter.

Several members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), including Floyd Shivambu and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi also came to Mpofu’s defense. Both Ndlozi and Shivambu even made reference to another clip, showing President Cyril Ramaphosa saying those very words (“shut up”) to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) John Steenhuisen in Parliament.

There’s nothing wrong that Adv Dali Mpofu did. He was being disrespected and addressed in such a arrogant, racist & condescending manner. People always want to focus on the reaction instead of what led us there. Sometimes it’s necessary for natives to say Shut Up

— Modibe Modiba (@mmodiba10) March 24, 2021

When President Cyril Ramaphosa told John to "shut up" in parliament… The 702's applauded th president and said he's authoritative, doesn't take nonsense blah blah

When Adv Dali Mpofu told evidence leader and Pravin to shut up… They are saying he doesn't understand law

— Marxist (@Kgomo389) March 24, 2021