Recently, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), the party’s alliance partners, announced that they also want the president to resign. The stalwarts briefed the media earlier on Tuesday following their meeting. They have previously raised concerns about the state of the ANC under President Zuma.
Similarly, the ANC stalwarts say they were unanimous in their decision to echo the late ANC veteran Ahmed Kathrada’s call for the president to step down. They have mentioned Nkandla, the State of Capture report and the recent Cabinet reshuffle as some of the reasons why they believe it’s time for the president to leave office.
In addition, Stalwart Murphy Morobe says they are now left with no choice but to make this call.
“The need to call on the ANC to recall President Zuma in now long overdue.”
They have called on South Africans to utilize every possible democratic and disciplined way to raise their voices against the president’s act.
Also, it was confirmed that the former President Kgalema Motlanthe said it would be best for Zuma to step down because he has lost all respect a leader should have.
He further said Zuma did not have a lot in his favour.
“The highest court in the land has judged him to have breached his oath of office. And I think that in itself makes it difficult for him to command the kind of respect which would be able to rally and unite the various sections of the South African population.”
ANC stalwarts further called on South Africans to support their call for the ruling party to recall the president by protesting and campaigning, saying they support any principled action that will ensure the ANC does the right thing.
They say South Africans must play their part.
“Anyone who senses that their Constitution is being undermined has all the right to go out into the streets to protest or campaign. We support disciplined and principled action to ensure that our organization, the ANC, does the honourable thing in the end and recall the president.”
ANC Stalwarts Frank Chikane also said, “We have a crisis and it’s a serious crisis.” The veterans say the ANC must act against the president for defying the top six by proceeding with his Cabinet changes even though the leaders expressed unhappiness.
However, ANC stalwarts say President Zuma cannot be allowed to continue serving as the leader of the organization when he defies the leadership of the movement. They expressed their unhappiness on how Zuma instructed Pravin Gordhan (Minister of Finance) to come back home from an investor roadshow and then fired him.
“Even the manner in which the president recalled Comrade Gordhan seems to almost indicate that he wanted to inflict maximum humiliation.”
In addition, Stalwart Cheryl Carolus says the question must be asked about where and who exactly the president consulted with on the Cabinet reshuffle, since he informed the top six about his plans and didn’t take their advice.
“The president decides he has no accountability to any of the structures of the ANC – and him and his jacket are going to make this decision. So the president is consulting somewhere.”
South Africa is presenting facing many challenges. The president of the country is being blamed for being responsible for the downfall of the country. However, the citizens hope that things will go back to normal as soon as possible.
