Calls for President Jacob Zuma’s political head grew exponentially on Wednesday as he withdrew his interdict against the release of (now former) Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report. The court has requested the report be released by 5pm, but Madonsela’s replacement Busisiwe Mkhwebane may hold back the report as the watchdog’s CEO resigned. Mass #SaveSA protests were held today by opposition parties and business, and new in the line-up of people who indicated that the president should go is ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe – who said the president should look to his conscience – and former ANC deputy secretary general Cheryl Carolus. At the gathering in Pretoria, Sipho Pityana and Judge Zac Yacoob voiced stirring messages that more than just Zuma should go. Apart from the “dirty-handed president”, the entire ANC national executive committee should follow. Cape Messenger editor Donwald Pressly reports back on the day’s proceedings. – Stuart Lowman
By Donwald Pressly*
Good people in South Africa should not sit on the sidelines as the momentum built up to push President Jacob Zuma from power, AngloGold Ashanti director and a leader of the Save SA campaign Sipho Pityana told the SAVE SA congregation at St Alban’s Anglican cathedral in Pretoria.
Pityana said the political problem did not only relate to the president but to the capture of state institutions, like the state-owned companies. He particularly pointed to the South African Airways. “We see how friends are allowed to run riot at the South African Airways… friends and girlfriends perhaps.” It was an obvious reference to the SAA chairperson, Dudu Myeni who is alleged to have a personal relationship with Zuma. Horrible things happened at Eskom, Denel, Transnet and the SABC “without any threat of sanction”, he said.
Speaking to the “people’s assembly”, organised by the Save SA campaign, at the cathedral he said. “The roots of state capture are deeply embedded in our state organs. There are many involved in this enterprise, including those who know about this thievery and blatant corruption but fail to take a stand. By doing nothing they are … condoning the wrong of the state capture. They are increasingly realising that they are on the wrong side of history. Their silence made them complicit.”
There was a growing line of people who were realising that what was going on was wrong. “We salute them wherever they are.” He, in particular, praised people in the ANC who were speaking out including Ministers Aaron Motsoaledi, Derek Hanekom, and ANC national assembly chief whip Jackson Mthembu.
People had taken a courageous stand against state looting. This included the press. Pityana also lauded the deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas – who reported that he had been offered a cabinet post by the Gupta family – and former government spokesman Themba Maseko and former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, who has also said she was offered a job by the Guptas and was also one of the litigants to have the state capture report made public. He also praised former SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay.
Dirty-handed president
Judge Zac Yacoob, a retired constitutional court judge who said he was no longer a member of the ANC, said that if a majority of the working committee of the ANC passed a resolution calling for President Zuma to resign “he would have to resign”. What did one say about the fact, asked Yacoob, “that even until now the majority of the members of the African National Congress working committee or even the NEC (national executive committee) (were) still saying that … this dirty-handed president must stay”.
It must follow necessarily, said Yacoob, that there is “some dirt in the hands of the majority of the NEC of the African National Congress. This is the truth we must face… I must inform all of you who are ANC members here… I am no longer one… I must tell you, there is a clause in the ANC constitution… which requires .. and you will not believe this… requires all members of the ANC to behave honesty.” Hivs call for the NEC to resign was met with roars of approval in the cathedral.
“The ANC is in power … if any party in power does what the ANC is doing, I would speak in the same way about them. So the first objective is to clean up even after Zuma falls… the ANC. Rout out all these dirty-handed people and replace them with clean people,” said Yacoob. “But more importantly than that… part of the problem in our country is that our constitution has been forgotten.” He said the constitution had emerged after hundreds of people died in the struggle for human rights and a constitutional order.
Pityana said that as long as President Zuma remained president of the country, “it is not possible to turn the situation (in South Africa) around”. Pityana – a former director general of foreign affairs who first called for the political head of Zuma at the funeral of former Eastern Cape Premier Arnold Makhenkesi Stofile – said the Save SA campaign had asked for a meeting with him. “We have asked for a meeting… we have told him that he is no longer deserving to lead this country.”
Cheryl Carolus, now a businesswoman, said she wanted to support Save SA: “We have a president in this country who happens to be the president of the African National Congress … and who as the first citizen of this country has been consistently mired … in controversies… some of the most spectacular violations of the highest laws of our land. That is just not right. We have made it very clear to the president he is not capable of leading the African National Congress or our country. We strongly believe that President Zuma must step aside so the good men and women of this country … can do what we believe we can and must do.”
Carolus said the country was in a crisis – in the midst of a global economic crisis. “As a country we are under-performing. We could have done a lot better if there was leadership.” The ANC had failed “our young people” around the tertiary institution fee crisis. “That process has escalated to unacceptable levels… our government and our NEC has been missing in action.”
Significantly Mantashe said before the rallies in Pretoria began – originally intended to support Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan who was to have appeared in court of fraud charges – that if the people were calling for him to step down, it was “an appeal to his (President Zuma’s) conscience”.
Reported on eNCA, he said whatever structure says to him “Gwede do the right thing! That ceases to be a call on the ANC by the way. It’s a call on me. It is an appeal to my own conscience whether I am president or SG or treasurer general or just a member of the NEC. It’s a call to me to appeal to my own conscience.” However, he was also reported as saying that the ANC was unable to recall the president.
- Donwald Pressly is editor Cape Messenger
