No quick fix for SA:
• Former deputy minister says Zuma vote not a cure-all
The vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma would not bring immediate solutions to SA’s economic strife and corruption, former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas warned at a march in the parliamentary precinct on Monday.
He also said the ANC’s December elective conference — whose proceedings are expected to either seal the party’s fate or set it on a course of renewal — would not resolve the problems besetting the country.
Jonas spoke at the march organised under the banner of the United Behind coalition, a nonpartisan grouping that wants MPs to account to the public.
The demonstrators are in support of the motion and want Zuma to step down.
Jonas warned the crowd, however, against expecting Tuesday’s vote of no confidence, or even the potential ousting of Zuma, to solve SA’s myriad social ills, underscored by a struggling economy and an erosion in governance.
The government needed to be re-engineered to mitigate the rampant abuse of power being experienced now, said Jonas.
Tuesday’s vote “is a first step in the mission to save SA. But it will not solve our problems. Even December will not solve our problems,” he said, referring to the ANC’s elective conference scheduled for the end of 2017.
“Our problems will only be solved by rebuilding our government and economy into one which places South Africans’ wellbeing at the centrality of all that it does,” said Jonas.
The march was a relatively small gathering, given that it was held on a work day.
More marches are planned for Tuesday in support of and against the motion of no confidence debate.
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba, a longstanding critic of Zuma, also spoke at the demonstration.
He said any vote cast by a member in the National Assembly that was not made with the guidance of their conscience would be wasted.
The Unite Behind coalition comprises civil society organisations such as rights groups, religious formations and environmental awareness bodies.
It is part of a rising tide of civil activism that has resulted in the formation of organisations such as Save SA, the face of which is ANC veteran and businessman Sipho Pityana, and Future SA, which is affiliated to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse.
Each of the groups has embarked on campaigns against the president including marches and the compilation of affidavits for submission in the event a state of capture inquiry gets under way.
The parliamentary precinct is expected to come under heavy police guard in anticipation of the marches taking place in Cape Town on Tuesday. The infamous “white shirts”— parliamentary security personnel — are also expected to make an appearance when the noconfidence debate gets under way in the afternoon.