Calls for Zuma to be axed
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s rivals want him removed from office, with opposition parties leading the charge to have him recalled.
Zuma made an about-turn on Sunday night of his decision to appoint David van Rooyen as finance minister, replacing him with Pravin Gordhan after only four days.
The DA has renewed its calls to have Zuma impeached because “the nation has entirely lost confidence” in him.
A number of academic and local celebrities and personalities have penned open letters to Zuma lamenting the cabinet reshuffle, marches against Zuma have been planned, online petitions calling for Zuma to step down have garnered more than 100 000 signatures, the hashtag #ZumaMustFall trended on Friday and opposition parties have been united in their call for the president to be recalled.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane wrote to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete yesterday, demanding on behalf of South Africa that the House debate a motion of no confidence in Zuma at the first sitting next year.
“I have petitioned the Speaker in terms of Rule 102A of the National Assembly that a Motion of No Confidence in President Zuma must be urgently scheduled because the nation has entirely lost confidence in Jacob Zuma as our president.”
Parliament is only scheduled to re-open on February 12, but Maimane said South Africa cannot wait that long, and the DA has therefore also petitioned the Speaker to bring forward the opening of Parliament to the second week of January.
Maimane said his party was seeking legal advice to ensure cabinet ministers be excluded from the vote of no confidence because it would directly affect their positions.
Cope described the president as a “walking, talking disaster”. The party’s spokesman, Dennis Bloem, said Zuma “is such a disaster that his remaining in office will continue to impact South Africa very negatively – the effects of which will last for a long time”.
The EFF called for Zuma’s immediate resignation “before he plunges the country into a deeper crisis”.
“No amount of explanation can save the ANC from the embarrassment and the joke they have put the entire country through,” the party said.
Cosatu said it respected the president’s attempts and “efforts to fix what people of this country were objecting to”.
Stellenbosch University professor of Political Science, Amanda Gouws, said with the backing of ANC MPs, calls for Zuma to step down would “serve little or no impact to his position”. “Zuma has become a very serious liability for the ANC and for the country. The honourable thing for the ANC to do is to recall Zuma…”
Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Janine Myburgh said it was a relief to have Gordhan back as finance minister. “My big hope is that the tremendous outpouring of support for Mr Nene and now for Mr Gordhan will give the rightthinking members of the cabinet the courage to stand firm and resist being bullied into decisions they know are not in the best interests of the country.”