Daily Dispatch

Potential for conflict rising

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A WEEK ago I highlighte­d my concerns about the selfishnes­s and self-serving attitude of the president of South Africa by recalling the then minister of finance Pravin Gordhan and his deputy (March 29), but that was just a tip of the iceberg.

His decisions have not only caused SA to become a junk state, but there is something else that most of us are not seeing as a direct cause of his decisions – a looming civil and possibly ethnic war in this country.

People are tired of him being a president (definitely I am) and are prepared to face whatever threats the Zuma alliances are throwing around at the moment.

Who cares about sjamboks that the ANC Youth League is promising to use against those who will be marching on Friday. The people who will be marching have faced guns and other weapons before, and yet these young people who have no clue about the struggle are telling us about sjamboks. What is a sjambok compared to the weapons we have faced in the past? Where were they when we faced bullets in 1976? Where were they when we dodged bullets in the Lesotho massacre in 1982? Now we must let what we fought for to be destroyed overnight for selfish gains? NO! NO! NO!

The president is forcing those in the NEC who have criticised the way he has handled the socalled Cabinet reshuffle to apologise to him. What for? Cowards may apologise, but we as concerned citizens of SA will not! NEVER!!

How can he remove ministers who are performing and doing well for our country and leave behind those who have no clue of what they are doing? What is happening to our beautiful South Africa? We are becoming a laughing stock, but we are not going to sit back and do nothing. — L Lubanga, via e-mail

AS a very concerned South African I wish to comment on the latest harrowing developmen­ts in our beloved country.

I had a fiery discussion with my friend about the legality and legitimacy of the president doing what he has done. As in the case of apartheid, the callous actions of the then government were to my mind legal, but not legitimate in the sense that they went against the will of the people.

Now, the president may have consulted with a list of his proposed new Cabinet, but now there are overwhelmi­ng signs that the final list was drawn up in Saxonwold! His reshufflin­g of the Cabinet might have been legal, but was it legitimate?

The deputy president is perplexed then silent. The secretary-general of the ruling party is in uproar then in retreat. The informed public is confounded.

Former minister Jay Naidoo tweeted that he cannot for the life of him believe he will have to fight again against an illegitima­te government in the RSA? The Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa has expressed his utmost dismay, as have many others.

My fellow readers, I beg you, we cannot continue to lose billions from our economy just because of the whims of one man who, for reasons only he knows, is out to run this beautiful land into smithereen­s?

What of his cronies, you might ask. Dare I say that as the former intelligen­ce head of the ANC, he knows more about any skeletons in the cupboards of his leadership than you and I know. Why else the pathetic subservien­ce displayed so publicly?

I implore you, fellow South Africans, whether you are communist, socialist, capitalist, whatever, let us unite and stand, non-violently, against this curse and scourge in our midst. I am begging you, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our nation. — Francis Sonn, Mthatha

WHEN I saw the headline about President Jacob Zuma firing Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, I chuckled “Ahaaa, this is the Dispatch’s annual April Fool’s joke.” But reading further I found this was no joke, but another reckless stunt by the Lunatic-in-Charge.

It is clear that the April Fools are the misguided ANC MPs who consistent­ly vote against the motions of no-confidence proposed time and again.

Surely, this time Zuma has gone too far. Follow your conscience­s, let us rid our country of this greedy, self-seeking president. If we do not, the last laugh will be on us. Heh heh heh. — Kingsley Kingon, via e-mail

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