SA ex-statesmen in call to act on ‘crisis’
Trio kick-start bid to heal ‘a national sickness’
THREE former presidents for the first time issued a joint call for action yesterday to end the nation’s “worsening” political crisis, the latest campaign targeting President Jacob Zuma.
In an unprecedented move, the country’s living former heads of state – Thabo Mbeki, FW de Klerk and Kgalema Motlanthe, joined by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka – announced a national dialogue to try to end the “destructive” crisis.
“Practically it is impossible for anyone in our country to argue against this reality of national sickness in our politics, in our economy,” Mbeki said on launching the national talks, under the heading “Reclaiming the South Africa of our dreams”.
“Our country is immersed in a general and worsening crisis,” Mbeki said.
“So it is that the rose our people planted, as represented by the victory of 1994, is indeed sick,” Mbeki added, referring to the year that marked the end of apartheid.
De Klerk, the last apartheid president, said the country “is in the grip of the most serious challenges that have confronted it since the establishment of our non-racial constitutional democracy 23 years ago“.
Squarely blaming Zuma for the crisis, De Klerk said “the core problem is that our president is not carrying out his duties in terms of the constitution”.
Zuma is facing a slew of corruption allegations and an ongoing crisis over a controversial cabinet shake-up in which he removed a respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan. The reshuffle caused the rand currency to tank and the country’s sovereign credit rating was downgraded to “junk status” by two global agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.
Motlanthe insisted the time had come for action to reclaim the country. “If we allow this unwholesome character of politics to continue while we wallow in silence, history will never forgive our generation,” he said. “This gathering becomes a national call. It seeks to be a turning point in the way people of our country relate to the political process,” he added. “It is only the beginning”.