Happy birthday, Mr President
Huge protests set to march forward
ACOB Zuma turns 75 on Wednesday but it is unlikely the president will have a happy birthday as the largest anti-government protests since the dawn of democracy are set to continue.
The DA, EFF, Cope, United Democratic Movement and the African Christian Democratic Party will on Wednesday embark on a mass march to the Union Buildings to protest against the current political crisis facing the country and in light of the recent cabinet reshuffle, which has seen the rand tumble and the country’s economy reduced to junk status.
The march is expected to take place on Zuma’s 75th birthday.
“We don’t care about his birthday nor do we recognise him as the leader of this country. Ours is to stand united with the people of South Africa in defending our land against corruption,” UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said.
Yesterday thousands of people and civil organisations across the country organised marches calling for Zuma to resign.
Holomisa commended everyone for braving the weather and standing up for what is right.
“They did well. The intimidation by ANC members didn’t work. What we saw in the country represented a spirit of unity and tolerance in pursuit of one common goal, to save our country.”
He pointed out that the
Jupcoming march had nothing to do with competing with civil society or chasing numbers and added that even if 50 people showed up the march would still be significant.
ACDP president Kenneth Meshoe said: “South Africans are gatvol.”
Meshoe said it might be Zuma’s birthday but through the march it would be clear to the president that people no longer cared about him.
DA leader Mmus i Maimane said t he march was just the beginning of bigger things to come.
“We have started a movement for change. This is the start of rolling mass action, we will continue with the same actions until the ANC comes to its senses and agrees to remove him (Zuma),” he said.
Maimane called on all members of Parliament to remember their oath of office, to respect the constitution and to put South Africa first when they voted in Parliament in two weeks’ time.
The DA Gauteng leader, John Moodey, said the march was a clear message from thousands that it was a time for the ANC to act against Zuma.
Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem said the peaceful protests were reminiscent of the 1980s where people showed a united front.
“The people of this country have come out to show that they are sick of this president who thinks he is above the law. We are encouraged to see the rainbow nation united with one voice to say enough is enough,” he said.
Calls for Zuma to step down got even louder yesterday when news filtered in that Fitch, the inter national ratings agency, downgraded South Africa’s sovereign credit rating to sub- i nvestment grade, junk status.
Fitch pointed to Zuma’s decision to remove Pravin Gordhan as finance minister last week, s aying it was likely to mean a change in economic policy.
“In Fitch’s view, the cabinet reshuffle, which involved the replacement of the finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, and the deputy finance minister, Mcebisi Jonas, is likely to result in a change in the direction of economic policy.”
It suggested Gordhan may have been punished for efforts to improve the running of parastatals and said with him gone, these were now more likely to be a significant burden on the state’s balance sheet.
National Treasury acknowledged that the downgrade was a setback for the country but said the government remained committed to the fiscal policy outlined in the February budget and to improving the running of state-owned enterprises.
“We urge all South Africans to remain positive and continue to work hard in turning this economy around.”
Meanwhile, the pro-Zuma camp came out in support of the president too.
In a fake tweet, ANC presidential contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma referred to the Save SA protests on Friday as “rubbish”.
She was apparently responding to a Twitter conversation in which Treasury spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete said the Save SA protests were wellfunded.
Another person then said it’s mind-blowing how many resources t heir privile ge afforded them.
But last night DlaminiZuma then said the comments were made from a fake Twitter account and was being investigated.
Some members of the ANC are also looking forward to celebrating the president’s big day. Speaking at the ANC Youth League’s mini-rally in Ekurhuleni this week, ANC national working committee member and Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane said members of the ruling party in Gauteng would come out in numbers to celebrate Zuma’s birthday.
Amid calls for the ANC leader to step down, Mokonyane told the crowd that Zuma was going nowhere and would remain president until 2019. “WE’RE all South Africans,” shouted Cassidy Gray to the group of about 30 Black First Land First activists singing in front of her.
“No you’re not, you’re foreigners,” responded the activists, angrily rushing towards the 15-year-old. “Your ma se p**s. You’re a settler mother f****r! “
They pressed her into a group of Black Friday protesters in front of the Gupta family compound in the leafy upmarket enclave of Saxonwold yesterday.
“You think we are just black pawns here. You are f*****g settlers. Leave,” they shouted, in their efforts to protect the compound as a large contingent of police watched them closely.
The Black Friday protesters started to chant, “Zupta must fall,” while the Black First Land First activists responded, “Boere, one settler, one bullet. Boere boere, one settler, one bullet. Voetsek, f**k off.”
Cassidy, from Blairgowrie, was among several hundred protesters who gathered outside the compound in a peaceful Black Friday protest.
Scuffles ensued when the Black First Land First group arrived later to defend President Jacob Zuma and the controversial Gupta family.
“I was walking past them and they grabbed my sign about Zuma, fees must fall and Marikana and they tore it apart,” said Cassidy. “I wasn’t going to have that and I told them this is my country too. I’m not a settler, I was born in South Africa.
“They spat in my face, but I’m not scared. They came here to a peaceful protest and made it about race, where everyone here was so diverse.”
Residents drove past the Gupta home with placards pasted on to the windows of their expensive cars, declaring “Zuma must go.”
Opposite the compound, a large cardboard sign was stuck on a tree, warning: “Just f*****g go away Zuma and Guptas.”
The police separated the two groups using police tape. Later to disperse the crowd, the SAPS fired a stun grenade, and several more a few hours later, when protesters still refused to leave.
Lindsay Maasdorp, the national spokesperson for the Black First Land First movement, poured scorn on the anti-Zuma protesters.
“We know white people have organised black people to cast black people like the Guptas and Zuma as corrupt. But we know the state was captured when Jan van Riebeeck arrived 375 years ago. We know the black majority remains landless, dispossessed and oppressed. Now what sense does it make that we march with settler-colonisers around a black president who is duly elected?”
Listening to him, Saxonwold resident Nomsa Hadebe, shook her head, remarking Maasdorp was a “racist”.
“We’re not here to fight white people. We are standing together today,” she said.
Chasing after Sparky, her well-groomed Schnauzer dog, one Saxonwold resident said the Guptas had “brought Saxonwold into disrepute”.
“I think they’ve brought our property values down. You live here every day, it’s blue lights all up and down the street, there’s 25 million cars and security guards. This is a beautiful suburb. I want them (the Guptas) to go.”
To woo protesters, organisers announced the grand opening of the #Zupta shebeen in a pamphlet “on the Guptas pavement” at number 1 Saxonwold Drive. The closing time, it read, was “when Zuma goes” and asked “What would Mandela do? please come!”
“Get out of our suburb!” one protester yelled at the Gupta compound.
“This is the head office. This is where decisions are made now. Luthuli House is useless,” said Siyabonga Mbonambi, explaining why he joined the protest at Saxonwold instead of the Joburg march.
In the northern suburbs, small clusters of people stood on numerous intersections, holding anti-Zuma signs, soliciting hoots of approval from passing vehicles.
“I came here to protect my country that is being brought down by Zuma,” Mbongane Mbatha said.
Several protesters carried showerheads, a reference to the cartoonist Zapiro’s caricature of Zuma. – Additional reporting by Mark Olalde.