Vavi calls for Zuma’s removal
A ‘mistake’ to elevate him into office
FORMER Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi says the move to elect Jacob Zuma to a top ANC position was a terrible mistake.
He was addressing a more than 25 000-strong crowd which marched the streets of Pretoria yesterday to the Union Buildings, demanding Zuma step down.
Vavi said: “We made a mistake in elevating....who was facing 783 charges. The first thing he did was to dissolve the Scorpions and some of us stupidly gave him a round of applause.”
He criticised Zuma for removing for mer National Prosecting Authority boss advocate Mxolisi Nxasana and replacing him with a “spineless advocate called (Shaun) Abrahams”.
“He removed from the Hawks a celebrated MK commander of the Western Cape, (Anwa) Dramat, forced him out by giving him R3 million so that he can employ an apartheid policeman (Berning) Ntlemeza,” he said.
Zuma’s other blunders included the appointment of “a social worker” Riah Phinyega, who after her ascension to the top police rank “Marikana happened”.
Vavi castigated Zuma for making Hlaudi Motsoeneng the SABC chief operating offi- cer despite having a “standard seven qualification”.
“You now know that the staff at the SABC may not get any salaries at the end of this month,”he said.
He lambasted Zuma for the financial crisis at South African Airways and for letting the Gupta family get involved at power utility Eskom. People were mobilised to take a stand against Zuma’s nuclear deal with Russia because it would be costly for the government and dangerous to society.
“If we allow them, your children and your grandchildren and many generations to come would still be paying Russians, Zuma’s friends, until we are mortgaged as a country to Russia and France,” Vavi said.
He called on marchers to remove Zuma from presidential office.
The march was joined by workers’ unions, religious groups, student movements and political parties under the banner #SaveSouthAfrica.
Sipho Pityana, national convener of the campaign, said Zuma had disgraced the office of the president.
“He has turned it into a den of iniquity.
“It is a mere toy telephone for the real seat of power – the Saxonwold shebeen, where our president sits and gets instructions from this corrupt clique on who to appoint as a minister, director-general, board of stateowned entities and leaders of government institutions.”