Former presidents call for SA to come together to heal ‘sick’ nation
AN exclusive club has come out and criticised one of its own. This when three former presidents added to the call for the country to come together to heal a “sick” South Africa.
The three – FW de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe – whose years in office spanned from apartheid to the fledgling democracy, urged South Africans to defend the constitution.
“The rose we planted in 1994 is indeed sick,” Mbeki said, referring to the election that brought Nelson Mandela to power.
The former presidents were launching The National Dialogue Initiative, which will be taken on a road show across the country, to encourage South Africans to discuss the issues facing the nation.
The dialogues will take the for m of imbizo styled meetings. Afterwards a report will be compiled that will detail recurring themes and concerns raised by South Africans. This report will then form part of a national conference, which the organisers hope will stimulate further research and policy formation.
“No person or institution should have more authority than the will of the people,” Mbeki said.
All three former presidents touched on issues that have shaped the political landscape in the past couple of years including corruption, state capture, and the Constitutional Court’s judgement on the R246 million spend on Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.
Mbeki pointed out that the Nkandla judgement was something to consider when assess- ing the power of a President.
He said he was also worried about the numerous government issues that ended up in court.
Motlanthe said at the heart of the country’s crisis was a lack of accountability to the citizens by elected officials.
“If we allow this unwholesome character of politics to continue while we wallow in silence, history will never forgive our generation.
“We would have been complicit in an act of betrayal. We would have lear ned nothing from history,” Motlanthe said.
The initiative is led by a number of foundations that include the Chief Albert Luthuli Foundation, Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Desmond & Leah Tutu Foundation and the Helen Suzman Foundation.
Also addressing the launch yesterday was former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
A court on Thursday ordered the president to explain the finance minister’s firing. The ANC called the order “pandering to the whims of the opposition.”
Calls are growing for Zuma to resign.
But it was De Klerk’s presence that also caused controversy yesterday.
Several EFF members stor med the event carrying placards written “FW de Klerk is a killer”.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said that his organisation welcomed any dialogue about the “fibre of the nation”.
But he said that it was unfortunate that former president De Klerk was there. “De Kerk used this platfor m to shine... South Africa is a better country than it was under his leadership, we are the darlings of the world,” he said.
“He has taken no responsibility for what he has done, he is not a good guy to be talking about the new South Africa”.