Programme of action to eject Zuma shaping up

Groups to turn up heat leading to August 8

Civil society organisations are embarking on a programme of action to recapture the state from President Jacob Zuma and his cronies.

The plan will be unveiled today, as the world marks the 99th birthday of the late icon Nelson Mandela.

Ahmed Kathrada Foundation executive director Neeshan Bolton said that over the past three months, civil society organisations have been meeting to discuss a more integrated and more effective way of campaigning against state capture.

The foundation would be working with organisations including the Save SA and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).

This is the second bid by civil society organisations to remove Zuma, who is seen as the primary sponsor of state capture. ANC veteran and Save SA convenor Sipho Pityana said yesterday that people were “sick and tired” of the looting and theft by Zuma and his cronies.

“As you know, South Africans have been exposed to an avalanche of information about state capture in recent months,” Pityana said during a media briefing on the conference for the future of South Africa in Graighall Park, Johannesburg.

“The nation is resounding in its demand that Zuma, the primary sponsor of this state capture project, steps down as president of our country with immediate effect,” Pityana said.

“However … a small clique that wields power in the ANC has thus far succeeded in not only keeping him in power but also that the forces of state capture continue with their agenda.

“He has sold the country out. He has betrayed many of us,” he added.

Pityana said ANC MPs have been placed in the most regrettable dilemma because they were being made to decide between the people and the party. ANC MPs have been ordered not to vote according to their conscience on the motion of no confidence in Zuma on August 8.

Pityana said South Africans should be agitated that resources were being siphoned off and taken abroad to benefit a few people.

At the same briefing, Outa revealed that it has produced a document which was delivered to parliament and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, explaining the corrupt relationship between Zuma and the Guptas.

“It details how key state institutions are targeted as honey pots and how control was seized,” Outa’s Dominique Msibi said.

“Zuma and the Guptas have had a relationship for over 17 years,” Msibi added.

/ MDUDUZI NDZINGI Dominique Msibi from Outa, left, Sipho Pityana of Save SA and Mandla Nkomfe, the convenor for the Conference for the Future of SA, address the media on plans to force Zuma to resign.