Don’t beg Zuma to vacate office

The ANC is at the crossroads of hell because of one individual – President Jacob Zuma.

He has become bigger than the ANC, an organisation that deployed him to his current position. He has also become bigger than South Africa and the people who gave him the privilege to serve.

In all honesty, Zuma is the worst president the country has ever had. And now history is absolving former president Thabo Mbeki for the catastrophe that could have been averted in 2007.

Zuma’s tenure as the country’s president has caused economic mayhem unseen before in this country. Rampant corruption, patronage, state capture and merciless looting have come to characterise his misrule.

Now the ANC wants to cleanse itself and move away from the dark shadow he has cast over it. But he stands in its way. He is holding on and doesn’t want to let go. By so doing, Zuma is requesting to be humiliated even if the ANC leadership did not want to see that happening.

So, the ANC should not beg him anymore. They have already done that and it is enough. They should not bend until they break.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of the ANC, must take the bull by its horns, follow organisational procedure and fire the man.

There is something strange in the present leadership situation of the ANC and the country. As the deputy president of the country, Ramaphosa is Zuma’s subordinate in government but he is, in fact, Zuma’s boss because he is the president of the ANC, which is the centre of power, as Zuma has so often stated.

This kind of situation is unprecedented and it needs brave hearts and cool heads to deal with it.

Abe Mokoena Polokwane