Zuma govt a crime against SA, says Phosa
Citizen reporter
Presidential hopeful Mathews Phosa has staked out his anti-Zuma turf in a hard-hitting speech in which he said what the president and his cronies were doing to South Africa was the second-worst crime, after apartheid, against the country’s people.
Speaking at the Junior Indaba in Johannesburg, Phosa said that President Jacob Zuma “and all the public representatives and executive appointees must take joint and collective responsibility for not only massive damage to our economy, but also for raping the interests of the poor.
“Let me be clear: all members of Cabinet must take joint responsibility for the sad state of our nation.”
He said while Zuma and his allies spoke of radical economic transformation, “what we have seen under this president’s leadership would be better described as radical economic looting, leading to radical economic decline and uncertainty”.
He added that future generations would “hail the Derek Hanekoms, Mcebisi Jonases and Pravin Gordhans of this world as heroes.
“They sacrificed their jobs because of their honesty. I salute them and the Kgalema Motlanthes of this world, for understanding that good men cannot be silent in the face of such monstrous evil”.
Phosa said “the Cabinet, the National Assembly and the ANC NEC” should resign “and allow voters to choose the leaders they want.
“The massive disconnect between the comfort of the public representatives and the increasingly desolate voters they are supposed to serve has become unbridgeable. The past five years have seen the political decision-makers become the ‘haves’ and the electorate the ‘have nots’.”
He added: “It would serve our leaders well to understand that the poor will turn up at the voting stations in 2019 and vote with their empty stomachs and cold houses and shacks.”
He said if the ANC could get Zuma to resign, “such a step alone will release goodwill locally and globally from those who are serious investors in our economy”.
South Africa needed a change in political leadership “and at the same time, a massive infusion of immediacy in the roll-out of our government programmes within the context of reshaped economic policy.
“If the above does not happen, and happen soon, the ANC will lose the 2019 election and we will see the start of coalition government at a national level much sooner than we expected.”
Phosa added: “The electorate will not stand for a government that siphons off billions for themselves and so-called friends.”