Anti-Zuma slurs echo
SAVE SA: MOVEMENT LAUNCHES SCATHING ATTACKS AHEAD OF ADDRESS
‘We must all do whatever we can to make sure this is his last Sona.’
President Jacob Zuma has no heart or compassion and has failed to imbue any trust from the people who voted him into power. These words were some of the many scathing attacks on him by civil rights group Save SA, which a packed crowd at the iconic St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town heard yesterday.
Save SA founder Sipho Pityana yesterday delivered “the real state of the nation address” and received unanimous support from the gathering, echoing his statement that Zuma had to go.
Former finance minister Trevor Manuel was also present at the event.
Pityana urged parliament’s Speaker, Baleka Mbete, not to address Zuma as “honourable” when giving him the stage to deliver his State of the Nation address (Sona) this evening, “as it is a matter of fact that he is not and is limping along”.
“He shouldn’t be addressing us as a nation in the capacity of a president, for he has broken his contractual relationship with us as citizens,” Pityana said.
“Zuma, you must know that, as a nation, we no longer have confidence in your leadership.
“You are not trusted by the people. You are not trusted by civil society. And, increasingly, you are not even trusted by your own party and its allies.”
Zuma had shown he preferred to be a “spanner boy and a runner for a bunch of arrogant crooks and criminals”, Pityana said, allegedly referring to the Gupta family.
“In President Zuma, we have a wounded tiger, unleashed by its handlers to sow mayhem and destruction, at great cost to both our nation and the ANC, as he spends this year seeking to regain lost ground.”
According to Pityana, Zuma had spent the last eight years undoing the positive work done by his predecessors, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
Pityana said evidence had shown there had been little focus on unemployment, land restitution and improving the black schooling system.
“We must all do whatever we can to make sure tomorrow (today) is the last Sona by Zuma. We have to say: ‘No more Zuma’.”
While Pityana had received support from the crowd inside the church, his reception afterwards was not as welcoming.
A press briefing had to be cancelled shortly after it was convened, as rowdy protesters made the wooden floors reverberate when chanting “voetsek Pityana, f*** off Pityana”.