Phosa lays into Zuma and his team

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma and all the public representatives and executive appointees must take joint and collective responsibility for not only the destruction of the economy‚ but also for raping the poor‚ says ANC stalwart Mathews Phosa.

Delivering the keynote address at the OR Tambo Memorial Lecture in East London yesterday‚ Phosa said not a single member of cabinet had an excuse for jointly authoring the demise of the economy.

He said South Africa was in dire need of dramatic political and economic changes.

“At the very least we need a new political leadership‚ changes in our economic policy‚ urgent changes to our education system‚ and consensus between all stakeholders on how we revive the rainbow spirit in our nation.”

Of the three centres of constitutional power‚ the only one functioning was the judiciary‚ he said.

He proposed that the entire cabinet‚ the National Assembly and the ANC NEC resign and allow the voters to choose the leaders they wanted.

“The massive disconnect between comfort of the public representatives and the increasingly desolate voters they have 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 said that now‚ in the ANC elective conference year‚ some in the presidency and cabinet had belatedly found their voices.

“To those‚ one single remark: it is not what you say‚ it is what you do‚ and have done when all this was being done‚ that will define your leadership.”

Phosa said he wished to say as little as possible about his party’s representatives in parliament.

“Future generations will look at your pronouncements and decisions and find them to border on the treasonous,” he said.