Vavi sorry for his part in JZ mistake
FORMER Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said yesterday the move to elect President Jacob Zuma into the top ANC position was a terrible mistake.
He was addressing a 25000 strong crowd at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, demanding that Zuma step down.
“We made a mistake in elevating a crook who was facing 783 charges. The first thing he did was to dissolve the Scorpions and some of us stupidly gave him a round of applause,” Vavi said.
He pointed the finger at Zuma for removing former National Prosecuting Authority boss advocate Mxolisi Nxasana and replacing him with a “spineless advocate called (Shaun) Abrahams”.
“As if that was not enough he removed from the Hawks a celebrated MK commander of the Western Cape, (Anwa) Dramat, and forced him out by giving him R3 million so that he can employ apartheid policeman (Berning) Ntlemeza,” he said.
Vavi castigated Zuma for making Hlaudi Motsoeneng the South African Broadcasting Corporation chief operating officer, despite Motsoeneng having a “standard seven qualification”.
He lambasted Zuma for the financial crisis at South African Airways and for allowing the Gupta family to get involved at power utility Eskom.
Vavi called on the marchers to reclaim their country by pushing Zuma out of the presidential office.
The march was joined by workers’ unions, religious groups, student movements and political parties under the banner of #Save South Africa campaign.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane expressed his support for the marchers’ call for Zuma to go.
“We are not a junk country, but we have a junk president and we will remove him so that South Africa can become prosperous,” he said.