Zuma will cost ANC at polls

ACCORDING to a weekend newspaper, the ANC’s integrity committee has asked President Jacob Zuma to step down. However, the president has vehemently refused, saying the West wants him out in order to capture the ANC. And he is the only one who can stop it. What hogwash!

The integrity committee’s move suggests that the governing party wants to see the back of JZ. However, the same ANC is against its members in Parliament, who want to vote with their conscience in the imminent vote of no-confidence against the president. Does the ANC want Zuma out or not?

But I digress. If the governing party is not outraged by the Guptas’ state capture, then the party is complicit in selling the country to the highest bidder – the Guptas. As a result, it has lost the moral high ground to lead the nation.

A week ago, the ANC held a policy conference in Nasrec, south of Joburg. Nothing much came out of that policy conference. No surprises there. Has the liberation movement run out of ideas on how to take the country forward? There is no easy answer.

The ANC has become its own worst enemy. Its unprincipled stance in defending its president is going to cost the party votes come 2019, as happened in the last local government elections, when the ANC lost three metros to the opposition parties.

Zuma’s party has been in power for the past 23 years. As things stand, the economy is down, unemployment is high and poverty is on the increase. It’s time we had a different party in power which will inject new and fresh ideas, and make our country a better place. Kagiso