Zuma must walk his talk

I AM convinced that from the Zuma administration to the Ramaphosa administration, there will be no substantive or material changes to the conditions of ordinary poor people except that rich businesspeople will have a lot to celebrate as there will be more market friendly policies. This, at the expense of workers.

Looting will just change hands – from the Gupta criminals who behaved like child minders, who took everything meant for the children, to the criminals of big capital who create their wealth with well-calculated corruption, which includes adopting leadership in senior government positions and enticing them with shares and directorships.

We must not expect that what we resolved in Nasrec is what we will see manifest in real life. The leadership contestation was not about us really but sponsored chaos by businesspeople. We should not fight over nothing. President Jacob Zuma must leave office now. He has had his time and he was the one who started the culture of recalling a sitting president of the republic using the ANC national executive committee, so he must not seek public sympathy for his misdeeds.

This is the same individual who consistently advised people to subject themselves to ANY ANC decision. This is the time for him to walk that talk.

As for those who passionately support individuals rather than the ANC, they must know they are risking a split within the ANC once Zuma resigns.

We must be committed to the ANC and the people of South Africa more than to individuals such as Zuma or Cyril Ramaphosa.

We must allow all state security agencies to deal with corruption, irrespective of who is involved.

We must ensure no one interferes with the law and manipulates it for personal selfish ends.

All criminals at all levels must be dealt with, starting from the Guptas down to those in municipalities.

We must never again allow corruption to define the character of our movement. We must take firm decisions to deal with corruption even if it involves our brothers, sisters, wives and love partners.

We must act decisively against corruption in both the private and public sector. Never again must we allow ourselves to be victims of crime and slaves to corruption.

With respect, Zuma needs to accept that the new leadership has no interest in working with him as head of state and he must resign without further drama.

We need to see the implementation of ANC resolutions without any further delay.

ANC unity starts with respecting constitutionally elected structures and appreciating the role that every ANC member has. — P Mbewu, ANC member, Harry Gwala branch, Ntabankulu subregion