Time has come, Mr President, to put SA first

HOW low can President Jacob Zuma take this country? During his presidency, he has tested all the pillars that underpin the republic to the limit. Some have collapsed along the way and those still standing have their integrity in the gutter.

The office of the president, parliament, our economy and this nation cannot further bear the attacks from the head of state.

Since the day Zuma entered public service, he has plunged this country from one embarrassing scandal into another.

He has divided not only the country, but his own organisation. Today members of his own party are devising strategies to rescue the ruling ANC from its leader. He has put them in the unenviable position where they now have to guard and protect the organisation from him.

On Friday evening he had to apologise for breaching the country’s constitution by refusing to repay public money spent on his private home at Nkandla. In his apology he also sought to assure the nation that he did not deliberately violate the constitution.

But the damage caused by the damning Constitutional Court judgment is far-reaching.

The court described Zuma as someone with no regard for the country’s constitution, when it concluded that he had “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land”.

This conclusion on its own means he is unfit to be president of this nation. His apology and his promise to uphold the rule of law will ring hollow if he remains in office.

His disregard for the laws of this country forced one of our struggle icons, Ahmed Kathrada, to suffer the humiliation of having to publicly rebuke him.

The Constitutional Court’s judgment on the Nkandla matter made it clear that Zuma had violated the constitution. Paragraph 83 of the judgment, read out by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng; says: “The president thus failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land.”

His party is standing by him. It has already dismissed calls from opposition parties for him to resign. Secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said calls for the ANC to remove Zuma as president amounted to a call to “tear itself apart”.

But what would be so wrong with removing Zuma from office?

Since coming into office in 2009, he has never taken any responsibility. He has never shown leadership. In fact, it has become his trademark to blame others for his blunders.

The Constitutional Court ruling comes as the president is battling to contain allegations that he has outsourced some of his responsibilities to the influential Gupta family.

Last month Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas admitted that the family had offered him the position of finance minister while Nhlanhla Nene was still in office. Other ANC leaders have told similar stories.

The president’s response on Friday evening was no surprise at all. When the Guptas landed their private plane at Air Force Base Waterkloof, what did Zuma say? “It wasn’t me.” When the economy started shedding thousands of jobs? “It wasn’t me.” When the corruption at his Nkandla home emerged? “It wasn’t me.”

When will you be bold, Mr President? What is it that you know and you can account for under your leadership? It is troubling that today we again have to ask this question: do you even know what you are employed to do?

We raise these questions, Mr President, not to undermine your character. We raise them because we want to appeal to your conscience and that of your party to put this nation first.

We are in a state of paralysis. The economy hangs by a thread and only those connected to your power rake in the millions.

Instead of providing true leadership, you and your praise singers in and out of the ANC continue to adopt smoke-and-mirror tactics hoping that everybody will be blinded. Not this time. Not today. When you addressed this nation on Friday following a damning judgment by the highest court in the land, that you, Mr President, violated the oath you took when elected to lead this nation, you just blamed others.

Eleven of our Constitutional Court judges were emphatic when they said you failed to protect this nation and its constitution.

But today you broadly smile and continue as if there is nothing wrong with your leadership.

The open letter written to you by Kathrada, appeals to you to step down as president. As you have read elsewhere in this newspaper today, his appeal is echoed by many of your comrades and veterans of the liberation movement.

Kathrada asked a very important question: how should he and the rest of us relate to you when you have failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law?

Remember those who came before you in the ANC who at some point in their leadership thought they were bigger than all. They never thought they could be removed from power.

Also remember what Nelson Mandela told us to do when a government inflicts pain on the nation. Mr President, it is time to go.