Party plans
Instead of good wishes from the nation on his birthday tomorrow, President Jacob Zuma will be faced with thousands of citizens outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria calling for him to resign.
We haven’t heard anyone talking about Zuma’s birthday. Most political parties are saying Zuma must go, so that means we do not respect him and we owe him nothing Bantu Holomisa UDM leader The only way of rescuing this country and its economy is to remove Zuma and rebuild our economy. Julius Malema EFF leader
Instead of good wishes from the nation on his birthday tomorrow, President Jacob Zuma will be faced with thousands of citizens outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria calling for him to resign.
The leaders of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Economic Freedom Fighters, (EFF), the Congress of the People (Cope), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the African People’s Convention (APC), the United Democratic Movement (UDM) and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) yesterday gave a briefing on tomorrow’s march in Pretoria.
The opposition political parties called on the ANC members of parliament to vote against Zuma on April 18 in the no-confidence vote.
Wayne Thring, deputy president of the ACDP, said: “If there are ANC MPs who are honest and want to see a clean administration and see South Africa moving forward to a strong, prosperous, healthy nation economically then, as the ACDP, we call upon those particular ANC members to vote with us.”
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said: “We haven’t heard anyone talking about Zuma’s birthday. Most political parties are saying Zuma must go, so that means we do not respect him and we owe him nothing.”
EFF leader Julius Malema said: “The only way of rescuing this country and its economy is to remove Zuma and rebuild our economy.”
He said the ANC leadership should not take advantage of people who did not know what the ramifications of “junk status” were and claimed that it was nothing to worry about, adding: “This is misleading.”
Last week, Fitch became the second ratings agency, after Standard & Poor’s, to downgrade SA to junk status as an investment destination.
Malema said the country’s new status would affect ordinary people directly. “Once borrowing becomes expensive, it means bread is going to be expensive and we say an ordinary person must not be bothered about that?” he asked rhetorically.
He encouraged activists organising tomorrow’s march to explain that Zuma’s recklessness would cause the collapse of the country. “If you love your country, Zuma must leave now,” Malema said. “This [march] is a warning message for the 2019 elections.”
The Tshwane Metro Police Department said the march would take place between 9am and 4pm. Spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said marchers would gather at Church Square in Pretoria and head for the Union Buildings.
He said Madiba, Edmond and Hamilton streets would be closed so buses could transport marchers. Other streets would also be affected by the march.
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) denied claims it had been invited to join the march but no reply had been received from them. PAC national spokesperson Kenneth Mokgatlhe said the united political parties were economical with the truth because the PAC only learnt about the invitation through the media.
“This misinformation is very dangerous because it generates an impression that the PAC have already taken a sell-out position. It is disappointing to hear some politicians dragging the PAC name into the mud. The misinformation is unfortunate,” said Mokgatlhe.