SA warned never to be complacent
Be vigilant or risk sliding back into Zuma-era mire, says Save SA activist
SOUTH Africans must never again be complacent in the face of corruption – or risk a slide back into the mire that was South Africa under former president Jacob Zuma’s rule. This was the warning by Save South Africa’s Khusta Jack following Zuma’s resignation on Wednesday.
Jack, an anti-apartheid activist, said it was incumbent on citizens to hold government and politicians to account.
He said a major lesson learnt from Zuma’s time in office was that South Africans should never again be complacent.
“African leaders have taken people for a ride because people gave them far more respect than they deserved when they were doing atrocities and wrong things.
“The new generation must rise and stand up at every wrongdoing immediately, no matter how small it is,” Jack said.
“Civic movements should be the shield of the nation against these kinds of things.
“If we drop the ball again, we’ll return right here.”
Zuma’s resignation had brought to an end a 10-year nightmare for South Africa, he said.
“He’s humiliated South Africa beyond imagination and the positive that existed about him is so minute that he’ll go down in history as the worst leader,” Jack said.
South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said never in his wildest dreams did he think Zuma would not learn from mistakes he had made with his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
“I thought that was big enough for him and never again would he want to be associated with something similar to that,” he said of the alleged corrupt relationship with Schaik.
Saftu said the country had an ANC problem and not just a Zuma problem – with Zuma a creation of the ANC, not the other way around.
Looking ahead, Vavi said he wanted the new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to uphold his January 8 statement in which he talked about land expropriation without compensation.
He said Ramaphosa also needed to explain what that would mean, while addressing property inequality.
Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said it was important to note the good Zuma had done.
He said Zuma’s first years in office were his best as his administration did well in introducing policies such as the industrialisation policy, which aimed to grow jobs.
Treatment of HIV-Aids and the turnaround of those infected was also a positive, as was the idea for a National Health Insurance scheme.
Dlamini said the ANC should rethink whether or not it should align the party’s elective conference with the national elections to avoid two centres of power – a situation which arose when Ramaphosa was elected ANC president while Zuma remained president of the country.
He expected Ramaphosa to provide change within poorer communities, saying that this, not international investors, should be the priority.
Black Management Forum Bay chairwoman Glenda Perumal said the organisation was grateful for the role Zuma had played in South Africa’s liberation from apartheid.
Noting the good Zuma had done during his time in office, Perumal said under his administration mother-to-child HIV-transmission rates declined, one million solar geysers were installed across the country, free education was announced and Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was appointed.
With regard to Ramaphosa, Perumal said the forum would like to see capable leadership within the state and state-owned enterprises to drive transformation.
“We’d like the new government to create space and opportunities for young black professionals, SMMEs and entrepreneurs as well as foster better trade relations both regionally and globally,” she said.
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Nomkhita Mona said many lessons were learnt during Zuma’s term, with citizens becoming more politically aware.
“Notably, we learnt the importance of how a president should always take consideration of the country’s matters, beyond party political lines,” she said.
Mona hoped Ramaphosa would work towards restoring the country’s economic wellbeing.
AT 11pm on Wednesday Jacob Zuma stepped down as president of South Africa.
Defiant to the end, Zuma threw in the towel in a meandering speech designed to position him as a man committed to the values of our constitution.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nonetheless, his late-night resignation was a historic and long-awaited moment which should mark a turning point for our democracy.
His almost decade-long rule was perhaps best summed up by EFF leader Julius Malema who yesterday said Zuma was “a post-colonial disaster who almost brought South Africa to its collapse”.
In its analysis yesterday, global publication The Economist referred to the Zuma years as South Africa’s lost decade. Maybe. Maybe not.
We believe that even from this troubled era which pushed our country to its limits, we emerge having learnt invaluable lessons about our democracy, our constitution and ourselves as a nation.
What we do with those lessons is of paramount importance.
We are on the cusp of change.
As President Cyril Ramaphosa stepped into office yesterday, the shadow state which captured our country for so long continued to crumble.
Gupta associates accused of stealing from the poor stood in the dock.
However, we must remember that the tentacles of Zuma’s corruption network run far and wide into every corner of the state.
Without fear or favour, many more culprits must be held accountable.
An even greater test for all of us will be our collective resolve to raise the bar, to reject the culture of corruption and impunity at every level.
Our litmus test will be our commitment to build a country anchored in the rule of law, one of equality and opportunity for every South African.