Student body still firmly behind Zuma
The South African Students Congress (Sasco) in Gauteng still have confidence in President Jacob Zuma. Speaking in Johannesburg on Friday‚ some of its leaders said that the organisation remained a staunch supporter of the ANC following the Constitutional Court's ruling last week that Zuma and the National Assembly acted contrary to the constitution in the Nkandla matter.The court said on March 29 that Zuma failed to uphold the constitution when he did not pay for the non-security upgrades at his Nkandla residence as directed by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. The National Assembly should also not have passed a resolution absolving Zuma from paying‚ the court said further.African activists call on Zuma to resign as SA presidentThe National Assembly‚ where the ANC has a 62% majority‚ on Tuesday rejected the Democratic Alliance's motion to have Zuma removed‚ with 243 votes to 143.There have been calls for Zuma to step down from other organisations and ANC veterans like Ronnie Kasrils‚ Cheryl Carolus and Mavuso Msimang.But Sasco Gauteng said that it had not lost faith in the president.“We have studied the judgment and [have had] deliberations but we respect structures‚” Sasco Gauteng member JR Ackotia said on Friday.“We welcome the [Constitutional Court] ruling in terms of shaping our democracy and making it more robust‚ but we support the ANC‚” he said.Members of a Sasco provincial task team‚ set up to deal with student protests on campuses in Gauteng‚ met with journalists to discuss a wave of recent disruptions at tertiary institutions.It said the protests‚ some of which saw campus property vandalised‚ are driven by "dark forces" not aligned to formal student structures.It said that students should take their lead from student representative councils who democratically elected to deal with their grievances.Ackotia said that political parties were interfering with student politics in the lead-up to the local government elections in August and that it does not make sense for protests to continue now while a presidential task team investigates ways to fund free education...
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