More ANC bigwigs call for Zuma to step down

More ANC bigwigs and former luminaries of the ruling party have joined the growing chorus of people calling for President Jacob Zuma to resign.

Among those who attended a gathering at Constitutional Hill on Wednesday to call for Zuma to step down were former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils‚ former deputy ANC secretary general Cheryl Carolus‚ former head of the ANC Youth League Ronald Lamola and former Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi.

A former Constitutional Court judge‚ Zak Yacoob and the founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)‚ Mark Heywood‚ were also among a group of civil society members‚ church leaders and former ANC politicians who held a press conference at the steps of the Constitutional Court to call for Zuma to resign and for a new president who would help the poor.

This follows the Constitutional Court unanimous judgment last week that found the president had breached the constitution when failing to implement the findings of the public protector's report on his Nkandla home upgrades.

Vavi has said that not only must President Jacob Zuma resign "but the ANC must not replace a thief with another thief".

Vavi said: "We can't embrace an anti-Zuma coalition that will give us more unemployment‚ more poverty‚ more inequality and more corruption."

A group of civil society members‚ church leaders and former ANC politicians held a press conference at the steps of the Constitutional Court to call for Zuma to resign and a for new president who would help the poor.

The activists called on civil society to march on April 27‚ the public holiday that commemorates South Africa's first‚ free and fair election in 1994‚ to call for Zuma to step down.

Vavi said 34 trade unions would meet on Thursday to discuss calls for Zuma to resign and other issues relating to members, he said Cosatu had been invited to join the independent trade union movement but was stuck in the past and had refused.

"We have called Cosatu to be part of the process. So far it has flatly refused because it still believes it is the past when it was the most powerful [trade union] movement.

"Those days are over….. It is now the hopeless shadow of what it used to be. But it is still not late for them to join to be part of movement."

Former ANC Deputy Youth League President Ronald Lamola said at the press conference that the majority of ordinary ANC members wanted Zuma to go.

He called on individuals members and branches of the ANC to write letters to the ANC leadership demanding Zuma be recalled.

They must do everything they can. "The ANC leadership will only listen when it hears from a conglomeration of structures in ANC and civil society."

Mark Heywood‚ founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)‚ said the group of civil society representatives were asking ordinary people "to rally behind the Constitution and make the ANC understand the depth of discontent that exists. We are hoping we will get the ANC to take Jacob Zuma out of the picture.

"We don’t want another Zuma in the picture. We want someone who will deliver for poor people. "

Source: TMG Digital/The Times