Zackie Achmat calls for united front to oust Zuma

27 April 2017 - 17:22 By Alexa Cole And Petru Saal
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“Jacob Zuma must go‚ Helen Zille must go. Our job is to organise.”

These were the words of social activist Zackie Achmat at a Freedom Day rally on Thursday in Khayelitsha‚ Cape Town.

Members of the Social Justice Coalition‚ Equal Education‚ Treatment Action Campaign and other organisations were “united to change our country”‚ Achmat told a packed hall.

  • The ‘land question’ will be discussed in the coming weeks‚ says ZumaPresident Jacob Zuma has vowed to explore land expropriation without compensation as the ANC gears up towards its elective conference in December. 

“The Guptas stand in the way of that‚ Jacob Zuma stands in the way of that‚ the corrupt individuals in the ANC stand in the way of that. We cannot give up the ANC to Jacob Zuma.”

Achmat said he wanted every political party‚ except the DA and the Freedom Front Plus‚ to work together against the government.

  • WATCH: 'When we keep quiet we become accomplices' Mandela granddaughter joins calls for Zuma to goLate President Nelson Mandela's eldest granddaughter‚ Ndileka Mandela‚ has actively joined the call for President Jacob Zuma to leave office‚ saying the president was found wanting by the highest court in the land. 

TAC provincial manager Michael Hamnca said the country’s problems were exemplified in the proposal to give ex-Eskom manager Brian Molefe a R30-million package.

“How many houses can you build with that amount? Our health system is collapsing. It is worrying what is happening in the country‚” he said.

  • A new fight for freedom starts now‚ says MaimaneSouth Africa is witnessing the dying kicks of the old order‚ and the rise of a new struggle‚ Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane told a rally in Pretoria to call for President Jacob Zuma to step down. 

Social Justice Coalition general secretary Phumeza Mlungwana said: “It is the job of the older people to shape us‚ so that we can shape South Africa into what we want. We are here because of your decisions in 1994. We were put in Khayelitsha for a reason. We were put in Nyanga for a reason.”

* Alexa Cole is on an SIT Study Abroad programme and produced this story in association with Round Earth Media.

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

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