To protect its legacy, the ANC must ditch scandal-prone Zuma

02 April 2014 - 02:01 By The Times Editorial
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Today, President Jacob Zuma will have to account for the overspending at Nkandla. We will see whether the president is still defiant and trying to shift the blame to others.

The ANC has divorced itself from the scandal . We have been on this road before with Zuma. How many times have we raised issues with him only to be told that he does not know or have an answer?

The ANC's decision to remove itself from the Nkandla debacle points to a party that is finally trying to retract itself from the clutches of the Zuma faction.

The party needs to chart its own path away from a scandal-prone president.

We are grateful that we still have leaders who are not afraid to speak truth to power. Those ANC leaders who have spoken out against Nkandla did so to protect the organisation from going down the drain. Failure to act will give power to the likes of SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng to continue to act with impunity.

Zuma can do this country a huge favour by admitting his mistakes. Those close to him need to realise that Zuma is no longer a big man. His currency is about to expire.

Zuma runs the risk of not finishing his term of office. As a nation, we are not demanding a lot from Zuma. What we do need is a leader who is accountable .

Although parliament has the final say about what happens to Zuma today, ANC MP s have a duty to protect this country from anarchy.

They need to remember that the man from Nkandla will go, but the institution must remain to continue to serve us. They cannot allow politics of the stomach to dictate what happens to Zuma. Those who gathered in 1912 to establish the ANC did so with the aim of improving the lives of every citizen.

If the president continues to chant that he owes us nothing, he should remember why the ANC was established. It should be a better life for all, and not just for Zuma and his coterie of flunkeys.

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