Johannesburg - The DA has slammed President Jacob Zuma, saying he was holding South Africa back as long as he remained in the Union Buildings.
Zuma’s fate is going to be debated at the National Assembly in Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon.
DA Gauteng leaders addressed party supporters at the Eldorado Park Stadium in Joburg on Tuesday, where there would be a public viewing of the no confidence motion against Zuma, set to be conducted by secret ballot.
DA MPL and Joburg regional chairperson Khume Ramulifho said they had had enough of Zuma.
We have a president whose job is to manage scandals everyday. His family is enriched. He is planning his exist. He is going somewhere, he doesn’t care about us,” Ramulifho said.
Zuma has denied allegations that he planned to retire in Dubai, where the Guptas allegedly bought a luxurious house for him.
Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/ANA Pictures
Ramulifho said the country had great potential and urged ANC MPs to vote against their leader, Zuma, in the best interests of the country.
“We’ve had enough of him. If they fail to remove him 2019 is not very far. Revolutions usually take place in August. Last year (in August) the ANC was voted out in many municipalities. If they have not learnt their lesson, they will learn a bigger lesson in 2019,” he said.
Ramulifho’s colleague in the Gauteng Legislature, Makashule Gana, who is constituency head for Hlanganani region encompassing Eldorado Park and Soweto, said Tuesday was an historic day for the country regardless of motion’s outcome in Parliament.
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“We hope there are ANC MPs who are not going to vote for their stomachs, because we are in this mess today because ANC politicians, led by one Jacob Zuma, decided to think with their stomachs first and put South Africans last,” he shouted, to loud applause from DA supporters.
“Zuma sold South Africa over a plate of curry. Since 2009 he has been leading the politics of the stomach and that’s all he cares about,” lamented Gana.
He said if the ANC MPs voted to keep Zuma in power “in 2019 we the people must do to the ANC what we did to the apartheid government”.
For the DA-sponsored motion against Zuma to succeed it would need 201 or more yes votes from the MPs.
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However, ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu has said removing Zuma from his cushy position would be tantamount to dropping a nuclear bomb on the country.
Gana differed, saying: “If Zuma is kicked out the sky will not fall because South Africa is not Jacob Zuma. The nuclear bomb we have in South Africa is Jacob Zuma.”
He said the Rand strengthened after National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete announced on Monday that the motion would be conducted by secret ballot.
“This means Jacob Zuma is the one keeping us back as a country,” said Gana, a former DA MP.