Johannesburg - The National Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has blasted the #ZumaMustFall campaign, which it said did not represent the working class and the poor.
In a statement on Wednesday, the union called on South Africans to unite against those who sought to divide society.
“The experience of the working class is that when the economy does well, it increases profit for the capitalist class which is currently on an industrial investment strike, and only concentrate on financial investment,” the union said.
“When the economy is not doing well the same class get bail outs. The #ZumaMustFall campaign is not the working class campaign or in our interest.”
The campaign organisers sought to undermine government led by President Jacob Zuma, and wanted to use the finance ministry fiasco to advance their agenda, said the union.
“These forces throughout the year embarked on various campaigns to undermine the ANC government including their attempt to use the legitimate demands of university students in October but miserably failed. They are now trying to use the issue of the finance minister to resuscitate their campaign.”
Marches and demonstrations have been planned in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg on Wednesday, which is a public holiday.
The organisers of the #ZumaMustFall movement said Zuma’s decision to abruptly remove former minister Nhlanhla Nene and replace him with ANC backbencher David van Rooyen, only to remove Van Rooyen and re-appoint Cooperative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan a few days later, was one of the many reasons Zuma should resign.
The movement gained momentum on social media, similar to the students’ #FeesMustFall campaign that took off across the country in October.
The removal of Nene sent shockwaves across the country and saw the rand plunging to new lows as market jitters in the financial sector sank in.
The rand made a slight recovery after Gordhan’s re-appointment on Sunday.
African News Agency