Zuma and ANC are holding South Africa hostage

11 February 2018

President Jacob Zuma and the ANC cannot hold the whole of South Africa hostage by demanding that his legal fees be paid and that he should perhaps be granted immunity from prosecution, says Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus.

Dr Groenewald says that Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, president of the ANC, is busy losing his power footing in the ANC and that he missed a golden opportunity when a meeting of the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) was cancelled this past Wednesday.

According to Dr Groenewald, the drawn-out negotiations over whether or not President Zuma must step down as president of the country is currently damaging the economy more than removing Zuma as such.

“It creates uncertainty and investors are starting to ask themselves if Ramaphosa really does have control over the ANC, and specifically the Zuma faction.

“The ANC will have to take decisive action and if Zuma does not want to step down, the ANC itself must immediately table a motion of no confidence against him at the National Assembly and then they need to convince the EFF to withdraw their motion seeing as a motion of no confidence against Zuma will, in my opinion, only be successful if the ANC tables it.

“The ANC does not have the power to waive Zuma’s future legal fees as that will affect the tax payers of the country and the party can certainly also not grant him indemnity from being prosecuted as that is the responsibility of the National Prosecuting Authority.

“Should the ANC intend to do that, it will undermine the Constitution and the democracy of South Africa,” says Dr Groenewald.

Statement issued by Dr. Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 11 February 2018