ANC chooses Zuma over SA again

29 November 2016

The decision taken by the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to continue to support and endorse Jacob Zuma and his leadership of the country should come as no surprise.

An unconventional attempt to table of “motion of no confidence” in Jacob Zuma at this weekend’s meeting of the NEC was defeated convincingly, once again illustrating that the naïve belief that the ANC can self-correct is simply untrue. It quite clearly shows that the ANC still supports Zuma, and support him fully.

That is because Jacob Zuma is not an anomaly within the ANC, he is the norm: he is only the most vivid manifestation of what the ANC has become - an irredeemable and toxic mix of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

Furthermore, despite the brave face and united façade depicted by Gwede Mantashe, the ANC is more divided now than it has ever been – and this will only worsen. This divide is between the majority of the ANC who envisage the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) as a means to self-enrich, and a small minority, without a voice, who are unsuccessfully trying to uphold the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

Zuma clearly holds all the power in the ANC, and the majority of the ANC believe that he is the right man to take them forward. We can never trust an ANC that keep Zuma through all he has done. While the ANC continues to fight amongst themselves, our economy is hanging by a thread.

The fact that the majority of the ANC NEC members chose paychecks and power over the people of South Africa requires the country to accept that the only way to stop the decay and get our country moving forward again is to remove the ANC, once and for all. Moreover, this once again shows that Parliament, and not Luthuli House, must do its job and remove Jacob Zuma once and for all.

The South African people are quickly realising this, and earlier this year handed the ANC their worst electoral showing in 22 years of democracy.

The DA will continue our Road to 2019 programme of action, to ensure that come 2019, the DA ousts the ANC so that we can start building a better South Africa.

Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 29 November 2016