Zuma must do honourable thing and step down - Methodist Church

31 Mach 2016

Johannesburg - The Methodist Church of SA said on Thursday that if President Jacob Zuma did not resign, they would put pressure on the ruling party and the government to get him to do so.

The church, in a statement, was reacting to a unanimous Constitutional Court ruling earlier in the day which found that Zuma had acted inconsistently with the Constitution when he failed to comply with the Public Protector's remedial action on the upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.

Zuma had to personally pay back the money for some of the upgrades, following a determination by the National Treasury.

The Constitutional Court also found that the National Assembly acted incorrectly when it set aside Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's report.

The church called for Zuma to resign to avoid any further embarrassment.

"These events call for President Zuma to do the honourable thing and resign to save himself, the ANC and the nation as a whole from further embarrassment and ruin," it said.

"This will go a long way in assisting his supporters to accept his exit, without the polarisation of society.

"If this does not happen, we the people of South Africa must put pressure on the ANC and Parliament to 'assist' the President to vacate office peacefully and constitutionally."

The church said Zuma's term of office had been marred by too many unresolved claims and scandals, which included the Nkandla matter, the 1999 multi-billion-rand arms procurement deal, as well as his relationship with the controversial Gupta family.

The church also called on South Africans to unite and protect the country's democracy for future generations.

It expressed the hope that Parliament would in future act in a manner that demonstrated that it put the interests of the country first, rather than blindly protecting an individual.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.