Our unity is our strength, our unity will topple Zuma

18 April 2017

Fellow South Africans, the events of the last few weeks have seen South Africans put their differences aside in order to join a united an emergent movement for change.

This is a movement that has seen hundreds of thousands march to Parliament, the Union Buildings and fill the streets of Johannesburg. This movement has brought together business and labour; rich and poor; black and white, all saying the same thing: Zuma must go and South Africa must come first.

Bagaetso, the poet James T. Adair, reminds us that There Is Beauty In The Struggle. There is beauty in the tough times we are facing. This crisis has brought us together. We are united behind putting the country first. We are united in getting rid of those who only undermine the project of building a diverse and growing economy that creates jobs.

We cannot allow this moment of crisis to pass without also seizing the opportunity for unprecedented unity of purpose and action. Now is the time, and we may never see an opportunity like this again.

Jacob Zuma would never have guessed that he would unite the country like never before - in defense of the Constitution, against corruption, against the self-interested destruction of our economy, and against the private capture of our state. Jacob Zuma has united the country - against him.

For years South Africans have called for greater co-operation between opposition parties and civil society. While some progress has been made in the past, it has been halting and painstaking. But sometimes political change happens one step at a time, and sometimes it happens all together and quickly. We are in such a time.

We cannot be distracted by our own hang-ups and baggage, or differences in approach or in policy. By the time we have ironed out all of those differences, the country will be left in tatters. No, we must seize the moment and move forward now, together.

We must prepare ourselves for a post-Zuma, post-ANC future. And that future is brighter than ever! But we must cut out our current national cancer.

We are not saying Zuma must go because we merely oppose him politically, as he has said. We are making this important call because he does not have respect for the country, the Constitution and the people. Jacob Zuma only cares about himself and getting rich at your expense. We are making this call because for as long as Zuma occupies the Union Buildings, the poor and jobless will continue to suffer.

The other day, Zuma was asking for the church to pray for South Africa "so that the respect can come back". Indeed, respect must come back.

Any president with respect for the responsibility of his Office, and for the sanctity of the Constitution, would have resigned a long time ago.

Any President with respect for the people he is elected to serve, would not steal money, build a palace, or sell the government to the Guptas.

Jacob Zuma has no respect. No respect for the suffering of the poor. No respect for the unemployed who need our country to succeed and grow.

Zuma has sabotaged the country’s economy - now reduced to "junk status" - all for his riches and his own agenda.

Respect for the Constitution must come back, because if there was respect for the highest law of the land, Zuma would have gone, or the ANC would have removed him.

Zuma is the most disrespectful citizen in the country. He has no respect for the country and the people. He is not fit to be called South Africa’s Head of State. Zuma must fall!

We are not backing down. We are determined to ensure that we build a better South Africa.

To the people in the ANC who continue to endorse Zuma, along with his deliberate programme of destroying the country, I want to ask you: How do you sleep at night? How do you look at your children and grandchildren, well knowing that you are personally playing a part in ensuring that there is no future for them?

You have sold their futures to Zuma and the Guptas. Now South Africa is rising up together to get those futures back!

Children do not hate the ANC because they are taught to do so at school. Children hate the ANC because of what the ANC does. Children see when the ANC-led government does not deliver text books and sabotages their futures.

Things are bad now but let me tell you this, Zuma and the ANC will not be around forever. Once the people have dealt with the Zuma problem, the people will deal with the ANC problem by teaching them a lesson at the ballot box in 2019.

The people of South Africa will rise up and punish the ANC for their continued support of Zuma. The people will punish the ANC for not listening, and for protecting and supporting this President.

Fellow South Africans, our work does not end when the marches and protests are over. By the time we are done, Zuma will know exactly what stress feels like. When we are done with Zuma and the ANC, hope for a better South Africa will be restored, and we will turn that hope into reality.

This united movement for change belongs to the people, and as the DA, along with the other Opposition Parties, we will always take up the people’s fight!

Ke a leboga. Baie dankie. I thank you.

Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 18 April 2017