Jacob Zuma will be removed from office

Press Release by Opposition Parties and Civil Society, issued on 4 August 2017

South Africa is facing the worst crisis since 1994. At a meeting of opposition parties held on 2 August 2017, we decided to stand and march together for the removal of President Jacob Zuma from office. The march will happen next Tuesday, 8 August, in Cape Town outside Parliament, while parliamentarians vote on a historic motion-of-no-confidence inside.

This is the last push to stop a corrupt President from destroying our country. Since he took over, Zuma has reversed the strategic gains of our nascent democracy. Ordinary South Africans now feel the damage caused by this captured man. The economy is falling apart, factories and mines are closing down, and thousands of people are losing their jobs. Workers were massacred in Marikana. More than 9 million South Africans are jobless. Families are condemned to hunger and destitution. Our state has been sold to a foreign family. Minsters are appointed to serve the interests of dodgy indivuduals who pull strings from Saxonwold. This rot must stop.

While the removal of Zuma will not solve every problem in our nation, it would be the beginning of a national rebuilding project that is urgently required. When a country is burning, there is no time for petty and narrow political squabbles. This is precisely the spirit that brought opposition parties and civil society together, to join hands with all patriotic South Africans who want to defend the future of their children.

8 August is a historic moment in the life of our nation. It is an opportunity for citizens to say enough is enough. Opposition parties and civil society formations will lead thousands of South Africans to send a clear message to parliamentarians to stand with the people and remove Zuma from office.

The next election is in 2019 where the opposition will face the ruling party and this we accept, there can never be shortcut to removal of ANC other than in 2019. It is a morally compelling push to remove a corrupt President on the 8 August. We shall do nothing to upset the foundations of South Africa’s legitimate political system whose next cycle of national elections is in 2019.

The march will begin at Keizersgracht Street, Cape Town, at 10:00 on the morning of 8 August, and will end with a mass gathering outside Parliament in St John’s Street. We invite South Africans to come out in their numbers to join us.

We also encourage people to join other marches already organised across the country – in cities, towns and villages. Details of the countrywide marches on the 8 August will be made available in due course.

We call on all faith based organisation and institutions to dedicate sermons to peaceful and non-violent protest and success of the Motion of No Confidence on remaining days of worship this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This is the time to stand together as a nation. It is the time when all men and women who love South Africa must step out of the private space, and be part of a collective action to protect our hard-won democracy. We have defeated colonialism and apartheid. We cannot be defeated by one man. It is now or never!

Issued by and on behalf of opposition parties and civil society, 4 August 2017