Zuma and his puppets have stabbed the economy in the heart

10 December 2015

Very frankly, Mr David Van Rooyen did not inspire us at his swearing in nor will he have inspired nervous investors. He undertook to address issues only next week. He looked out of his depth. Why on earth President Zuma and the ANC did what they did is an enormous mystery and a huge shock. Just when the country needed to assure the rating agencies that the country was steering a steady course, President Zuma unleashed a tsunami.

COPE will not be surprised if the rating agencies move from negative outlook to negative watch and then downgrade the sovereign bonds to junk status. Zuma and the ANC have plunged the country into probably its greatest crisis ever.

Students are already tweeting their disappointment. Solomon Modisha, for example, tweeted that “the students of the country will … riot against corrupt Zuma and his puppets come 2016”. As investments dry up and capital flight intensifies, ordinary South Africans will feel the adverse impact sharply.

Indeed, ANC ministers, deputy ministers and MPs are aptly being described as puppets. Zuma jiggles the string as the puppet master and the puppets in the ANC move exactly as he manipulates them. What a pathetic bunch they are. They are selling out the citizens of this country.

For President Zuma, the ANC comes ahead of the country and his own interests and that of his very close friends take precedence over the ANC. We suspect that that was the reason for Zuma removing Ngoako Ramatlhodi from the Minerals Resources Portfolio. We recall the media at that time reporting that Ramatlhodi was refusing to fast track an application for a mining licence by a company in which Duduzane Zuma had a stake. Therefore, Ramatlhodi had to go.

Now, it seems highly plausible that Nhlanhla Nene was cruelly given the chop to keep open whatever business interest Zuma and his family have in the nuclear deal. Nene allocated only R200 million for the department of energy to engage the best experts in the world as preparation for going ahead with the procurement process and building a nuclear power plant. Nene effectively put the whole nuclear deal on the backburner at a cost of R200 million to the nation. This must have galled Zuma immensely. So much so, that Zuma whose time as president is running out, acted to fast track his own secret agenda by sacking Nene in favour of van Rooyen.

Zuma wants puppets and only puppets in the ANC. He made clear his great dislike of all “clever blacks”.

Ever since he became President, MPs and ministers have put on metallic branks on their heads and faces and have stayed mum on all issues except when praising him or defending him in spite of his crass remarks, ignorant statements and poor judgment. that is why we will not hear a squeak from them even when the whole country is registering a shock.

Zuma and his puppets have sunk the economy. His latest move is nothing short of treason. He has stabbed the economy in the heart.

Issued by Dennis Bloem, Spokesperson, COPE, 10 December 2015