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Zuma must resign or be suspended, urges ANC Joburg branch

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President Jacob Zuma at the Congress of SA Students’ Learn Without Fear convention rally at Orlando Stadium on Friday in Soweto, where he addressed the student organisation’s members
PHOTOs: Leon Sadiki
President Jacob Zuma at the Congress of SA Students’ Learn Without Fear convention rally at Orlando Stadium on Friday in Soweto, where he addressed the student organisation’s members PHOTOs: Leon Sadiki

A Johannesburg inner city branch has become one of the first to react to calls by the ANC leadership for branches to pronounce on the Constitutional Court judgment and the debate on state capture. 

The Sefako Makgatho branch said after considerations of the judgment and the situation around the president, they resolved that the president must resign, both as ANC and state president, or be temporarily suspended while either the national disciplinary committee or the integrity committee considers his case. 

The Constitutional Court ruled last week that President Jacob Zuma had violated his oath by not implementing the findings of the Public Protector. 

The third option the branch has suggested is that a special national conference be convened to resolve this matter. 

The branch – which is constituted of parts of Hillbrow, Doornfontein, Joubert Park and Berea – says in the letter sent to the ANC secretary-general that they were responding to the party’s calls for branches to have their say on state capture and on the Constitutional Court ruling. 

The branch raised its concerns about the fact that the president’s family members were shareholders of the Gupta family business – who are doing business with the state and its institutions – while their father was the state president, “which in our view, presents a conflict of interest”. 

“It is our view that public servants and officials together with families should not do business with the state or its institutions where they are employed as that presents unfair advantage and a conflict of interests.” 

The branch also suggested that the Cabinet should be cut by half from 75 ministers and deputies to fewer than 40. 

They pointed out that it was very difficult to differentiate the Cabinet from the national executive committee given that the majority of the committee were ministers and deputy ministers. 

“The branch believes that this structural arrangement makes it very difficult for the executive to be held accountable through the NEC and Parliament.” 

The branch said irrespective of the fact that the call for the president to step down came from the opposition parties, the ANC should rise above the occasion and “do what is right” given its own principles. 

“Failure for the ANC to act against the president’s violation of the Constitution will imply that the ANC will lose its moral standing in society. 

“Also the integrity of its own internal disciplinary processes will be compromised as this will imply that not all members are equal before the law,” read the statement by the Sefako Makgatho branch. 

Branch chairperson Sasabona Manganye told City Press that they had sent their views to Luthuli House today.

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