President Zuma must step down: ANC NEC member
ANC NEC member Mathole Motshekga has called on President Jacob Zuma to step down and do some soul-searching, according to a letter the Sunday Independent newspaper published.
“The ANC leadership must convene an urgent NEC meeting and ask the president to do the honourable thing and assist him in whatever way possible to endure the situation,” Motshekga says in the document titled “The Honourable Thing To Do”.
“It would be irresponsible to ask the ANC NEC to resign and dissolve government, and leave the cabinet leadership in a chaotic manner.”
He said the situation was so serious that the ANC’s leadership had to choose between Zuma on the one hand, and the ANC and the people of South Africa, on the other.
Motshekga made mention of the spiritual beliefs he based his decision on.
“I am Karaite (i.e. the belief in Spiritual Sun worship). I believe in Karaism (i.e. the indigenous African religion of Light), which says that all human souls emanate from the Spiritual Sun (Kara, that is, the Divine Light), which imparts the Divine Spark (i.e. Inner Light) to all human souls.”
According to Motshekga, the divine spark used the soul to achieve its purpose.
However, while “the divinity in the individual wants to fulfill its purpose on earth and return to its creator, the soul prefers to remain on the material plane and meet its material needs.”
These conflicting interests meant that the soul made all of us inherently corruptible.
“I cannot question the level of the president’s consciousness,” Motshekga adds.
Motshekga said former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report had left the ANC leadership with a moral and political dilemma.
“President Jacob Zuma, like all of us, is a fallible human being. He has no inborn entitlement to the Presidency of South Africa. If he has committed errors of judgment, or violated the law and/or the code of ethics, then the law must allow taking its course.”
He said the ANC could not leave the situation up to Zuma and his conscience.
Motshekga said Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was the right man to step in.
“The founders and ancestors of the ANC will judge the current leadership harshly if it fails to ask President Jacob Zuma and those implicated by the State Capture report, to do the honourable thing and let the Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa complete the term and reserve the right to rationalize his cabinet to save money for student fees.”
Meanwhile on Sunday, trade union Solidarity called for Zuma to be suspended and Ramaphosa to replace him, pending the finalisation of a commission of inquiry into state capture. This was one of the recommendations Madonsela made in her report.
Zuma should not be in a position where he could interfere with or influence the commission, it said.
Madonsela’s report was made public on Wednesday, after Zuma dropped his court bid for an interdict to prevent its release. While Zuma is not directly implicated in any wrongdoing, the report details connections between his friends, the Guptas, and government officials.