‘Time is of the essence, Zuma must go,” – Sello Hatang, NMF CEO
HOUGHTON – The Nelson Mandela Foundation renews calls for Jacab Zuma to step down and calls on all South Africans to act against systemic corruption.
Fourteen months ago, the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) in Houghton called for Jacob Zuma to resign.
Recently, the foundation said it had observed, sometimes in disbelief, as the floodgates of testimony have opened with hearings, investigations and enquiries providing overwhelming evidence of the systematic looting by patronage networks allegedly linked to Zuma. This, the foundation believes, has betrayed the country Nelson Mandela dreamed of.
“President Zuma has abused the trust of South Africans,” said Sello Hatang, the foundation’s CEO. “He must go, sooner rather than later.
“Time is of the essence. To delay now will lead to more of the ugly scenes of violent conflict we saw [outside Luthuli House on 5 February]. We call for calm and respect for the rule of law during all protest actions related to the president.”
Hatang maintained that Zuma must go because he had demonstrated that he was not fit to govern.
In addition, Hatang called on the state to hold him accountable for his actions as ‘some things cannot be pardoned’.
“It would be a mistake, of course, to think that the removal of one person will address what is now deep-rooted and systemic corruption. The challenge is to identify and uproot multiple networks at different levels.
“We applaud the work already being done by the governing party and the state to act against such networks. This work will require years of endeavour, and we call on all South Africans to commit to supporting it. The Nelson Mandela Foundation is making that commitment.”
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