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Phumelela Dlamini
THERE have been calls for South African President Jacob Zuma to vacate office. There was even a hash tag (#) created on social media platforms #ZumaMustGo. Let me remind those few individuals that on May 7, 2014, 18,4 million South Africans took to the polls to elect their preferred political party to lead this country for the next five years.
We can first start looking at the definition of the term democracy, I think people who are still calling for the head of the president to roll will realise that their views are misplaced.
It is said to be a “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system”.
About 11,4 million people out of 18,4 million voted for Zuma and democracy prevailed.
More than 62 percent of eligible voters said they wanted Jacob Zuma to lead the country for the next five years. It is confusing why a few individuals now say the President must go.
The question that comes to my mind is did they vote or not.
Because if they did, I would say they were supposed to express their feelings there not in the Hash Tags (#) on social media.
Am I now trying to say people should not express their views in a democratic country? Absolutely not, but what I am trying to put to the Hash Taggers of #ZumaMustGo is you need to respect people’s democratic right to elect whoever they want.
This is a democracy; people elect their preferred political parties represented by leaders of that political party.
I am saying this because some will counter with ill-advised argument(s) such as that in South Africa; the president is not elected directly, as if they did not see the political party’s representatives on the ballot paper when they voted in the first place.
President Zuma was the face of the African National Congress (ANC) and Hellen Zille for the Democratic Alliance (DA); Julius Malema for Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and so on.
Now it is history that all those who opposed the now President of the country Jacob Zuma failed to garner enough votes to be the leaders of this country.
In short, the people of South Africa were clear and said we do not want anyone else other than Jacob Zuma to lead us.
Based on the number of people who voted the ANC into power, it was as if people were saying we do not see a future without the ANC-led government. That’s my view on the matter.
Now, does my view matter or not? It is up to you to judge, but the fact of the matter is South Africa is a democratic country.
It has democratic institutions such as Parliament, Court of law, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and we need to respect these institutions in order to uphold our democracy.The 18,4 million people who exercised their right to vote matter.
Therefore, I cannot wake up and say #HelllenZillemustgo in the Western Cape, even though I would prefer that.
But in a democracy, I must respect Western Cape people’s view that they want to be led by a white dominated party.
Wow! Now you are playing the race card, so you say, but it’s a fact. If it was not true I would withdraw, but I won’t.
Regardless of how many Hash Tags we create, the fact is our president is going nowhere, he is here to stay for the next five years and if he must, #HeMustGoWhere?
Mass protests were organised throughout South Africa on December 16, against President Zuma.
The national #ZumaMustGo protests were staged to call for the embattled president to leave office, due to his handling of the country’s faltering economy.
President Zuma has appointed three separate finance ministers in a week, prompting national anger.
Meanwhile, calm‚ confident and seemingly unfazed by mounting calls for him to be sacked‚ President Zuma told thousands of people in Port Elizabeth that South Africa was a deeply scarred nation that needed to heal from its traumatic past.
Delivering the official Reconciliation Day speech – in what was arguably his toughest week in office – President Zuma appeared focused.
He said the concept of true reconciliation was “not about being cosy” with each other‚ but confronting economic inequalities.
In his 47-minute speech‚ President Zuma made no direct reference to the marches against him in different parts of the country.
Nor did he refer to the dramatic‚ unprecedented week in which South Africa had three finance ministers.
Instead‚ the president announced that following the marches‚ the government had decided to fork out 83 percent of the R2,3 billion needed to finance universities as a result of the no-fee increase agreed to for next year.
l Phumelela Dlamini is a researcher in President Zuma’s Office. -MyNews24
derick.khumalo