‘How do we get rid of Zuma’ article riles ANC
The African National Congress (ANC) says that a column by the editor of Beeld newspaper, Adriaan Basson, entitled: ‘How do we get rid of president Jacob Zuma?’ flies in the face of the decorum expected of senior leaders of the press.
The article, which appeared in Monday’s edition of the paper, suggested that South Africa “simply can’t afford Zuma any longer” following his written answers to parliament regarding his Nkandla homestead.
“The article demonstrates an obsession by Basson in waging a determined, desperate and futile campaign to get rid of President Zuma. He ignores the emphatically expressed will of 11 million South Africans who renewed the mandate of the ANC, with Comrade Jacob Zuma at the helm, to lead the country,” the ANC said in a statement on Tuesday (19 August).
“He thus abrogates upon himself monopoly of knowledge and is disdainful of the confidence the people of South Africa have in the ANC and its President.”
The ANC said that the role of the media, amongst others, is to manufacture consensus.
“This Basson does aptly against the will of the majority of the South African people and with the intention to subvert democracy, by all means necessary,” it said.
The political party accused Basson of ‘blatant lies’.
Basson wrote about the Nkandla saga: “he (Zuma) should have known better when a palace arose out of nothing around him”.
“It is a known fact and concurred by the Public Protector that the President did not use state funds for the building of his residence,” the ANC said.
The party also rebuked Basson’s reference to “the poor police minister, Nkosinathi Nhleko” as not only patronising and condescending, “but demonstrates a contempt for duly appointed democratically elected officials in the exercise of their natural duties”.
Basson also wrote about “an amnesty that will indemnify Zuma from prosecution” if he resigns.
“Basson proceeds as though we are dealing with the criminal regime of apartheid past. If Basson cannot tell the difference between his Bothas from his Zumas, that is fortunately not a widely shared disability in our country,” the ANC said.
“The African National Congress accordingly calls on all South Africans to defend democracy and to close ranks and isolate and disregard such agitation and intended call-to-arms against the President,” it said.
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