Faizel Patel, 2016-04-02
Former political prisoner and anti-Apartheid stalwart Ahmed Kathrada has asked Jacob Zuma to submit to the will of the people and resign as president of the country.
Kathrada has penned what he calls an agonizing letter to Zuma following the Constitutional Court ruling that the president’s failure to ignore the public protectors report was unlawful and directly violated the constitution as the supreme law of the land.
The 86-year-old says the position of President requires the respect of all South Africans which must be earned at all times.
“I did not speak out against Nkandla although I thought it was wrong to have spent public money for any president’s private comfort. I did not speak out though I felt it grossly insulting when my president is called a ‘thief’ or a ‘rapist’ or when he is accused of being ‘under the influence of the Gupta’s’”.
Kathrada says the unanimous ruling of the Constitutional Court on Nkandla has placed him in an introspective mode and he had ask himself some serious and difficult questions.
“Now that the court has found that the president has failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as a supreme law, how should I relate to my president?”
He says he believed that the NEC would have dealt with the accusations around state capture, the firing of former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene by Zuma and the Constitutional Court ruling as the collective leadership of the ANC.
Kathrada has warned Zuma that his contribution to the liberation struggle stands to be severely tarnished if the remainder of his term as president continues to be dogged by crises and a growing public loss of confidence in the ANC and government as a whole.
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