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The Economic Freedom Fighters welcomes the long overdue resignation of Mr. Jacob Zuma as President of South Africa. The EFF is pleased that the man we stopped recognising as a President after violating an oath of office has finally surrendered to the political pressure, which the EFF was at the centre of for the past three years.

There is no doubt that the ultimate fall of Jacob Zuma is a direct outcome of the political and parliamentary work of the EFF. Our relentless efforts in holding Zuma accountable for the Nkandla corruption, and the ultimate finding by the Constitutional Court that Zuma failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution lies at the centre of the reason why his presidency was discontinued before the end of term.

It should be highlighted that Jacob Zuma did not resign because of his political consciousness and conviction. He resigned because he knew that if he did not do so, he was going to be humiliated and embarrassed by the EFF-led Motion of No Confidence, which was guaranteed 99% success in the National Assembly.

Instead of being pushed by the tactically superior EFF, Zuma jumped into political insignificance and no amount of historical distortion will rescue him. He is headed into the dustbin of history as a corrupt, self-seeking impostor who thought he was more important and bigger than the Constitution and better than the organisation that deployed him to political office.

In his ignorant, arrogant and politically illiterate articulations, Jacob Zuma says he does not know why he had to leave the office of President. Because those who engaged with him about his resignation are afraid, and actually very scared of him, we wish to take this opportunity to remind Jacob Zuma of his sins;

1. It was Jacob Zuma’s presidency that 34 mineworkers were massacred by the ANC Government in Marikana, and this of course happened in collaboration with and due to the pressure of the current president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa.

2. It was under Jacob Zuma that the corruption committed under the Arms Deal was swept under the carpet and suppressed through a farce commission of inquiry, which ignored critical evidence of wrongdoing by people who to this day still enjoy the proceeds of the arms deal corruption.

3. It was under Jacob Zuma that all strategic State-Owned Companies, such as ESKOM, DENEL, TRANSNET, SAA, SA EXPRESS, SAFCOL, CEF, PETRO-SA were auctioned off to a criminal syndicate network led by the Guptas, which laundered billions of Rands out of South Africa, and caused massive debts in these State-Owned Companies.

4. It was under Jacob Zuma’s Presidency that the South African government spent more than R250 million building and renovating private residence through an immensely corrupt procurement process.

5. Jacob Zuma is the only Head of State who was found to have violated the Constitution as he failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution. Violation of the Constitution is not a minor issue, and should on its own constitute legitimate reasons for resignation as President and head of state.

6. It was under Jacob Zuma that the strategic fuel reserves were illegally sold because certain individuals were paid bribes, to the extent that South Africa currently do not have strategic fuel reserves needed if there ever will be an emergency.

7. It was under Jacob Zuma’s administration that the criminal justice system, particularly National Prosecutions Authority, the Hawks, the South African Police Services, Special Investigations Unit were incapacitated to deal with sophisticated crimes.

8. It was under the leadership of Jacob Zuma that the South African Revenue Services was incapacitated and now cannot honestly collect revenue.

9. It was under Jacob ZUMA that the State dismally failed to deal with illicit financial flows, tax avoidance and money laundering because Zuma’s friends were busy shifting billions of Rands out of South Africa.

10. It was under Jacob Zuma that the Office of the Public Protector was almost extinguished, with recurrent insults, deliberate incapacitation, and non-corporation from the executive, who obligations include provision of full support to the office of the public protector.

11. It was under Jacob Zuma that white landowners continued to receive billions of RANDS of state money buying stolen land, which was never transferred to the rightful owners. Zuma cannot claim anything about land redistribution because he was too busy stealing and not focusing on the important question of land reclamation.

12. It was under the Presidency of Jacob Zuma that South African Defence Force soldiers were deployed to fight illegal wars in the Central African Republic and 14 of them losing their lives in a war that sought to protect Zuma’s business interests.

13. It was under Jacob Zuma’s leadership that colonel Maummar Gaddaffi was surrendered to imperialist forces, and got killed like a dog in events that resulted in a regressive degeneration of Libya.

14. It was under Jacob Zuma where theft of public resources became fashionable because institutions were weakened and no one could call anybody to order.

15. It was under Jacob Zuma that the Executive was unnecessarily ballooned and used a means to dispense patronage and handover government to incompetent and corrupt individuals.

16. It was under Jacob Zuma that the State was forced to begin with procurement of unaffordable Nuclear energy, which would have collapsed South Africa’s BUDGET.

17. It was under Jacob Zuma that the corruptly awarded tender to distribute social grants was declared legally and constitutionally invalid and therefore threatening the stability of the country. SASSA is a crisis waiting to happen due to corrupt practices and bribes which Jacob ZUMA is party to.

18. It was under Jacob ZUMA that public healthcare totally collapsed, signified with the Life ESIDEMENI massacre and many other public healthcare institutions that have collapsed.

19. It was under Jacob Zuma that Government debt grew by leaps and bounds to the extent that currently, the State spends more than R200 billion annually servicing debts.

20. It was under Jacob Zuma that State Owned Companies accumulated a lot of debts due to corruption, with ESKOM currently owing more than R470 BILLION.  

21. It was under Jacob Zuma where the appointment of Ministers, and Board Members of key State-Owned Companies was shifted to the Gupta led criminal syndicate.

22. It was under Jacob Zuma that the frequent CABINET reshuffles were conducted, not with the purpose of improving government services to the people, but with the aim of perpetuating corruption and theft of public resources.

23. It was under Jacob ZUMA that the intelligence services were used for corrupt and narrow personal purposes, instead of being used as means to protect South Africa from security genuine threats.

24. It was under Jacob Zuma that the Public Broadcaster, the SABC was significantly weakened and rendered dysfunctional through appointment of incompetent individuals into the boards and management of the broadcaster.

25. It was under Jacob Zuma that a relatively progressive Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Bill was not passed into Law because Zuma was still protecting own business interests and therefore causing massive uncertainty in the minerals sector.

26. It was Under Jacob ZUMA that unemployment grew significantly and no real sustainable jobs were created.

27. It was under Jacob Zuma that the economy stagnated and a huge number of South Africans lives below the poverty line.

28. It was under Jacob Zuma and because of Jacob Zuma that Parliament was militarised, with police, the defence force and violent bouncers deployed and employed to intimidate and suppress members of parliament. We wish to take this opportunity to salute the women of the EFF who stood firm and fearless against all forms of intimidations by Zuma hired thugs who assaulted them every time they demanded that Zuma must FALL.

We must further dispel the claims that Zuma gave free education to the country; free education was a result of the Fees Must Fall generation which brought Zuma’s government screaming and kicking to the table to concede on Fee Free Education.

There are so many other reasons why the resignation of Jacob Zuma is long overdue, and for him to claim ignorance of all these represents over-exaggerated sense of aloofness and self-seeking greed. Each and every one of these issues are reasons enough why Zuma’s presidency was no longer bearable.

The EFF patiently and relentlessly fought against Jacob Zuma’s leadership of South Africa because he was a disaster, a post-colonial disaster who almost brought South Africa to its total collapse. The EFF is not sympathetic to Zuma’s games of victimhood. He is a conman, and trickster who when caught in the wrong, plays victimhood with the aim of misleading the gullible into supporting him. We call on all South Africans to not fall victim of Zuma’s crocodile tears and victimhood games he plays every time he is in the wrong. South Africa, the whole nation has been a victim of a conman, an impostor for close to a decade and no one should fall into that trap again.

The shenanigans of Jacob Zuma nevertheless reveal the massive weaknesses of the political party he comes from. The ANC is not an organisation that is capable of leading South Africa beyond political liberation. The ANC played an important part in political liberation, but it is totally incapable to lead society to economic equality and prosperity. The ANC is also incapable of fighting corruption and maladministration from within its ranks.

If the ANC of Ramaphosa is honest and truly seeks a new and stable future, it must agree to the call for early elections. Because this parliament has been complicit in creating the personality cult that is Jacob Zuma and it must be dissolved to reconstitute a new leadership of South Africa with a fresh mandate from the general participation of our people through elections.

The ANC has developed a tradition of building personality cults who are beyond reproach. In all these sins and shenanigans, the ANC was the shield that protected JACOB ZUMA from being held accountable. The ANC defended Zuma even when the whole of society said he is a problem, so a permanent solution in south Africa will be to totally extinguish the ANC from political office.

The EFF has no confidence in the entire leadership of the ANC, and therefore believes that even those who will be elected after Jacob ZUMA will be nothing but substitutes in the same corruption game and competition. If Ramaphosa becomes President, he is simply going to replace Zuma’s corruption stooges with his own corruption stooges. The recent appointment of SIFISO Dabengwa into ESKOM board is a worrying sign that Ramaphosa will replace Zuma thieves with his own thieves.

The EFF will therefore not participate in the election of a new President to replace Zuma because we do not want to legitimate anyone from the ruling party. As a result, at the first opportunity to lead a motion in parliament, EFF will call on the dissolution of parliament in favour of early elections. This is to allow our people to renew parliament mandate through general elections and not some career driven elite pact.

Furthermore, opposition parties should not be opportunistic and field candidates for position of President because none won elections and even when combined, do not constitute more than 50% of the vote.

The EFF will however participate in the State of the Nation Address and will robustly engage all the issues that will be raised there. The EFF will not lower the bar concerning holding the executive accountable. Our robustness and forthrightness will remain intact and this time we will be more vigilant because those who are designated to lead South Africa have a cosy relationship with white monopoly capitalists.

The people of South Africa are beginning to acknowledge the reality that the EFF is not just an opposition political party, but a mass movement with ideological and political capacity and political tactical superiority to lead society. This is amongst other things, demonstrated by the fact that we stopped the presidency of Jacob Zuma who fell on his sword before we could push him to it. The war for economic freedom continues and all Ground Forces must remain vigilant! SALUTE!

Issued by EFF