Several months ago we wrote that President Jacob Zuma is a liability to the country. This was following his last-minute and highly embarrassing cancellation of a planned visit to the United Kingdom. What is evident now – following the disgraceful debacle in Parliament last week – is that Jacob Zuma is not only a liability to the country but is a liability to the African National Congress (ANC) and will be a walking disaster to the government and to the country unless he stands down or is ousted from office. We note that Thabo Mbeki, coming just short of saying Zuma must go, acknowledged the same point in The Guardian newspaper in London.

One can understand people thinking the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is to blame for what happened last week – and, yes, the EFF were the instigators. But Zuma is the prime reason.

We know a lot of people in the ANC watched what happened and is happening with a profound sense of shame. Zuma’s presidency has been marked by a lack of vision, by a failure to reconcile what is increasingly becoming a much-divided country – and a community that is at odds with itself. He is responsible for the dumbing down of the political process and his continuance in office is offensive to political decency and a constant threat to the rule of law and our constitutional democracy. His lifestyle and commitment are out of touch with that of a modern state. He is a tradition leader par excellence who simply does not belong at the head of what is Africa’s most sophisticated state at a critical time in Africa’s history.