The new leadership of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) should replace President Jacob Zuma as soon as possible, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba said on Sunday night.
Speaking during his Christmas Eve sermon at the St. George’s Cathedral, Makgoba said: “I cannot see how two centres of power – one centred on the party and the other on the State – can collaborate when their values seem diametrically opposed to one another.”
Makgoba said the only way the ANC could “make a clean break with the past” was to get rid of Zuma and follow it up with a “carefully targetted cabinet reshuffle”.
“If Mr [Cyril] Ramaphosa wants the ANC to get a new lease of life, he and the new leadership will need to cut the umbilical cord which ties them to the Zuma era, quickly and decisively,” the archbishop said.
“Our economy is floundering, unemployment is rising and those cohorts of corruption who see they are losing influence are making ever more desperate attempts to loot what they can before their party is over. On top of that, the divisions in the ANC have led to a paralysis in decision-making and the implementation of policy. It is time to say, ‘Enough is enough’.”
On December 18, the ANC elected Ramaphosa, the country’s deputy president, as its new president at the party’s 54th national conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
Ramaphosa went head-to-head with the former cabinet minister and African Union Chairwoman, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Dlamini-Zuma received 2261 votes against Ramaphosa’s 2440.
– African News Agency (ANA)
