Elder statesman, Archbishop Emeritus, Njongonkulu Ndungane, says he's deeply disappointed at President Jacob Zuma's response to the damning findings of the Constitutional Court in the Nkandla saga.
Read his full statement below:
President Jacob Zuma's address to the nation, delivered just after 19h00 on 1 April 2016, was a wholly inadequate response to yesterday's Constitutional Court unanimous judgment which found that neither he nor the National Assembly upheld the Constitution of South Africa in the Nkandla debacle.
The litany of excuses trotted out by President Zuma in his address, exonerating himself from any responsibility for the debacle, and culminating in an apology which could be best described as "lame", was a deep disappointment to the people of South Africa, particularly the poor and marginalised, who had been hoping for a courageous acknowledgment of and response to the grave implications of yesterday's ruling.
I am deeply disappointed with both President Zuma and the ANC tonight. The President's address to the nation was a seminal opportunity to place the country's interests ahead of his own, and he failed dismally to do so. He simply has no comprehension of the damage that his actions, and that of the ANC-controlled National Assembly, have had on the good name of our country, on its economy, and on the poor and marginalised.
President Zuma's response has caused me to lose what remaining confidence I have in his guardianship of our constitutional democracy. I have no doubt that I speak for millions of right-thinking South Africans when I say this.
Finally, South Africans should remember that our democracy was founded on tears, blood and sweat. I call on all right-thinking citizens to become ever more vigilant in the protection of our democracy as we are let down by leaders in government with whom we were in the trenches. We need to make our voices loud and clear when we say: "Not in our name".
South Africans need to use their power in the exercise of their democratic right and come out in numbers to vote for the right government whose actions will be consistent with the values and aspirations contained in our Constitution.
