Unic Press UK: The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African biggest trade union said on Tuesday that President Jacob Zuma should resign.
In a press statement that was released on Tuesday, the 4th April 2017, COSATU blamed President Zuma for the crises in South Africa.
Excerpts from COSATUs press statement reads:
“There were three guiding principles that guided us as we grappled with the recent political developments including the recent Cabinet reshuffle that saw poor or no meaningful consultations of both ANC leaders and alliance partners by the President. Firstly we needed to answer the question, whether the Cabinet reshuffle was transparent and in the best interest of both the ANC and the country. We also looked at whether the reshuffle helped the fight against corruption. Lastly we looked at whether the reshuffle was based on merit and also if it assisted the fight for Radical Economic Transformation. The answer to all of these questions was negative. This combined with alleged undue influence that is apparently exerted by the Gupta Family in the office of President Jacob Zuma and a series of controversies surrounding President Jacob Zuma like the Constitutional Court judgement and his apology on Nkandla; COSATU no longer believes that the president is the right person to unite and lead the movement, the Alliance and the country. We think that after all his undeniable contribution to both the movement and government, the time has arrived for him to step down and allow the country to be led forward by a new collective at a government level. We no longer believe in his leadership abilities and we shall be communicating that decision to our ally the ANC.” (COSATU: 4/4/2017)
A few days ago, a global credit rating agency, Standard and Poor (S&P Global Ratings) downgraded South Africa to junk, a high-yield, a risky investment, saying:
“S&P Global Ratings lowered the long-term foreign currency
sovereign credit rating on the Republic of South Africa to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-‘
and the long-term local currency rating to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB’. We also lowered the short-term foreign currency rating to ‘B’ from ‘A-3’ and
the short-term local currency rating to ‘A-3’ from ‘A-2’. The outlook on all
the long-term ratings is negative. In addition, we lowered the long-term South Africa national scale rating to ‘zaAA-‘ from ‘zaAAA’. We affirmed the short-term national scale rating at ‘zaA-1’.” (S&P Global Ratings: 03/04/2017)
The South African government has been overwhelmed by institutional and political crises after the country’s president Jacob Zuma named ten new ministers and ten deputy ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle.
