Pretoria - A group of people from various organisations have marched to the Union Buildings calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down amid crime allegations brought against him and suspicions of plans to privatise state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
Identifying themselves as the United South Africa Citizens (Usac), they said they were a body of leaders and members coming from various political parties, Christian formations, labour unions and civic society organisations and individual members who believed it was time Ramaphosa and Minister for Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan vacated their posts to make way for new and capacitated leaders.
Their march coincided with the ANC conference in Joburg where Ramaphosa addressed his party.
They said they suspected their protest action was sabotaged, leading to fewer numbers than expected, as they were expecting buses to bring marchers from various provinces to Pretoria to participate in the demonstration.
ANC member and organiser of the march Senzo Nkabinde said Ramaphosa and Gordhan had until yesterday to resign from their posts or the organisation would call for a national shutdown of the country.
Among an array of grievances, they said the two leaders were businessmen and working with white monopoly capital and their friends in business to privatise SOEs, such as Eskom, Telkom, SA Airways and South African Broadcasting Corporation radio stations.
They also demanded that the government took proactive action to arrest the rapidly rising prices of fuel and reduce the cost of petrol to between R12 and R15 a litre, tax inclusive.
Nkabinde said: “We also demand the appointment of a joint national special crime-busting task force comprising the ministers of defence, the police, intelligence and home affairs, to investigate the root causes of, and put an end to, the mass shootings and killings of South Africans, mass deportation of foreign nationals, and put an end to foreign nationals overcrowding the employment opportunities.”
They also want an end to foreigners taking over South African properties, and all benefits reserved only for South Africans. “We demand a stabilisation of the operations of state-owned entities, which include an immediate end to load shedding, no privatisation of state-owned enterprises, the establishment of a state-owned nuclear system company and a state-owned coal mining company to supply Eskom with energy.”
Nkabinde said they had requested an immediate end to the US Military Army’s frequent visit and deployment to South Africa, which worry citizens as the visits were not communicated well in advance.
Pretoria News