The South African Hindu Maha Sabha has joined the campaign Defend Our Democracy, is aimed at voicing concerns about the government's alleged inability to protect its citizens.
Durban - The South African Hindu Maha Sabha has joined the call to defend the country's democracy and protect the Constitution. This is in light of former president Jacob Zuma's refusal to appear before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture.
The campaign, Defend Our Democracy, is aimed at voicing concerns about the government's alleged inability to protect its citizens. It has the backing of veteran anti-apartheid activists such as Reverend Frank Chikane, Sheila Sisulu, Sipho Pityana, Cheryl Carolus, Murphy Morobe, Saths Cooper and Mojanku Gumbi.
More than 300 religious organisations, civil society groups and NGOs – such as the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the Active Citizens Movement – have also joined the campaign.
On Monday, members of the campaign formed a human chain outside the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg as they were concerned about Zuma's defiance. The Constitutional Court will hear the Zondo's Commission's contempt application against Zuma on Thursday. If Zuma loses the case, he faces two years imprisonment.
A petition forms part of the campaign, which can be signed on the Sabha's Facebook page.
The petition reads: “We cannot be passive observers when our democracy and constitution are under threat … We, therefore, call on all people to vigorously oppose this threat to our democracy and to stand united against those intent on violating the values and principles embodied in our Constitution."
In a statement last Thursday, Defend Our Democracy highlighted what the Constitution represented and said that Zuma's behaviour was a malicious attack on the judiciary, particularly on the Constitutional Court, the cornerstone of the Constitution.
"The threat to our constitutional democracy goes beyond that posed by an individual. It illustrates how that individual embodies a political culture fundamentally antithetical to democracy: the cult of personality, rule by factional dictate, nepotism, and totalitarianism in a securitised state."
It said everyday South Africans were witness to looting, corruption and parties and other unlawful activities.
"Our future as a democracy is only as secure as our refusal to tolerate the destabilisation of the state and our unyielding defence of the Constitution, the foundational creed of this nation and the supreme law of the land.
"We, therefore, call on all people of goodwill to vigorously oppose this threat to our democracy and to stand united against those intent on violating the values and principles embodied in our Constitution."
The Post