Calls for president to step down

THERE are growing calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down after the announcement that Takatso Consortium would own 51% of the SA Airways while the government would HAVE OWNERSHIP

Analysts and various movements expressed their disappointment with the president for purging black professionals and privatising state-owned enterprises (SOES).

Ramaphosa was also accused of having a close relationship with certain business people and working with them to facilitate the demise of SAA, aerospace company Denel, Eskom and the Public Rail Agency of SA (Prasa).

Political analysts expressed their doubts in Ramaphosa, contending that he was serving the interests of his handlers at the expense of fellow black South Africans, who were deep in poverty.

Professor Sipho Seepe said the president was the cause of instability in the ANC. He accused him of embarking on a purge of those who appeared to question the political trajectory of the organisation.

Seepe said the country was on autopilot and no amount of public relations exercises would address the situation.

“Most of the comments are not about the seemingly intractable racial inequalities that were spawned by apartheid. If anything African professionals are being replaced by whites and people of Indian origin in key public positions. The SOES, which had a developmental mandate, are being privatised,” said Seepe.

“Ramaphosa seems to be getting his orders elsewhere. On the economic front, Ramaphosa has no ideas. It is not about whether he needs time; he is simply bereft of ideas and vision.”

Political analyst Xolani Dube said Ramaphosa was serving those who “bought him and made him president”.

He had long held the view that Ramaphosa was not for blacks and should not have been president.

Professor Tumi Senokoane said: “Ramaphosa has accepted in his many speeches the reality that he is not doing well economically and that is why he has been speaking about the economic recovery plan. There have been a lot of job losses under his watch, more than any other president in a democratic South Africa.

“I do not see the economy changing, instead I anticipate an economy that will benefit a few and those aligned to a small cabal who have been running the economy using old money.”

Spokesperson for the National Union Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) Phakamile Hlubi-majola said the problem was both Ramaphosa and the ANC. “Both should go because the president was doing the bidding for his party. Therefore, both should be removed from government.

“The ANC is contributing directly to unemployment by collapsing and then downsizing and restructuring state-owned entities for their own benefit,” Majola said.

SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo said that South Africa had achieved some growth in the first quarter of this year, but the number of employed people declined and unemployment had increased.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Phamla said the federation agreed that Ramaphosa’s administration was failing on the economic and unemployment front but he believed that a president could not be fired unless Parliament found constitutional grounds to remove him.

“The president needs to ensure his economic team implements the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan and honours the commitments made in the manifesto. Voters were not promised austerity and budget cuts.”

Neither acting spokesperson for the president Tyrone Seale, nor the ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe responded to questions from the Daily News.