Cabinet reshuffle: Axing Blade escalates ANC war

The DA is not surprised by President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle, the latest move in Zuma’s war against anyone who opposes his project of State Capture. The obvious target was SACP leader, Dr. Blade Nzimande, who follows Pravin Gordhan, Derek Hanekom, Mcebisi Jonas and others who have failed to toe the Zuma line and have found themselves out of office.
The SACP has been dealt an insulting blow, and they must now decide how long they will put up with this abuse, or if they will now do what they know is right, and begin to work outside the ANC.
Blade’s axing has also provided the pretext for yet another reshuffling of Zuma sycophants, none more pliant than new Minister of Energy, David Mahlobo. This smacks of an attempt to reignite the ANC’s efforts to chain our country to a multibillion rand nuclear deal with the Russians.
This reshuffle has nothing to do with effecting good governance, and ensuring the best people serve our country. On the contrary, Jacob Zuma appears to be firing his critics, and offering promotions in exchange for support ahead of the ANC’s elective conference in December this year.
This just reaffirms what the DA has said all along – the ANC exists solely an organisation committed to self-enrichment and self-advancement – all at the expense of the South African people.
Come 2019, South Africans must use their power to vote out this self-serving ANC government at the ballot box, and choose a new beginning for our country.
The future of South lies in a post-ANC South Africa, free from corruption and State Capture, and focused on our nation’s new struggle – the struggle for access to jobs. Our fight is to ensure that all South Africans can enter the economy, find meaningful work, and create a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

Zuma files appeal to delay revealing his Cabinet Reshuffle record of decision

The President has this afternoon filed a court application to frustrate and delay the legal process to review his disastrous cabinet reshuffle and the firing of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas.
President Zuma has served upon the DA a notice of application for leave to appeal against the order of Judge Vally, handed down last Thursday, which requires him to deliver the record of decision by the close of business tomorrow.
The President is clearly hell-bent on keeping these reasons from the people of South Africa and is using every possible court process to do so.
President Zuma has also filed a notice in terms of Rule 35(12) to bizarrely request that the DA should provide him with the so-called “intelligence report” upon which he allegedly relied in recalling Pravin Gordhan from his investor roadshow in London, and ultimately firing him from cabinet four days later.
The “intelligence report” has been widely communicated on and addressed by senior members of President Zuma’s own government and party, including the Deputy President and the Speaker of the National Assembly, and it is, therefore, dumbfounding that he would require the DA to supply him with this report. We are led to conclude that President Zuma is using this medium as another delaying tactic in avoiding accountability for his disastrous reshuffle that has severe consequences for all people of South Africa.
We have all seen this movie before. These tactics are substantially the very same tactics used by Jacob Zuma in the Spy Tapes matter to delay as long as possible the course of justice and to prevent 783 charges being reinstated against him.
The DA views these moves by Jacob Zuma as desperate attempts to frustrate the course of justice, wherein he must be held to account for the effects of his executive actions that we contend were irrational and should be set aside.
The DA does not believe that President Zuma’s application for leave to appeal has a likelihood of success, and we, therefore, will resist the President’s application with vigour.

DA welcomes High Court ruling forcing Zuma to supply reasons for disastrous reshuffle

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is elated by the order of the North Gauteng High Court today that President Jacob Zuma must provide the reasons and record of decision to axe Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas, on 31 March 2017.
This is a victory not only for the DA but for all South Africans who deserve to know on what basis the President made this disastrous decision.
Last week, the DA filed an urgent application to force President Zuma to supply his record of decision after he claimed that the DA and South Africa were not entitled to the reasons behind his disastrous decision.
Now that the High Court has confirmed that President Zuma must supply his record of decision within five days of today’s ruling, our earlier application to review the rationality of his decision can proceed.
The record of decision should also contain the now infamous ‘intelligence report’ which South Africa and the court can fully interrogate.
It is high time that those in power and especially the President, are held accountable for their actions and decisions based on self-interest and personal gain rather than the best interests of our country.
The fact is that President Zuma ought to have rationally foreseen the consequences of this reshuffle on our country and the 9 million unemployed people, who are likely to increase given the recent downgrades to junk status his decision precipitated.
The DA will continue to pursue all possible avenues to ensure this because South Africa deserves leaders that put the people first.

Now nothing stands in the way of Mcebisi Jonas aiming a ‘political headshot’ at President Jacob Zuma

The former Deputy-Minister of Finance, Mcebisi Jonas, may have resigned but he still has a vital role to play in public life in South Africa.
We cannot forget that on 16 March 2016 the former deputy-minister lobbed a “political grenade” into the Guptas’ camp when he alleged that they had offered him the position of finance minister prior to the firing of former Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, on 09 December 2015.
This was prima facie evidence of corruption in terms of the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act (No. 12 of 2004), and the matter is now being investigated by the Hawks following my complaint laid at a Cape Town police station on 17 March 2016.
Now nothing stands in the way of the former deputy-minister cooperating with the investigation being carried out by the Hawks. He could be the star witness in what could amount to aiming a “political headshot” at President Jacob Zuma.
We can only hope the former deputy-minister will have the courage and energy to fight on against “state capture” in South Africa.

Parliament must defend our Constitutional Democracy and fire Jacob Zuma

President Jacob Zuma’s decision to fire the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, and the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mcebesi Jonas, should be a rallying call for all South Africans to stand together and defend our hard-won Constitutional Democracy.
The President has once again shown that he has no interest in our beloved country’s future – or the 9 million South Africans who are unemployed. He has bowed to the whims of those who are determined to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and jobless. This is an act of complete state capture.
We cannot sit by and let this happen. It is time that all South Africans stand together to protect our democracy.
It is Parliament who hired Jacob Zuma and it is Parliament that can fire him. We therefore urge all political parties, including members of the ANC, to vote President Jacob Zuma out when the DA’s motion of no confidence is debated in the National Assembly.
The time is now. We must stand together and defend what so many fought and died for.
Visit NoConfidence.co.za and become a citizen co-sponsor of our Motion of No Confidence in President Zuma.

President Jacob Zuma must explain the bizarre recall of Pravin Gordhan

The fact that President Jacob Zuma has instructed the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, together with the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mcebisi Jonas, to cancel their international investor roadshow and return to the country immediately is a major setback for the economy in South Africa.
The instruction to cancel the international investor roadshow without explanation is so bizarre that it appears, at best, calculated to humiliate the minister or, at worst, to suggest that the minister is about to be fired in a cabinet reshuffle.
Whatever the case the instruction to cancel the international investor roadshow could not have come at a worse time as the minister battles to restore investor confidence among international investors in one of the financial capitals of the world.
The fact is that President Jacob Zuma must provide a public explanation for the fact that he has instructed the Minister of Finance, together with the Deputy Minister of Finance, to cancel their international investor roadshow and immediately return to South Africa.