Thousands take part in ‘Zuma Must Fall’ marches across SA

As the nation celebrated Reconciliation Day on Wednesday‚ thousands of South Africans took to the streets in some of the country’s major cities to demand President Jacob Zuma’s removal from office.

Marches were staged in – among other cities — Pretoria‚ Johannesburg‚ Cape Town and Port Elizabeth where Zuma was scheduled to lead Reconciliation Day celebrations at the city’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

The “Zuma Must Fall” demonstrations were called for in the wake of the recent Cabinet reshuffle fiasco which triggered widespread criticism and caused the country’s capital markets to tank‚ resulting in significant losses running into billions of rand.

Zuma sparked an uproar last week when he fired Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and replaced him with ANC backbencher Des van Rooyen‚ only to replace him just a few days later with Pravin Gordhan in the wake of the uproar.

In Pretoria‚ demonstrators were undeterred by a fine drizzle as they marched to the Union Buildings‚ while in Cape Town protesters marched to Parliament to voice their dissatisfaction with the President.

The gathering place in Johannesburg was the Nelson Mandela Bridge.

Included among those said to be taking part in the marches were ANC stalwart Barbara Hogan and former Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi.