Zuma and ANC leaders must go‚ says Pityana

President Jacob Zuma and the entire African National Congress leadership must go‚ says party stalwart Sipho Pityana.

Pityana‚ a former department of foreign affairs director general‚ did not mince his words when he appeared on the Justice Factor show (http://www.enca.com/south-africa/pityana-zuma-entire-leadership-of-the-anc-must-resign) on Monday.

“He should resign as the president of the country and that’s what accountability is about. It is not possible that he can’t see that the country is going through the kind of mayhem and mess that it’s going through‚” he said.

An elective conference to appoint new party leaders had to be credible but for that to happen‚ he added‚ one had to accept that some party leaders had been captured and because of their influential positions‚ the party itself had been captured.

“So my view‚ the first thing is that the president should step down. Secondly‚ is that the leadership must accept that it has allowed this thing to get to where it is and must accept that it is also culpable and it must also resign.

“The elective conference must be about ensuring that a new leadership is elected‚ but that process has to be credible. I support calls for a consultative conference because that would enable a process of examination of how and why the ANC is where it is‚ why the split since Zuma has come in has seen two breakaways‚ major breakaways from its ranks.

“Has seen the descent that you’ve seen in the ranks of Cosatu‚ has seen the crisis that the Communist Party is in‚ has seen an unsustainable relationship within the alliance‚ has seen the chaos and the mayhem that is going on in government. There is crisis everywhere you go. The leader in charge of this has to take responsibility.”