AZAPO welcomes the Constitutional Court judgement. We are excited that there is still a semblance of hope in the other arms of the state other than the Executive. Our judiciary has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that South Africa still has women and men of substance and integrity.
AZAPO calls on President Zuma to do the honourable thing and resigned without being further pushed to do so. The highest court in the land has ruled that the President is in breach of the Constitution, which section 83(b) thereof enjoins him to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic”. A president who is in breach of the Constitution cannot be expected to “uphold, defend and respect” it. For the sake of our country and its people, President Zuma should summon the very last amount of conscience, if he still has any, and resign.
That is not enough. The Constitutional Court found the National Assembly, which the highest lawmaker in the country, to have been in breach of the supreme law of the land. This presents the country with a Constitutional crisis, as it were. In terms of the Constitution, the President is supposed to be impeached by the National Assembly. But the National Assembly has violated the very same Constitution in defence of the President. In that event, AZAPO calls on the Members of Parliament to do the honourable thing and vote for the dissolution of the National Assembly in terms of section 50, and early National Elections be held. The continued remaining in Parliament of supposed “public representatives” who betrayed the public by harassing and insulting the Public Protector, is itself in further violation of the Constitution. The National Assembly must be dissolved such that the Members of Parliament step down with the President they gave to the nation. AZAPO is aware that there are a few Members of Parliament who fought against the shenanigans. Of relevance here are not the individual members of the National Assembly, but the body as a whole.
The time has come for the people of South Africa to realise that they can no longer keep on expecting the Judiciary to defend democracy and the Constitution. The people should play their active and positive role in defending the Constitution by ensuring that they elect women and men of substance and integrity as public representatives. If our people do not do the right thing, then should be ready to take responsibility for our country degenerating into a failed state under their watch. They should further be ready to be economic refugees in the neighbouring countries, same as a number of citizen of our neighbours are economic refugees in South Africa right now.
Issued by the AZAPO Standing Committee
Enquiries: Manku Noruka
