Zuma scandal will hurt the ANC
For the sake of the ANC, Jacob Zuma should come clean, apologise, ask for forgiveness - and resign from the national presidency, writes Peter Townshend.
I totally agree with William Gumede's article'Shift flawed leader aside or suffer the consequences' and it was my thought as well when the scandal first erupted. Jacob Zuma should move back to the ANC and the vice president to president. He’s much more presentable and reliable when it comes to matters affecting public life.
This scandal will most definitely hurt the ANC, as not one black person who I’ve spoken to, or who spoken to me, condones it and are embarrassed about the whole affair.
In most other developed countries, as the highest person in the country, he would have resigned on his own initiative, or be forced to resign by his party. If this had happened here, our country’s reputation would have been restored in the international community. I don’t think an apology is enough because of his status.
I liken this incident to Hansie Cronjie’s incident of match fixing in cricket. He came clean, apologised and asked for forgiveness in a most genuine way. Most South Africans forgave him, but he was still stripped of his captaincy and banned from the sport.
Something like that should have happened to JZ, but I suppose that politics just isn’t cricket!