Day 17 - My Struggling Country

Jacob Zuma, former vice president of South Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Looking at the recent news in South Africa I’d have to say that this country is in some serious trouble. The reasons that I say this is that the civil unrest in South Africa is getting worse all the time due to many factors including horrible wages, increasing costs for basic living and a corrupt and selfish government. Recently President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has been under some serious scrutiny over many points but mainly over the point of excessive costs on his private home. Quoting from the news article: "that under his leadership the justice system has been politicised and weakened; corruption has spiralled out of control; unemployment continues to increase, the economy is weakening, and, the right of access to quality education has been violated". (http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/DA-files-court-papers-over-Zuma-motion-20121117 )

The point of his home is that he was accused and brought before a parliamentary hearing to ask if his private home which cost around R200 million was paid for by the taxpayers as was recently reported in many newspapers.

In this article Zuma is saying how he doesn’t have anything to do with the improvements made other than the ones his family put in and that the government said these improvements were necessary for security reasons. The point that people in South Africa are angry about is the fact that the president allowed these upgrades even with his country in serious financial trouble, which is causing people to get angry with the government.

The main opposition political party in SA – the DA – has been trying to bring a vote of no confidence on President Zuma. There is a lot of anger against Zuma because he is not taking responsibility for the country that he governs, but instead he places blame on others or says that the governor of the respective area that is presenting trouble or specific government departments are supposed to deal with whatever problems.
Let me explain a vote of no confidence. Simply put, a vote of no confidence is a vote to remove the acting president from office legally because of the president not adhering to the responsibilities of the president in accordance with the constitution of SA.

The question here is how far people are going to allow themselves to be pushed before they snap. The recent strikes that have been increasingly violent are signs that people are seriously unhappy.

What will happen if the ANC continues to block the attempts of the DA to remove Zuma from office using a vote of no confidence, which would be in violation of the SA constitution. What would SA turn into then? If SA stands up and removes Zuma what would happen to SA? Ask yourself how far you would need to be pushed before you stand up and say no more?

Sources:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Nkandla-Zuma-says-still-paying-bond-20121115
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/DA-files-court-papers-over-Zuma-motion-20121117

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