Bheka Ntuli from Durban said it was time South Africa sought a commited and passionate president who would listen to the masses.
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The ANC spokesperson Khusela Sangoni said they were not deterred by the protests.
Union leader Zwelinzima Vavi said “we made a mistake by electing a crook (at the ANC’s Limpopo conference) who was facing 783 charges”. He was replaced by Malusi Gigaba. According to Whip Mthembu, the ANC’s chief, the ruling party will side with Jacob Zuma. Other ANC members in military uniforms who had been posted outside their party headquarters helped to escort the protesters to safety. “Our country is in crisis”, he told a crowd of supporters. This may play well with key rural communities which are strongholds of the ANC, but has less resonance in cities, where Zuma is deeply unpopular. “The South African state is under threat …” He was one of a few thousand who gathered outside Luthuli House to protect it from those who dared to come near it. “They’ll get what they deserve”, said Zakelo, a whip-wielding MK vet from KwaZulu-Natal.
One of the DA members was injured but the police intervened and escorted the pair to safety. He was rescued from an even more severe beating by police.
Due to weather conditions the programme was called off just before Solly Mapaila‚ second deputy general secretary of the SACP‚ was due to speak.
Some backers of the ruling Africa n National Congress (ANC) were trying to breach a cordon separating them from members of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA). “We are unhappy about his leadership because he does not seem to care about the people”. What about junk status and the effects it will have on the poor? But comrades you have always been junk status. It’s a rent-a-crowd, and it’s people who are making our people believe lies. “We are going forward, not backwards”. She wore a South African flag bandana.
About 30,000 protesters marched in Johannesburg, Pretoria and other big metropolitan areas. This split initially gave proceedings a slight sense of aimlessness.
Protesters in the capital are planning to march to the seat of government, the Union Buildings. Another expressed a futile fantasy: “President Pravin?”
Mr. Zuma’s government is also facing trouble on the worldwide stage.
In Cape Town’s suburbs, residents formed human chains on main roads.
“We have to be here”.
Zuma’s presidency has been riddled with corruption accusations and money-related scandals.
The tweet was in response to a conversation on Twitter where Mayihlome Tshwete of the South African treasury said the Save SA protests were well-funded.
Zuma has easily survived previous such votes against him.
In Cape Town, motorists hooted in support of the march as about 10,000 people gathered, including outside parliament.
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Back in Johannesburg, protesters converged at the Gupta’s Saxonwold residence. Among the supporters Moneyweb noted FNB CEO Jacques Cilliers, while many travelled by Gautrain from Johannesburg to Pretoria for the event.
