The government, which has appealed for peace during the countrywide protests, tweeted that the laws in South Africa are also there to “protect the right of those who would not like to participate in protest action”.
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In Cape Town, Archbishop Desmond Tutu lent his influential and increasingly critical voice to an anti-Zuma march as protesters waved flags and formed a human chain outside of parliament.
“President Zuma has to go, we had enough of him he is killing our economy and business are suffering too, we have to unite in this and fight him”, she said.
Police said on Thursday that marches in Pretoria were illegal because they had not been granted permission by city authorities.
Zuma can either be ousted by the ruling party – African National Congress – recalling him, or a vote of no confidence in parliament.
Zuma, 74, has faced protests in the past. He is also facing internal criticism in his ANC party after it slipped to its lowest ever vote share of 55% in last year’s local elections.
“We are unhappy about his leadership because he does not seem to care about the people”.
Among those in the protests were members of several opposition parties, many civil-society groups, trade unions, business executives, the ruling party’s alliance partners in the Communist Party, and even the 85-year-old Nobel Peace Prize victor, retired archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is in frail health.
“The president is a criminal and I feel that [DA leader] Mmusi Maimane is the right man to lead and take South Africa forward”. “Jacob Zuma may have led us to this point, but we are embarking on a movement for change which seeks to create opportunities for all and build a prosperous, diverse nation”, he told thousands of party supporters gathered at Mary Fitzgerald Square.
“They are free to march freely but not to try and remove a government that was elected democratically”, said Kebby Maphatsoe, the head of the veterans group and also Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.
Those marching accused Zuma for all these including the fall in the rand against the major currencies.
“This president is mishandling the presidency and he should leave office“, said Graham Fish, 62.
Maimane says he wore a bulletproof vest earlier on Friday in the CBD because he got death threats after initially saying that his party would march to Luthuli House.
George Bongisile cycled from Nemato to take part, and he wished to address President Jacob Zuma directly. Far from those glory days, the ANC today is split over the question of support for Mr. Zuma.
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The DA’s Zwakele Mncwango said that former president Nelson Mandela would have been proud of all those who marched.
