It was a busy day in Pretoria as various groupings took to the streets in support Kwazulu-Natal Police Commissioner and also demanding that President Cyril Ramaphosa resign.
uMkhonto weSizwe pulled the largest crowd that marched from Church Square to the police headquarters before proceeding to the Union Buildings where memorandums were submitted.
MKP said the allegations made by Mkhwanazi which include that the criminal justice system has been infiltrated by criminal syndicates and that high ranking officials as well as politicians such as police minister Senzo Mchunu are captured by the syndicates warrant immediate action.
The party rejected Ramaphosa’s decision to place Mchunu on special leave arguing there’s no legal provision for it. MKP National Organiser Joe Ndlela said Mchunu deserved nothing short of a dismissal.
“We are fully aware that the constitution is being violated. General Mkhwanazi made serious allegations about the conduct of some of the people in the security cluster in the prosecution and the judiciary and what becomes important for us is that we feel that the things that he’s saying are very very serious and what we expectCyril Ramaphosa to do is for him to suspend, not to suspend in actual fact, to fire Senzo Mchunu because Senzo Mchunu is at the centre of him being seen to be working with these major drug dealers and also the major criminal syndicates,” said Ndlela.
He said the decision to place the minister on special leave was unlawful.
“And for him to remove him and send him on absence of leave does not make any sense. The constitution does not allow Cyril to appoint a civilian whilst you still have another minister. Yes, it does allow him to appoint a person who’s not in the national assembly as a minister, but not in the manner that he’s done it.So as Mkwanazi sees what we are saying, we will not allow our country to go through what is going and our people to experience what they’re experiencing because Cyril has clearly sold the country,” said Ndlela.
The party had already indicated it would challenge Ramaphosa’s decision in the constitutional court as did the EFF.
The decision to set up a commission of inquiry has also been widely criticised with many believing it would be costly and that at the end it will exonerate Mchunu and others.
“We are the employer as citizens and today we are here ( Union Buildings) to fire Ramaphosa, he must go. We don’t want a commission of inquiry and if he wants to insist on it he must go take some of his millions of dollars from the couch and pay for that waste of time, not our taxes,” said Faith Mabusela of pressure group Save South Africa.
Ahead of Friday’s march MKP had given Ramaphosa until 10:00 to resign and said while submitting its memorandum that it would take measures such as embarking on mass rolling action if its demands are not met within 14 days.
“Should Ramaphosa fail to heed this call, the MK Party will pursue a range of lawful and peaceful actions, including constitutional litigation, a motion of no confidence in Parliament and rolling mass action nationwide. These steps reflect the will of the people, who, through democratic means, delivered a decisive electoral verdict against the African National Congress under Ramaphosa’s leadership,” said MKP in a statement.
The NGOs also accused the president of failing to reign in illegal migration into the country which they claim has worsened under his leadership.