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There has been a call from some few people for the head of the president to roll. There was even a hash tag (#) created on social media platforms (#Zumamustgo). Let me remind those few individuals that on the 7th of May 2014, 18.4 million South Africans took to the polls to elect their preferred political party to lead this country for the next 5 years.
We can first start looking at the definition of the term Democracy, I think people who are still calling for the head of the president to roll will realise that their views are misplaced. It is said to be …government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
11.4 million people out of 18.4 million have spoken or let me say democracy has prevailed. More than 62% of eligible voters said WE WANT PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA TO LEAD US FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. So now I am confused why few individuals now say the President must go. The question that come to my mind is did they vote or not. Because if they did I would say they were supposed to express their feelings there not in the Hash Tags (#) on social media.
Oh! Sorry, I am now trying to say people should not expressed their views in democratic country. Absolutely not, but what I am trying to put to the Hash Taggers of Zumamustgo is you need to respect people’s democratic rights to elect whoever they want. This is a democracy people elect their preferred political parties represented by leaders of that political party. I am putting this because some will counter with ill-advised argument(s) such as, no in South Africa we do not elect the president directly, as if we did not see in the ballot papers who are the representatives of the organisations/political parties we voted for in the first place.
In this instance President Jacob Zuma was the face of the African National Congress (ANC) and Hellen Zille for the Democratic Alliance(DA); Julius Malema for Economic Freedom Fighters(EFF) and so on. Now it is history that all those who opposed the now President of the country Jacob Zuma failed to gunner enough votes to be the leaders of this country.
In short, people of South Africa were clear WE DO NOT WANT OTHER PEOPLE OTHER THAN JACOB ZUMA TO LEAD US. Based on the number of people who voted the ANC into power, it was like as if people were saying WE DO NOT SEE A FUTURE WITHOUT THE ANC-LED GOVERNMENT. Well that’s my view on the matter.
Now, does my view matter or not, well it up to you to judge, but the fact of the matter is South Africa is a democratic country. It has democratic institutions Parliament, Court of law, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and we need to respect those institutions in order to uphold our democracy. Going back to my view, it doesn’t matter but the 18.4 million people who exercised their right to vote matters.
Therefore, I cannot sleep and wake up and say (#HelllenZillemustgo) in the Western Cape, even though I would prefer that. But in a democracy I must respect Western Cape people’s view that they want to be led by a white dominated party.
Wow! Now you are playing a race card, so you say, but it’s a fact if it was not true I would withdraw, but I won’t. Regardless of how many Hash Tags we create the fact is our president is going nowhere, he is here to stay for the next five years and if he must (#Hemustgowhere?)
*Mr Phumelela Dlamini is a Researcher in the Presidency. He is writing at his own personal capacity
