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Johannesburg - Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has asked President Jacob Zuma to step down.
Phosa has spoken out against the party’s leadership saying, "Good men cannot be silent in the face of evil. Silence is connivance. Therefore I speak".
The former premier of Mpumalanga was trending on Twitter following an opinion piece he wrote that was published both in the Sunday Independent and on the Daily Maverick website.
In the piece, Phosa was highly critical of the party following the antics at the opening of Parliament.
He wrote: "Now we have a president, when we plead with him to go, stays. My plea remains: Please, for once, serve your people, and go. Go now. If you don’t, history will judge you to be the chief architect of the destruction of the ANC.
"I understand that these words will land me in the firing line. I know that I am not the only one who feels this way. I know that there are cabinet ministers and NEC members who feel the same way. I urge them again, to speak up. Find your inner voices, find your pride, find your character and speak before your children and grandchildren, and history, judge you harshly for being silent."
Read more:https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/
Phosa declined to comment when contacted by News24. But a source close to him said of his article, "Let the people have fun with it… that’s why it was published."
ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa could not be reached for comment.
Phosa writes that he had his "Damascus moment" at the opening of Parliament when Speaker Baleka Mbete, "callously, coldly and clinically refused to allow Parliament to bow their heads to show that they feel the pain of the families of the 94 who had died because the government looked the other way".
The ANC stalwart said following the disruptions by opposition parties, the accusations of racism and hurling of expletives at the opposition, he had come to a point where he refused to be part of the "intellectual funeral of the ANC".
He wrote, "I refuse to be associated with so-called leaders who trample on the people who voted them into office, who disrespect the Constitution, whose only predictable response to all challenges is 'racism' and who are willing to sacrifice the future of our children before the throne of a man who knows no shame and shows no character".
Phosa said the DA was right to raise the issue of the patients who died in the Life Esidimeni tragedy.
"Cope was right in calling the president a scoundrel, and the EFF was right in raising the issue of non-parliamentary security staff being present in the parliamentary precinct," wrote Phosa.
He said the party will have to pull off a miracle to get anywhere near 50% of the vote in 2019.
"That very moment in Parliament when we, the ANC, refused to bow our heads in shame about the death of 94 defenceless citizens, will in future be seen as a pivotal moment that illustrated the insensitive, careless brutality of some of our leaders."
Phosa said he remained a member of the ANC but calls for the resignation of the president and the election of a new NEC.
"We cannot postpone the future, and the inevitable, time and again. It shows cowardice and a lack of decisive leadership."
Last month, City Press reported that he received a surprise endorsement from Cape Town ANC activist and "poo thrower" Andile Lili as the "credible" leader of the party.
The paper reported that the founder of Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement, said that ANC members aligned to Seskhona met to throw their weight behind Phosa to succeed President Jacob Zuma to lead the party. The ANC will hold its elective conference in December.
Former AU chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa are in the succession race.
TWEETS:
KhayelihleKhumalo (@KhayaJames)
#MathewsPhosa Pulls no punches here, good men cannot be silent in the face of evil. Silence is connivance. Therefore I speak. #Damascus
Irma Kroeze (@ChefIrma)
The intellectual funeral if the ANC. Well said Mathews Phosa! http://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/mathews-phosa-this-was-my-damascus-moment-7831409 … via @IOL
dean slater (@deandwslater)
Something appealing hiding in this appeal- Find those who are not enemies http://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/mathews-phosa-this-was-my-damascus-moment-7831409 … via @IOL @Our_DA #change19 #mathewsphosa
Susan Comrie (@sajournalist)
"Therefore I speak"... Brave words from Mathews Phosa, refusing "to be part of the intellectual funeral of the ANC" http://bit.ly/2lWTBsS
Paul Claassen (@Kawasaki__900)
#MathewsPhosa: ... my Damascus moment http://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/mathews-phosa-this-was-my-damascus-moment-7831409 … @IOL
I'm glad Phosa said it
It needed to be said & ANC cant call him DAStooge
