Tshwane - Former ANC member and founder of the African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance (Areta), Carl Niehaus, has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down.
Niehaus, along with members of Areta, took part in the Church Square march in Tshwane as protesters, among them EFF members, marched to the Union Buildings on Monday.
“Cyril Ramaphosa must go! He must walk straight down the road to Kgosi Mampuru prison, where the Phala Phala criminal belongs!" Niehaus said.
Niehaus said Areta was fully behind the EFF-led national shutdown aimed at forcing Ramaphosa to step down amid high the load shedding crisis.
Niehaus said that the objectives of the EFF's shutdown aligned with his organisation’s key goals, adding that Areta’s 10-point plan outlined a commitment to ending load shedding, saving Eskom as a state-owned enterprise, and ensuring that South Africa enjoyed energy security.
“We fully associate ourselves with the aims and objectives of the national shutdown. Among them is the failure of the Cyril Ramaphosa administration. We agree that Cyril Ramaphosa must go. In addition to that, we need to return the electricity to the people of South Africa. It is what the people need, to receive service delivery, and they must be able to benefit from a true people’s government. A government that cares and wants to serve the people,” he said.
Niehaus said that over the past few days, those opposed to the shutdown have called it illegal.
“Among those are fools like the Democratic Alliance who have run to the courts and got a good smack in proper legal terms because they were told that the shutdown is perfectly legal and must be allowed to go ahead ... besides that, we have seen the minister and the president who have spat all over television cameras telling us this shutdown is unacceptable and is illegal, and action will be taken against them,” he said.
The Star