Pityana calls on Zuma to resign
2013-02-25 12:29
Johannesburg - Former University of SA vice chancellor
Barney Pityana is "playing politics" by talking about a letter he
sent President Jacob Zuma asking him to resign, the ANC said on Monday.
"He [Pityana] is not objective. He was part of those
who founded Cope [the Congress of the People]," African National Congress
spokesperson Keith Khoza said.
"He claims to have written a letter to the president,
but has not engaged with the presidency. He is playing politics by running to
the media."
Khoza said issues raised by Pityana were "not
clear".
'Point-scoring exercise'
"We don't take it [the letter] seriously. It is a
point-scoring exercise to draw attention to himself and remain relevant."
Pityana wrote in the Sunday Independent that he addressed a
letter to Zuma asking him to resign.
"My... motivation for taking this step is the
recognition that we have to pull back from the precipice - or to coin a phrase,
from this 'moral cliff' - where any sense of public good or virtue, loyalty or
restraint are absent, and the moral sensitivity of the nation is in
paralysis," he wrote in the opinion piece.
"In other words, the absence of a moral basis for human
conduct - especially in public life - is totally lacking and the victims will
be the poor and the powerless."
He also criticised the "Machiavellian manner" in
which Zuma had "wormed into the leadership of the ANC" at its
national conference in Polokwane in 2007.
"As South Africans we deserve better than we are
receiving. Clearly the president and his party lack motivation, skills and
ideas to transform this country into the haven of opportunity and prosperity
that 1994 promised," Pityana wrote.
"My letter is intended for South Africans to have a
debate about our government, to determine the competencies and quality of
leadership, and to envision a new future that the ANC is clearly incapable of
providing.
"The call to the president to resign is serious, urgent
and timely."
- SAPA
