Ramaphosa under pressure as national shutdown looms
President Cyril Ramaphosa finds himself under pressure from all corners as a national shutdown to remove him from office looms.
Civil society, labour unions, and opposition parties have raised concerns over his failure to steer the country out of the pits of unemployment, load shedding, and the rising cost of living.
On Friday, a group of ANC members marched to the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg to call for his removal.
They want action to be taken against him over the alleged cover up of the theft that took place at his private farm Phala Phala in 2020.
Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema says the party is also organising a massive national shutdown against Ramaphosa.
Malema briefed the media at the party's headquarters in Marshalltown on Thursday.
“The nature and character of a national shutdown - which will not be a candle holding and white flags type of a shutdown - it will be a shutdown that must communicate to the sitting government that enough is enough.
“We cannot fold our arms and do nothing when our country is being sold to the dogs,” says Malema.
The shutdown also seeks to call for the removal of Eskom leadership.
“We will announce the date once sufficient consultation has been made, and that shutdown is not going to be Johannesburg and Pretoria.
“It is going to be everywhere in Matatiele, Musina, and once a call is made, no taxi, no truck will move, no single shop will be opened, no offices will be opened.”
Malema adds: “All offices of Eskom will be occupied, to demand the resignation of the CEO, the resignation of the board and to put in people who have capacity to run that institution.”
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has also announced plans for a national shutdown in August against the rising cost of living and load shedding.
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