South Africans gather for nationwide protests against Zuma

The largely peaceful protests in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town appeared to attract a diverse mix of South Africans, but Zuma railed against those who participated.

Anti-apartheid activist and Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu warned the ANC years back against behaving disgracefully and misrepresenting the people.

“The South African rand has dropped and we have lost lots and lots of money, Roots said”. He is too corrupt.

“Am going to celebrate this grading decision tonight long overdue hence mama action they must go now these people really now”.

In fact, Zuma’s power grab is a mistake that could be fateful to South Africa. Social media was flooded with pictures of protesters walking the streets with signs that read “Fire Zuma“, “Zuma must go now”, “Zuma must fall”, among others.

In response to the protests, ANC presidential contender Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a tweet; “This is what they are protecting. hence some of us are not part of this rubbish”. Both families have denied any wrongdoing.

Thousands of South Africans gathered in major cities today to demonstrate against President Jacob Zuma, whose dismissal of the finance minister fueled concerns over government corruption and a struggling economy.

Since coming to power in 2009, Zuma has been hit by a series of corruption scandals, while the ANC suffered its worst ever results in local polls past year.

The removal of Gordhan, who was seen internationally as a trustworthy and reliable figure amid a chaotic political environment, is likely to damage already low investor confidence in South Africa.

Foreign and local currency bonds were downgraded to the “junk” level, following a similar move from the S&P rating agency earlier this week.

While Fitch forecasts a GDP growth of 1,2% this year and 2,1% next year, it said the recent Cabinet reshuffle “has raised downside risks” and that it would “weaken standards of governance and public finances”.

The country turned to democracy after white minority rule ended in 1994 with the country’s first all-race vote and the election of Nelson Mandela as president. Though several senior leaders protested the cabinet shake-up, including deputy president and potential presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa, the party appeared to side with the president last week when its secretary-general called the dissent “a mistake that will not happen again”.

On Wednesday, the ANC acknowledged, but rejected calls for Zuma to step down.

Thousands of people gathered outside Parliament on Friday to demand the resignation of South African President Jacob Zuma. “It won’t work that way”.

The opposition party – the Democratic Alliance (DA) – were involved in organising the demonstrations and many supports took a stand against the president during the protests. The president replaced Gordhan with former Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, who has no financial or business experience, making him the nation’s fourth finance minister in 15 months.