Clergy urges ANC to pick president who can stand up to Zuma
19 June 2017
Cape Town - When African National Congress delegates choose their next president it must be somebody who can stand up to President Jacob Zuma, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) said on Monday.
"The ANC owes it to the country to ensure that the new ANC president, to be elected at the end of the year, has both the political capacity to demand accountability from the current president and the ethical credibility required to lead from the front in the fight against corruption in our country," said Bishop Abel Gabuza, chairperson of the SACBC's Justice and Peace Commission.
In the church body's opinion, not only had corruption worsened under Zuma's watch, but the state's resolve to fight it had weakened.
Greed and corruption had become normal, to the point that public services - such as schools, licence renewals and home affairs - had become "collection points for bribes", Gabuza said.