6th April, 2017
South Africans from different walks of life will take part in the countrywide protests on Friday demanding that President Zuma should resign.
The march will be done in various cities including Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Those who will participate are from the political parties, civil society, business, faith-based and student organisations and trade unions.
The march is a call for President Jacob Zuma to step down.
This comes after he reshuffled the cabinet last week which resulted with the rand plummeting and the credit rating agency S&P downgrading the country’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to sub investment with a negative outlook.
The opposition political party, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane said the Police Commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane have assured him that there will be a peaceful demonstration.
The ruling party, African National Congress (ANC) called for calm during protests on Friday.
“As the planned day of protests approaches, the ANC calls on all South Africans to organize in a calm and measured fashion.
“We should not allow inflammatory rhetoric from certain elements, including on social media, to damage our fragile social fabric and turn South Africans against each other,” ANC’s spokesperson Kusela Sangoni said.
“The ANC encourages all South Africans to report any incidents of illegality, intimidation or coercion to the relevant law enforcement authorities, both in the days leading up to the demonstrations, and on the day.” he added.
Zuma pledged to redistribute wealth in the economy to poor black people as part of a policy he calls “radical socio-economic transformation”.
“We mean the fundamental change in the structure, systems, institutions and patterns of ownership, management and control of the economy in favor of South Africans, especially the poor,” Zuma said in a speech to members of local government.
Zuma’s fresh “transformation” pledge has been criticised by opponents who say it is a populist attempt to win votes and vague rhetoric similar to many promises made since the end of apartheid in 1994.
South Africa’s parliament will on April 18 debate a motion of no confidence against Zuma brought by the main opposition party after he dismissed the respected finance minister.
Previous no-confidence motions against Zuma have failed as the ruling African National Congress party has a commanding majority.
There has been a growing backlash against Zuma over his action to fire Pravin Gordhan from opposition parties and civil society.