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IT IS TIME TO GO

22/02/2018 00:43:00 By Vusi Kunene

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SECTION 68 (1) (d) of the Constitution gives the prime minister of the country an option to vacate office. The section provides that the office of the prime minister shall become vacant where the prime minister resigns from office.

This is what the prime minister should do now before it gets worse. He must do the most honourable thing before he is pushed. He has served the country and he must now get his deserved rest.

If our prime minister cannot stand to be criticised then he is not fit to hold public office. It must be known that it is the office that is criticised and not the person holding the office. Even if Sibusiso B Dlamini were to vacate the office, we would continue to point out what the office of the prime minister is not doing right.
Further it must be known that we do not point out the shortfalls of government because we hate certain people but it’s because of the love we have for our country and we wish to see it doing better when compared to others. We point out the shortfalls so that relevant officers must correct them. Last week I mentioned the buffalo kind of leadership and that is what is exhibited by our current prime minister. He thinks that he is always right and anyone with a differing view is wrong. Or rather he has been running roughshod over the people of the country such that he is surprised there are those who can tell him when he is not doing right.

I think that those who are in the leadership must study the Constitution and know what it provides. Section 63 states that it is the duty of every citizen to uphold and defend the Constitution. It is the duty of every citizen to further national interests and foster national unity, promote democracy, protect and preserve public property and to combat the misuse and waste of public funds.
If then we are silent when we see the Constitution being violated, we are abdicating our duty as citizens of the country. In any democracy people are allowed to voice their views without fear and our democracy can never be different from others. So if the prime minister is against people of this country airing their views, he is not worthy of leading a government that is supposed to uphold a constitution like ours. The prime minister cannot silence the people when they are enjoined by the Constitution to raise issues that affect them.

Section 60 (8) provides that the State is supposed to provide free and compulsory basic education for all. This is to be done without compromising the quality of education in the country. Does he mean when government is failing to provide quality education at primary schools because it is failing to deliver teaching material on time, we have to give applause to it for that failure? When government is calling upon schools to ask for top up fees to be paid by the parents when the Constitution is clear that the State must provide free education, we are supposed to ululate for that? When teachers in schools are lamenting that the quality of education is going down we are supposed to cheer to that? We just cannot do that Prime Minister. We have to make demands from the government which you are the head of because it is this government that is taxing us to the bone. We want to preserve the public purse and avoid the misuse and waste of public funds as enjoined by the Constitution to do so. Yes people may be armchair critics but it is within their right, prime minister, that they do so.

To say I was flabbergasted by what the prime minister said in Pigg’s Peak would be an understatement. I was rather gobsmacked when I read that the prime minister is at it again. He called upon a Member of Parliament to come out of Parliament and talk about what was discussed in the House.
That he even wasted resources to instruct attorneys to write a letter to the MP worried me even more.

Why is the prime minister all out to muzzle the people of this country? Even in Parliament where discussions, views and ideas should be discussed without fear, he wants to instil fear. If he feels that his ideas are too good, he must allow them to be challenged and he must defend them. He must not force people to be silent. I think the prime minister has been having his word for too long and he is now surprised that some people have the audacity to tell him that he is wrong. If you can no longer take the heat, just vacate that seat.