/ 4 February 2015

Zuma asked to resign and legalise dagga

The majority of respondents asked Zuma to resign and pay back the money spent on Nkandla.
The majority of respondents asked Zuma to resign and pay back the money spent on Nkandla.

If South Africans were not asking President Jacob Zuma to resign, they were calling for dagga to be legalised.

These requests made up the majority of the recommendations made to Zuma on social networking sites following an invitation by the Presidency for people to send suggestions for the president’s State of the Nation address.

A thread of people on Twitter repeated: “@PresidencyZA: Why not legalise cannabis to increase revenue and save tax rands by freeing up crowded prisons and courts? #DaggaDebate #Sona2015.”

“Free marijuana,” wrote others.

Inkatha Freedom Party MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, who died of cancer last year, had lobbied for the use of alternative cancer therapies, including medical marijuana.

Calls for Zuma to resign were also high on the request lists of Twitter users.

User @CJSteyl wrote: “Before I go to bed I’d just like to remind the good folk at @PresidencyZA to include Jacob Zuma’s resignation in his #Sona2015. Thanks.”

Another user, @mzukisij, wrote: “Zuma must resign before the motion and #Sona2015, maybe sober people of this country will forgive him.”

@Matheb_Ohms wrote: “@PresidencyZA on your #Sona2015, please address us about when you will #PayBackTheMoney and about when you will resign as president. #MyInput.”

On  the Presidency’s official Facebook page, 1 277 people posted their suggestions.

The majority asked Zuma to resign and pay back the money spent on non-security upgrades to his private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

Comrade Kamogelo Ramoloto wrote: “Mr President, tell us whether you going to pay cash, EFT or through Shoprite Money Market … am talking about Nkandla money and what would my best Valentine’s present before my girlfriend gives me would be your resignation letter.”

Ditshepiso Promise Mapaila wrote: “I ask for him to become a born-again Christian and to ask God for forgiveness and the nation and then he can explain where the money went and how he’s going to pay it back and then he may resign.”

Some citizens decided to write their own scripts for Zuma.

Craig Edmund Fitz Eustace said he would like to hear Zuma say: “I am so ashamed of what I have done, said and not done as your leader, that I wish to fall on my sword like any real loser of a leader would do. I am sorry.”

Motlatsi Mfanakithi requested he say: “I hereby tender my resignation and I ask for South Africans to forgive me for my actions, and propose e-tolls to be scrapped, tighten security of all South Africans and lastly any Mzansi citizen that wishes to serve their country to be admitted into the army without any red tape … Furthermore, I thank you all for making me aware my leadership has divided this wonderful country.”

But not everyone wants to see Zuma go.

Tsiane Dithebe asked South Africans to have respect for the president. “Please please please … let us respect the president of the Republic of South Africa. I don’t want to comment on what he must say. Just want to request fellow South Africans to respect the old man,” he wrote.

On Twitter, @Rethabilem said: “President Jacob Zuma must use the State of the Nation address to win the hearts and soul of South Africans #Sona2015.”

Others asked that issues such as unemployment, housing and corruption be addressed. – Sapa