Catholic bishops in South Africa have welcomed former President Jacob Zuma’s resignation last week, saying it was “long overdue”.
In a statement issued last week, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference said it had been “generally perceived” that the Zuma presidency has “degraded standards of morality and honour in our public life, and has fostered corruption and dereliction of duty at all levels of government”.
“The fact that Mr Zuma has been allowed to hold on to the highest position in the land despite longstanding and overwhelming evidence of his unfitness for office, has done immense harm to our country’s international reputation, to its economy, and, especially, to its poorest and most vulnerable citizens”.
The bishops urged the governing African National Congress (ANC) to “take careful note” of the way in which it allowed the situation to develop over the past 10 years called on it to “commit…to a thorough reassessment of its internal standards and mechanisms of accountability”.
Mr Zuma announced his resignation on 14th February following pressure from the African National Congress leadership. His replacement, Cyril Ramaphosa, was sworn in soon after.
