Ela Gandhi, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi who lives in South Africa, has joined a call by many civil society organisations for embattled President Jacob Zuma to step down in the wake of corruption allegations against his government.
South Africans have been asked to support the 'National Day of No Confidence' on August 8 by the Future South Africa (FSA), a new front of civil society organisations.
The front is being run by a group of patrons, including Sheila Sisulu, Mavuso Msimang, Zwelinzima Vavi, Ela Gandhi, Wayne Duvenage and Sipho Pityana.
During a media briefing in Johannesburg today, Sisulu said civil society was "profoundly concerned" that the "noble" ideas of democracy are being "systematically destroyed at the highest echelons of the government".
A vote in Parliament on a no confidence motion against 75-year-old Zuma will take place on August 8 after the Constitutional Court ruled that the Speaker could use her authority to call for a secret ballot.
Zuma has survived several earlier no confidence motions because the ruling African National Congress (ANC) members feared action by the party if they voted for it in an open ballot.
The FSA said that as elected representatives, parliamentarians were "duty bound" to vote Zuma out of office, and steer the country away from the path of "corruption, state capture, inequality, racial tensions, patriarchal values and a deepening national crisis".
"Our people struggled against colonialism and apartheid for centuries. The people of South Africa have a strong tradition of resistance to any form of authoritarianism, and we are determined to continue that tradition. We believe that by standing up against state capture, we can rebuild the integrity of our hard-won democracy," the organisation said.
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