Staunch Jacob Zuma Backer Andile Lungisa Vows Shutdown if Arrest Is Made

Thursday, July 01, 2021 at 9:28 PM by Tshepiso Mametela

Jacob Zuma has not been short of supporters and those castigating the Constitutional Court's (ConCourt) decision to sentence him to prison
The former president is faced with the possibility of spending the next 15-months in jail but a former ANC councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay, Andile Lungisa, has vowed to a nationwide shutdown in retaliation
Lungisa termed the judgement as political activism and accused the judges of not doing their job

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An outpouring of support has trailed Jacob Zuma since the former president learnt of his fate on Tuesday.

The former African National Congress (ANC) councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) metropolitan, Andile Lungisa, is making the radical call for a nationwide shutdown in support of the embattled Zuma.

Jacob Zuma, Andile Lungisa, Nationwide shutdown, African National Congress, ANC, Nelson Mandela Bay, Constitutional Court — Andile Lungisa, who is a staunch Jacob Zuma supporter, has vowed for a nationwide shutdown if the arrest of the former president is carried out. Image: DispatchLIVE, Gianluigi Guercia/ AFP.
Source: Getty Images

Lungisa, much like all other allies and supporters of Zuma, has slammed the country's judiciary citing judges were not doing their job. He further accused them of becoming "political activists".

'If the police have got bullets, they must kill all of us'

In retaliation to the judgment, Lungisa said they had organised a shutdown protest across all provinces. According to a News24 report, the national shutdown is planned for Friday, 2 July.

According to the same report, the former councillor stated that the shutdown will not be under the banner of the ruling party or Radical Economic Transformation (RET) group.

Lungisa has been quoted saying the ruling handed down by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) should be disregarded. He said:

"To hell with the decision. If the police have got bullets, they must kill all of us. That is the message which we are communicating ... We are saying, this time around, we will respond.

Democracy hero to convict: Zuma judgement put under the microscope

Zuma's Constitutional Court judgement has come under the glaring eye of the microscope as South Africa and the world look on and attempt to make sense of the scenes that have played out.

In a report recently, Briefly News reported that the country's embattled former president was once seen as a struggle hero, putting his weight strongly behind what was a raging fight against the ills of an oppressive racial system.

Today, he faces the prospect of spending the next 15 months of his life behind bars – at 79 years of age – having once been familiar with the cold metal bars of a jail cell as a political prisoner.