Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma's "long overdue" resignation on Wednesday evening should be the start of a continuing process of self-correction within South Africa's ruling party, the SA Communist Party (SACP) said on Thursday morning.
In a statement released following Zuma's announcement late on Wednesday night, the SACP, an alliance partner of the governing African National Congress (ANC), said South Africans must be under no illusions that the end of the Zuma presidency signalled the end of corporate capture of the State and the looting of public resources.
"President Zuma’s resignation must now become a bridge-head for pursuing further action. The momentum of self-correction from within the ANC and state must be sustained and accelerated," the SACP statement said.
"Never again must we allow an individual, whatever their struggle credentials, to stand above organisational discipline, collective leadership and the democratic rule of law."
Jacob Zuma resigns as president of South Africa. Video: Jonisayi Maromo/ANA
The SACP were among the first of the ANC alliance partners to call for Zuma's head over his links to the controversial Gupta family who have made billions off the State for doing very little to no work.
"The levels of parasitic looting of public resources that have occurred under President Zuma’s watch, the firing of ministers who have stood in his way, the erosion of the hard won rule of law, the perversion of key state institutions notably in the criminal justice system, the manipulation of the public broadcaster, and the auctioning off of our national sovereignty in the pursuit of private accumulation have caused huge damage to our country."