Pubdate: Thu, 05 Feb 2015
Source: Star, The (South Africa)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers 2015
Contact:  http://www.thestar.co.za/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/423

ZUMA'S REMOVAL, LEGAL DAGGA TREND

IF SOUTH Africans are not asking President Jacob Zuma to resign, they 
are 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:  Why not 
legalise cannabis to increase revenue & save tax rands by freeing up 
crowded prisons & courts? #DaggaDebate #SONA2015."

"Free marijuana," others wrote.

IFP MP Mario OrianiAmbrosini, who died last year of cancer, had 
lobbied for the use of alternative cancer therapies, including 
medical marijuana.

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

User  wrote: "Before I go to bed I'd just like to remind the 
good folk at  to include Jacob Zuma's resignation in his 
#SONA2015. Thanks."

Another user,  wrote: "Zuma must resign before the motion 
and #SONA2015 maybe sober people of this country will forgive him."

 wrote:  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 of people were asking Zuma to resign and pay back the 
money spent on non-security upgrades to his private home in Nkandla, 
KwaZuluNatal.

Comrade Kamogelo Ramoloto wrote on Facebook: "Mr President, tell us 
whether you are going to pay cash, EFT or through Shoprite money 
market... I am talking about Nkandla money, and what would my best 
Valentine's present before the one 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 little script 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 that the president 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."

However, 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 the Presidency website.

On Twitter, Rethabilem said: "President Jacob Zuma must use the State 
of the Nation Address to win the hearts & soul of South Africans #SoNA2015."

Others asked that issues such as unemployment, housing and corruption 
be addressed.  Sapa
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom