WHEN Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa wins December's African National Congress elective conference, he must send President Jacob Zuma to live in Nkandla, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday.
Gordhan told a conference in Cape Town his preferred candidate for next ANC and SA president is Ramaphosa.
Zuma's term as ANC president ends in December, but his term as the country's president ends only in 2019 when the next general election takes place.
Gordhan, however, wants Zuma removed as the country’s president as early as January.
"Ramaphosa must take over in December and in January he must tell Zuma to go live in Nkandla," he said. "Change must start as soon as we can."
Asked if the Zuma faction would try to delay the conference if their predictions showed their candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, would lose, Gordhan said: "The constitution of the ANC requires that the conference has to happen.
"Those who think they might not get their way will behave in a disruptive way," he said. "There are about 70 days before the conference and a lot can happen.
"There is a formidable contest between those who have no interest in building from the present and just want to extract from the state, and those who want to build from the present."
He called on financial advisers in the room to prepare to mobilise to ensure the country did not sink into failed state status amid allegations of state capture and corruption.
"Big historical events happen when people get onto the streets," he said. "Start preparing your walking shoes. All of you have to get involved."
Referring to the international focus on SA, Gordhan said those looting the state coffers were getting desperate.
"The space for these guys is narrowing and so the pace of looting is increasing," he said. "This desperation will impact on what form the conference takes.
"There is a link between the two."
