#ZumaMustFall Banner Also Falls

The six-storey banner saying #ZumaMustFall that went up on Friday at the top of Long Street in Cape Town – resulting in pictures of it being shared on social media over a million times in the first hour (according to the campaign’s facebook page) – has been torn down by African National Congress (ANC) supporters after the city said it was illegal.

The identity of the person or organisation behind the banner, which was said to cost R400,000 a month, has not been made public. After the banner went up on Friday, Cape Town city said it had not been erected following correct procedures and was illegal.

The municipality has reportedly referred the matter to the National Prosecuting Authority.

The reaction to the banner was swift on Twitter, with many posting pictures of it. Several ANC supporters perceived the banner to be an attack against the ANC and black rule, rather than a lack of confidence in the current leader and a call for him to be replaced.

One of the most popular #ZumaMustFallBillboard tweets on Twitter was this from Zach ‏@Airachaz who wrote: “Ppl like 2 see racism evn whn there isn’t any presence of it. The ANC will say jst about anything is racist nowadays.”

After ANC MP Bongani Mkongi posted a controversial message on his Facebook page the Democratic Alliance (DA) issued a statement that it would be referring the “ANC MP’s hate speech to the Ethics Committee”. Mkongi did post another message standing by his comments but adding “I apologise for the second part of my message that suggested the banner must burn with the building”.

The DA statement said: “During this time of heated public debate, South Africans, particularly its Members of Parliament who are expected to lead national discourse, need to engage one another in manner that leads to solutions not exacerbating incitements of violence such as arson.”

The falling of the banner was largely peaceful, although according to local news service EWN the crowd was hostile to one man who uttered a derogatory remark about the South African president. A photographer was also allegedly punched.

On Twitter many users echoed the statement of Refentse Motlhabane who said: “How about the same urgency that was put in taking the billboard down is also used in service delivery in this country?”

Twitter user Ledi added “If you can manage to take down the billboard so quickly surely our Fees can fall just as swiftly” while a user by the name of #FeesMustFall said “#ANC members we have seen how quickly you can take things down, eg #ZumaMustFallBillboard… Next stop: eTolls ?”

Watch Video: #ZumaMustFallBillboard Falls…

And in pieces it’s coming down #ZumaMustFallBillboard pic.twitter.com/taB0HB3ntN

— Gabi Mbele (@TheGabi) January 16, 2016

Watch Video: Man assaulted during banner removal

in his capacity as the patron of the Jacob Zuma Foundation at the Dube House official residence in Morningside, where he was bidding farewell to 19 students going to study at the American University of Nigeria, in Nigeria, Zuma said being poor was one of the reasons why he decided to start the foundation.

Speaking in Morningside, Durban, on Friday the President reportedly said he is blamed for everything. “If a person loses their shoelaces in South Africa, they say it is Zuma and I love it,” he was quoted as saying in the South African press.

The president was addressing a group of students about to leave for the American University in Nigeria. He said coming from a poor background meant that even when you did well, people still wanted to make a “laughing stock” of you. He said people want to “rubbish” him 24/7 and complained that “no one has ever said it is a miracle for this man to have become president and wrote a column about it”.

He pointed out that he “suffered because I never went to school and that is the reason why I decided to educate myself… There are people whose business is to say that we cannot have a man who never went to school running a country”.