South African President Jacob Zuma should quit, the Nelson Mandela Foundation has demanded, asking the embattled leader to listen "to the voice of the people".
Despite calls from a host of civil society organisations, including leading religious bodies, Zuma, 75, has refused to step down until his second term of office ends in 2019.
Tens of thousands of South Africans have in recent weeks staged demonstrations demanding Zuma's resignation.
Zuma was forced to reimburse some state money after the Constitutional Court ruled against him last year in a dispute over millions of dollars spent on his private home.
"Constitutionalism and the translating of South Africa's constitutional rights into a lived reality for our people are fundamental to the legacy of Nelson Mandela," the Foundation said in a statement yesterday after a meeting of its executive that includes some of South Africa's most respected leaders.
"Today, however, our country's constitutional democracy is under threat and its political process in crisis," the Foundation said.
The foundation set up to guard the legacy of the late Nelson Mandela said this was manifested in structural corruption which has spread throughout the economy and the public service as well as the increasing social problems in the country of violence, and the erosion of constitutional accountability by public officers in the government.
"This entire situation has resulted from failures of leadership at multiple levels of government and across the range of social sectors," it said.
"It is no wonder that this untenable situation has led to calls across the land for the Head of State, President Zuma, largely regarded as the author of the current malaise, to vacate the highest office of state. We urge him to listen to the voice of the people," the Foundation added.
The Foundation said it supports the urgent establishment of a judicial commission of enquiry to expose state capture in all its forms.
The issue has even split Zuma's own African National Congress (ANC), with some of its members twice moving motions for his recall at National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings of the party, but Zuma has survived both the attempts after other members rallied to his support.
The powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a partner in the ruling tripartite alliance of the ANC, has also debarred Zuma from speaking at any of its events amid huge public rallies and marches in recent months calling for Zuma's removal.
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