"The fact that Mr. Zuma has been allowed to hold on to the highest position in the land despite longstanding and overwhelming evidence of his unfitness for office, has done immense harm to our country's international reputation, to its economy and, especially, to its poorest and most vulnerable citizens," Brislin said.
He noted the general perception that Zuma's presidency had been marked by corruption and fostered a decline in morality in public life, calling on the government to examine the ways in which this was allowed to happen, and how it can be prevented in the future.
"In this centenary year of Nelson Mandela's birth, we hope and pray for a return to the ideals of servant leadership with which South Africa was blessed in the first years of its democracy," he said.
Archbishop Brislin pledged prayerful support of the incoming administration and prayed that during the season of Lent, "just as we make our spiritual journey towards the renewal and hope of Easter, our country will begin its own political journey to a future of renewed hope and commitment to the ideals of our Constitution."
Mike Pothier, program manager for the bishops' conference Parliamentary Liaison Office, released a Feb. 15 analysis offering lessons for the people of South African to reflect upon.
"It should be remembered that Mr. Zuma was put in power by a consortium of disaffected constituencies within the [African National Congress] precisely because they wanted a weak, malleable, pliant leader to replace the supposedly aloof and authoritarian Thabo Mbeki," he said.
"Mr. Zuma's already notorious record of corruption, dishonesty, cronyism, philandery and self-advancement did not bother them at all as they foisted him on us, and thereby set in motion the disastrous decade that has sullied our reputation and set us back economically, institutionally and politically."