South Africa Braces For Political Turmoil as President Jacob Zuma Rejects Ruling ANC's Exit Order
The ANC that was once led by Nelson Mandela reportedly dismissed a request by Zuma for a few more months in office and instead gave him 48 hours to step down.
Pretoria, February 13: South Africa on Tuesday braced for a major political showdown as President Jacob Zuma refused to resign despite the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party asking him to leave. Scandal-tainted Zuma- who is the head of the state has locked horns with Cyril Ramaphosa, his expected successor, who is the new head of the ANC.
On Tuesday, ANC’s powerful 107-member national executive committee (NEC) met for 13 hours at a hotel outside Pretoria to ‘recall’ Zuma from his post. Ramaphosa and Ace Magashule, ANC's secretary-general, had personally delivered a request for Zuma to resign to the president’s official residence in Pretoria at about midnight. As per reports by PTI, an unnamed ANC committee said, "Zuma was very arrogant. He told them he was not going anywhere as he did nothing wrong”. “Zuma said if the ANC issued a statement on its decision to recall him, he will retaliate.”
The ANC that was once led by Nelson Mandela- reportedly dismissed a request by Zuma for a few more months in office and instead gave him 48 hours to step down. There was no official announcement and ANC officials were not reachable to confirm the reports.
What is the crisis all about
Zuma’s presidency in South Africa has been marked by various corruption scandals and looming unemployment. People in the country have been unhappy about the slow economic growth that South Africa has been witnessing under his regime. In a meeting that was held on Tuesday, Zuma was defiant, insisting that he had done nothing wrong and refused to resign.
In 2017, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that Zuma must face 18 counts of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money-laundering relating to a 1999 arms deal. To recall, Zuma’s supporters in 2008, pushed out then-president Thabo Mbeki over allegations of abuse of power. In the 2016 local polls, the ANC recorded its worst electoral performance since coming to power. Ramaphosa, the de-facto president-in-waiting, had been in negotiations with Zuma who rejected an earlier request from party leaders to step down more than a week ago.
Zuma’s hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his chosen successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote to be the new party leader. The ANC has insisted there will be no delay to the budget speech, which is due on February 21.
Who is in charge:
The top leaders of South Africa’s governing party-ANC ordered Zuma to step down on Tuesday citing that his presence in the office was diminishing the “new hope” felt since the election of new party leaders in December.
The ruling ANC can recall the head of state- Zuma by forcing him to resign, but the process is a party-level instruction and he is under no constitutional obligation to obey. Zuma, 75, has not spoken publicly since February 4 when he was first asked by the party top leadership to resign. Since Zuma is not ready to leave office, he will then likely be ousted via a parliamentary vote of no-confidence within days. Zuma was scheduled to stand down after serving the maximum two terms after coming to power in 2009.
As per reports by AFP, Sunday's rally was part of ANC celebrations marking 100 years since Nelson Mandela's birth as well as efforts by Ramaphosa to revive the party's tainted reputation ahead of next year's general election.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 13, 2018 07:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).