Zuma resigns as president after pressure from party

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's scandal-hit President Jacob Zuma has resigned, ending an impasse with his ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, which was planning to side with opposition parties in Parliament to oust the embattled leader through a motion of no confidence.

Zuma, 75, announced he had stepped down in a late-night nationally-televised address, three days after the ANC'S national leadership decided at a marathon meeting to ask him to resign, which he had defiantly refused.

"I resign as President of the Republic (of South Africa) with immediate effect," Zuma said, ending a nine-year tenure before his second and final term of office which was scheduled to end with national elections in 2019.

But he remained adamant that the decision of the ANC to replace him with Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected in his place as the new President of the ANC two months ago, was "wrong".

"I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation, (but) I have always been a disciplined member of the organisation," Zuma said in a 30-minute speech, pledging to continue to serve the political organisation he had joined as a teenager to fight from exile against the minority white apartheid government.

Commenting on the unprecedented possibility of him being removed through action by his party in Parliament if he did not resign, Zuma said: "I fear no motion of no confidence or impeachment. They are the lawful mechanisms for the people of this beautiful country to remove their president."

On Wednesday, in an unannounced TV interview, he had refused to quit, saying he had been given no reason by the party why he should resign.

Zuma has previously survived several motions of no confidence by opposition parties in the past.