Pressure mounts for Zuma to go

Opposition parties are piling on the pressure to have President Jacob Zuma removed from office before the official opening of Parliament.

Opposition parties are piling on the pressure to have President Jacob Zuma removed from office before the official opening of Parliament.

The DA has applied for the postponement of the state of the nation address (Sona) to allow for Zuma’s removal.

The EFF has written to Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete, calling for an urgent sitting to move a motion of no confidence.

Parliament’s presiding officers were resolute on Thursday that the address would proceed as scheduled.

But National Council of Provinces chairwoman Thandi Modise said at a news conference in Parliament that she did not know who would deliver the address.

“We have absolutely no intention to approach any president to say ‘you must not come to [deliver] the state of the nation address’. Whoever is president will [deliver Sona] … that is all we know,” Modise said.

The address is scheduled for February 8. Speculation is rife that senior ANC leaders are engaged in tough negotiations to remove Zuma from office as soon as possible.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the ANC now had two centres of power, each holding starkly differing policies, ideological positions and plans of action. This, he said, had left the country not knowing which direction was being pursued.

“We cannot afford to waste public money for Jacob Zuma to deliver the government’s programme of action for the coming year in his state of the nation address, when it is not likely that he will remain the president of the republic much longer,” Maimane said.

Portia Adams, who speaks for Maimane, said on Thursday that the party’s stance was that Zuma must not deliver the speech.

While the presiding officers had made it clear that Sona would proceed as planned, Adams said Mbete had not officially responded to the substantive issues contained in the DA’s letter. The party would announce its plan of action after receiving official communication from the speaker’s office.

The EFF said the suitability of Zuma to continue in the office of president was more of an urgent question than the delivery of the address by an incumbent “who is on the verge of commissions and trials”. The EFF has said that it would disrupt proceedings should Parliament not accede to its request.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Lechesa Tsenoli said the EFF request was unlikely to be entertained.

“To call a special sitting before Sona is unlikely to happen. I cannot hear a persuasive argument. Various factors, driven by our preparations for Sona, outweigh any reason for us to have a special sitting. It will be the most unprecedented thing,” Tsenoli said.

He said it was up to the ANC to decide Zuma’s fate.