Strong talk of imminent Zuma exit plan
ANC NEC may raise motion to recall president at meeting this week
PLANS are afoot to recall President Jacob Zuma as the head of the state. The Dispatch understands that the ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa’s key supporters had a caucus meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday night where a plan to remove Zuma was discussed.
Former ANC Youth League deputy president Ronald Lamola has been handpicked to raise the motion for Zuma’s recall during the party’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting, which kicked off yesterday in Irene.
“Today [Thursday] or at the end of the meeting [Friday] Zuma would have gone. There was no consensus as to when he should leave office. But it is going to happen. He is going.”
But ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule yesterday said Zuma’s removal was not on the NEC agenda.
“It is not an issue on the table. Remember we have said in East London that there is interaction between president Zuma and president Ramaphosa. That interaction is continuing,” Magashule told journalists ahead of the NEC meeting.
Magashule said the meeting would discuss the party’s 54th national elective conference resolutions, the disbandment of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committees and incidents of racism in schools. Ramaphosa gave his first political overview at the meeting.
If the motion against Zuma is tabled it will be for the second time that it is raised in the meeting.
The last motion, which was raised by former tourism minister Derek Hanekom, did not succeed as Zuma’s backers thwarted any attempts to remove him.
However, many things have since changed now that he is no longer the ANC president, and some of his loyalists appear to be turning against him.
Those who had previously defended Zuma in the NEC meetings include the ANC Women’s League and ANCYL.
In a surprise move, ANCWL secretary-general Meokgo Matuba said the league would support any decision taken by the NEC.
“If the NEC takes a decision to recall the president, we will support it. It is an ANC decision. There is nothing that we can do.”
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association, led by Kebby Maphatsoe – one of Zuma’s strongest supporters – has called on the NEC to concentrate on implementing the ANC national elective conference resolutions.
When approached for comment, MKMVA national spokesman Carl Niehaus said he had no knowledge of the NEC meeting.
“I can’t speculate on whether there will be a motion tabled regarding the future of President Jacob Zuma,” Niehaus said.
As Zuma’s future as the head of the state hangs in the balance, his force is falling apart. This week Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that controversial crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, who was seen as Zuma’s man, has been relieved of his duties.
Ramaphosa has once again given the clearest indication that Zuma has to go.
At a breakfast meeting in Sandton, Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said that he wants to see action taken against those who had done wrong things.
“The national prosecuting authority (NPA) is beginning to move with speed and we welcome that. We want them to act with urgency to increase the tempo of the actions that need to be taken,” Ramaphosa said.
This comes after the NPA said it intended to serve a freezing order on the Gupta-linked Trillian and global consulting firm McKinsey to seize assets worth R1.6 billion.
Ramaphosa said the freezing assets was important.
“But we want to see much more of following on the actions that they (NPA) should have taken some time ago.”
Ramaphosa reiterated his promise to root out corruption, probe state capture and stabilise all state-owned enterprises. He said top-class executives needed to be appointed on the boards of state-owned enterprises to avoid what he called the “terrible mishaps” that have been happening.