Arduous route to eject Zuma
qualified than Nene, but that he was pliable enough to take the state capture project to the next level and push through the nuclear deal. Ever the victim, Zuma has never truly accepted responsibility for his conduct, even when it led to the ANC losing three major cities in the 2016 local government election. While many within and outside the ANC feel that Zuma is being given too much leeway by Ramaphosa, Zuma has shown that before conceding he first inflicts maximum amount of damage.
This is a key factor Ramaphosa has to consider as he deals with Zuma’s exit, to protect the country. Zuma is, after all, still the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The first step in this process was the defeat of Zuma’s candidate at Nasrec. The next was the election of a national working committee stacked in Ramaphosa’s favour, despite the messy, divided mishmash elected to sit on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) in December.
At its first ordinary sitting of the year the NEC handed Ramaphosa and his top officials the mandate to deal with Zuma’s exit, another key step because it gave Ramaphosa the authority to handle the matter in his own way and time. He and the rest of the officials met Zuma on Sunday and sought to convince him to step down – and failed spectacularly.
A Zuma ally who met the president ahead of the meeting expressed frustration at his inability to rationalise the situation, describing him as still being in the “pre-Nasrec mode” of thinking.
The next step was Monday’s national working committee meeting, which agreed overwhelmingly that Zuma be recalled – only two people went against the majority. Arrangements were made for a special NEC the sitting to hammer in the final nail.
Zuma may have felt party officials would not move so swiftly to secure the final step towards his exit, but they did, which caused him to backtrack on his refusal to resign just two days later during a meeting with Ramaphosa. This is entirely consistent with Zuma’s conduct in the past. From “I won’t pay back the money” to an apology and R7.8-million loan from VBS
Mutual Bank to do so. From saying the public protector’s findings were mere