‘Zuma must say bye bye’
Mashatile tells of JZ resistance
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile has given the clearest indication that the party’s top brass were by Tuesday night already preparing to fire President Jacob Zuma.
Their plans, however, were scuppered by a last-minute deal Zuma reached with party president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Addressing investors at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town just hours before Ramaphosa announced the postponement of an ANC national executive committee (NEC) meeting that was to decide Zuma’s fate, Mashatile said Zuma would be recalled from office if he did not resign by last night.
The NEC meeting was scheduled to be held in Cape Town last night but was then called off at the 11th hour following Ramaphosa’s meeting with Zuma.
Clearly unaware that the NEC meeting was about to be called off, Mashatile told his audience they would go to the gathering to remove Zuma after he had flatly refused to resign when the party’s top six met on Sunday evening.
He gave details of their meeting with Zuma and how the president had asked them what the
ANC meant by a “transition period”.
“On Sunday evening, President Zuma says to us ‘What do you guys mean by transition?’ He said this is a strange word that you guys have just coined… and we said to him ‘it’s handing over power from you to Cyril’.
“We were saying to President Zuma that we don’t want two centres of power, we want president Ramaphosa to take control not only of the ANC, but the affairs of the state… and we were very clear about it.”
He informed the audience that Zuma said he will not step down voluntarily.
“President Zuma basically said to us:
‘I’m not going anywhere, I’m not convinced by you guys so I’m not going to resign… you can go back and report to your national working committee (NWC) and the
NEC that I said I’m not resigning’,” Mashatile said.
“Our view as the leadership of ANC is that the sooner the president of the republic steps down for the new leadership to take over, the better because then you have certainty of policy direction… there will be no confusion.”
The ANC, he said, wanted to go to next year’s general elections “dealing with other problems” and not Zuma.
The party’s NWC, he added, had already resolved that Zuma be recalled.
This, he said, was the main reason the State of the Nation Address, initially scheduled for this evening, was then postponed. “The one who is leaving cannot deliver the message of the future, he must deliver a farewell speech.”