Writing on ANC’s wall for Zuma
RECALL? LIKELY TO BE MAIN ITEM ON NEW NEC’S AGENDA
Parly discussing the process to remove president.
President Jacob Zuma will have nowhere to hide if the ANC’s newlyelected national executive committee (NEC), meeting for the first time today, is serious about tackling corruption and improving the party’s credibility ahead of the 2019 elections.
According to political commentators, Zuma’s continued tenure must therefore be up for discussion and resolution. Speculation is rife he’ll be recalled after Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as ANC president at the party’s recent national elective conference. There the predominant and winning mandate was to act against corruption, Wits School of Governance professor Susan Booysen pointed out.
“While Zuma is not the totality of the problem, he personifies it,” she said. “If the new NEC is sincere about its mandate, Zuma can’t just be the elephant in the room, he has to be the item in the debate. The luxury of being an elephant in the room is gone.”
The ANC also faces the problem of convincing the electorate it has the credibility and stability to manage the state, Booysen said. “He is a big part of that so he has to be discussed.”
Then there is the question of the handover of power. “He is no longer the ANC president – there are two centres of power.”
With parliament also beginning deliberations today on draft procedures for implementing section 89 (1) of the constitution dealing with removal of the president, these were not issues just “hovering on a little cloud”.
If the ANC did not take action on the Zuma issue, its election campaign would be delayed and that has to start now for the party to redeem itself, she added.
“Imagine a State of the Nation address (next month) delivered by Jacob Zuma more than a year before the election? Zuma has become a loose policy cannon and he can create immense embarrassment for the ANC.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said if Zuma is not on the NEC’s agenda the issue will linger in silence. “So they have to discuss it... [but] it might not be resolved as people expect.” – inquiry into state capture.
“Pursuant to the investigation and remedial action of the Public Protector regarding complaints and allegations of the State of Capture, as well as the orders issued by the North Gauteng High Court in its judgment of 14 December 2017, I have decided to appoint a Commission of Inquiry,” Zuma said in a statement.
“The Court ordered that, among other things, the remedial action of the Public Protector is binding and that the President is directed to appoint a commission of inquiry within 30 days, headed by a judge solely selected by the Chief Justice. The Court also ordered that I should personally pay the costs of the review.”
Zuma said that he appealed the cost order and the order regarding the duties of the president to appoint commissions of inquiry in terms of section 84 of the Constitution.
On December 13, the Pretoria High Court held that Zuma must personally pay the costs of his bid to block the release of then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on state capture in 2016.
Delivering a unanimous judgment, Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said the stance adopted by Zuma in 2016 on the status of the report was “completely unreasonable”.
Mlambo said there was no basis for Zuma’s application to interdict the release of the report. – ANA