ANC seeks to oust Zuma today
johannesburg — South Africa’s ruling party moved to replace the defiant President Jacob Zuma as early as today while police raided his business associates at the centre of corruption scandals that have infuriated the country. Zuma, breaking his silence, told the state broadcaster that his treatment was “unfair”.
African National Congress leaders said they want parliament to vote on a motion of no confidence against Zuma today and replace him right away with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa if the president refuses on Wednesday to step aside.
As the nation awaited word on whether he would obey the ruling party’s order to leave office, Zuma appeared in a live interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation and insisted that party leaders had not told him why he needed to resign. “I need to be furnished on what I’ve done,” Zuma said. “What is this hurry?” He said he wasn’t refusing to step aside but preferred “after June”.
The president’s tenure has been marred by corruption scandals and the party wants him to end his second five-year term early so that it can shore up support ahead of 2019 elections. —
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s ANC unveiled plans on Wednesday to sack President Jacob Zuma via a parliamentary no-confidence vote, hours after armed police raided the luxury home of his friends, the Gupta brothers, as part of an anticorruption investigation.
In his first response to an avalanche of pressure from the African National Congress (ANC) for him to quit, Zuma — who has been dogged by scandal throughout his political life— proclaimed his innocence and said he was being “victimised” by Nelson Mandela’s former liberation movement.
“There’s nothing I’ve done wrong,” a relaxed but indignant Zuma said during a nearly hourlong interview with the SABC, South Africa’s state broadcaster. “I don’t think it’s fair. I think it’s unfair.”
When asked point-blank if would step aside, he avoided the question and continued to allege a lack of principle in moves by the party’s National Executive Committee to oust him. He did say he would make a formal statement later on Wednesday.
He did not comment on the police raids, which marked a dramatic tightening of the net around the 75-year-old and the political faction around him accused of milking state resources for their own ends.
Even if he refuses to quit, with the ANC backing an opposition-led no-confidence motion on Thursday, Zuma appears to have run out of road after nine years in office marked by political tumult and economic stagnation.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose election as head of the ANC in December marked the beginning of the end of Zuma’s tenure, could be sworn in as head of state as early as Friday.
“After we have voted for the removal of the President of the Republic tomorrow — and depending on the availability of the Chief Justice — we will also elect a new president,” Mthembu told a news conference in Cape Town.
The rand, which has gained ground whenever Zuma has hit political turbulence, soared more than one per cent to a 2-1/2 year
There’s nothing I’ve done wrong. I don’t think it’s fair. I think it’s unfair.” Jacob Zuma, South Africa President
after we have voted for the removal of the President of the republic tomorrow we will also elect a new president Jackson Mthembu, ANC chief whip
high of 11.79 against the dollar. The speed of Zuma’s demise after two weeks of dithering by the ANC has stunned South Africa.
The raid, which the police’s elite Hawks unit said resulted in three arrests, took place amid reports Zuma was preparing to tell the country he was stepping down
The SABC, South Africa’s state broadcaster, said a Gupta family member was among those detained. A senior judicial source said police expected to arrest up to seven more people and that Gupta family members would be among them. “You can’t bring a matter of this nature to court and not charge the people who have benefited the most,” the source, who has knowledge of the police’s moves, told Reuters.
Zuma and the Guptas, a family of wealthy Indian-born businessmen, deny any wrongdoing. A lawyer for the Gupta family said he could not comment on the raid because he had yet to see the search warrant. Meanwhile, there was chaos and confusion at Pretoria’s Union Buildings, the official seat of government, over reported plans for Zuma to address the country.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said Zuma was to speak at 0800 GMT and satellite trucks were in position overnight. However, Zuma’s office denied there had been any “official communication” of an address and the scheduled time came and went.
A copy of an email, from deputy presidential communications director Shadi Baloyi, circulated on Twitter telling Pretoria police that plans for a “special media briefing” by Zuma at 0800 GMT had been cancelled.—