New move to oust Zuma from presidency

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has until next Tuesday to either step down as head of state or face a fresh palace coup.

Several ANC national executive committee members told Independent Newspapers that another motion of no-confidence is on the cards against Zuma if he does not voluntarily leave the Union Buildings by the time the party’s top brass meet on Wednesday.

The ANC NEC will be meeting for the first time since Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa won the presidency of the ruling party last month, creating two centres of power.

Talks on Zuma’s fate started at the ANC conference and have morphed into an elaborate plan to remove him in the wake of another damaging Constitutional Court finding that Parliament failed to hold him accountable on the Nkandla matter.

With Zuma now facing impeachment from the highest office, it has emerged that Ramaphosa’s supporters want to test their strength in the NEC by tabling yet another motion of no-confidence in Zuma, setting the stage for a titanic battle.

Independent Media spoke to at least five ANC NEC members who all confirmed that former Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom was preparing another motion against Zuma.

The embattled president has already survived two motions of no-confidence in the NEC, and eight in Parliament.

But since he stepped down as ANC president, and lost his preferred candidate Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to take over the party reins, his critics are baying for his blood.

The president is facing calls to step down from inside the ANC and from its alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu.

Hanekom told Independent Media he hoped Zuma would voluntarily leave before being pushed out.

Hanekom, who came under fire from NEC member and Communications Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi for using social media to attack Zuma, would not be drawn on the planned motion of no-confidence.

Kubayi was opposed to public calls from ANC leaders for Zuma to be removed. When contacted, Kubayi said: “Let’s leave it. I do not want to publicly talk about this matter.”

An ANC NEC member from the Eastern Cape, the biggest province that supported Ramaphosa, said Zuma’s continued stay at the Union Buildings, amid the pending judicial commission of inquiry and a string of court battles he was engaged in would deal a huge blow to the party’s electoral prospects in 2019.

“We saw how the negativity of our national politics can impact on how people believe we as the ANC can capably run local spheres of government, when we lost municipal elections last year, especially in Gauteng.

“Given everything that is happening, from the state capture inquiry and the rulings against the president, it will help our movement if we find a way to ensure that the image of the organisation is not overshadowed by these developments any more,” the leader said.

A new NEC member said that while any attempt to discuss Zuma’s departure would be met with opposition by those loyal to him, many members of leading structures were concerned that the president was creating problems for both the party and government.