No 1 is here to stay

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is going into the ANC’s extended national working committee meeting tomorrow expecting once again to escape unscathed after his televised apology to the nation on Friday.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has made it clear that the party will not recall Zuma and risk “tearing itself apart”.

Mantashe said the Constitutional Court judgment — which found that the president “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land” — and its implications would be discussed at the meeting tomorrow.

On Thursday, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who delivered the unanimous judgment, said: “He was duty-bound to, but did not, assist and protect the public protector so as to ensure her independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness by complying with her remedial action.”

The chief justice said the president “might have been following wrong legal advice and therefore acting in good faith”.

Zuma, who seized on that aspect of Thursday’s judgment, issued an apology to the nation on Friday and said he had not deliberately acted inconsistently with the constitution.

“I wish to reiterate that any action that has been found not to be in keeping with the constitution happened because of a different approach and different legal advice,” Zuma said.

The governing party accepted Zuma’s apology and that there was no intention on the president’s part to “act inconsistently with the constitution”, said Mantashe, adding: “What the ANC views as being most urgent now is the implementation of the judgment.”

He said the extended NWC meeting would give provinces a chance to take part in discussions via representatives, and encouraged all national executive committee members to attend tomorrow’s gathering.

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said its MPs would be free to raise the topic of the president’s recall.

The ANC caucus will meet on Tuesday, while opposition party leaders will also meet to discuss the judgment.