South Africa waits for Zuma to step down
Opposition party demands vote of no confidence to get rid of South Africa’s embattled leader
South Africa’s main opposition party heavily criticised the ruling African National Congress’s attempts to force Jacob Zuma out of power as the nation waited to see if the president would obey the ultimatum to step down. Mr Zuma’s own party decided to recall him from the leadership of the nation. However, Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, said: “Unless he tenders his resignation, this recall is not worth the paper it is printed on.”
SOUTH AFRICA’S main opposition party heavily criticised the ruling African National Congress’s attempts to force Jacob Zuma out of power yesterday as the nation waited on an ultimatum for the president to step down.
Mr Zuma’s own party decided to recall him from the nation’s top job.
However, Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, said: “Unless he tenders his resignation, this recall is not worth the paper it is printed on.”
He called instead for a motion of no confidence to be brought forward to this week in parliament.
“The fact is, Jacob Zuma remains president, and remains in power. And as long as this is the case, our country suffers,” he said.
South Africa’s scandal-hit president has faced a barrage of calls to step down in recent weeks from inside and outside the ANC, culminating in the recall.
Despite extensive talks between ANC leaders and Mr Zuma about the his future, the two parties were unable to agree on a timeline for his departure, said Ace Magashule, the ANC’S secretary general.
Believing the matter of Mr Zuma’s departure required greater “urgency”, the ANC’S national executive committee decided during a 13-hour meeting on Monday and early yesterday to recall the president, and now waits to hear whether Mr Zuma will abide by its instructions.
“We are expecting the president to respond tomorrow,” Mr Magashule said yesterday, adding, however, that there was “no deadline” that had been given to Mr Zuma to do so.
If Mr Zuma resigns, Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president who was recently elected as the new leader of the ANC, will immediately become acting president, and is widely expected to be voted in as the new leader by parliament in the coming weeks.
If Mr Zuma digs in his heels and does not step down, he is likely to face a vote of no confidence.
If he loses that motion, he and his cabinet would be forced to step down, and Baleka Mbete, the National Assembly speaker, would step in as acting president, with Mr Ramaphosa likely to be installed later.
While announcing the recall, Mr Magashule took pains to make the party’s decision appear amicable in keeping with ANC leaders’ earlier statements that the party would not “humiliate” Mr Zuma during the increasingly inevi- table transition of power. “We must treat Zuma as the president of South Africa,” Mr Magashule said.
“He has not been found guilty by a court of law. We didn’t take this decision because he did something wrong.”
Mr Zuma’s presidency has been dogged by corruption scandals, slow economic growth and record unemployment that have fuelled public anger in Africa’s most developed country.
South Africa’s opposition parties have seized on the ruling party’s crisis, and banded together this week to call for parliament to be dissolved and early elections to be held.
“To think that when Zuma leaves our problems are going to disappear, that is disingenuous,” said Julius Malema, head of the radical Left Economic Freedom Fighters.
“The problem is not Zuma. The problem is not Cyril. The problem is the ANC. So the ANC must be voted out.”
South Africa yesterday declared a “national disaster” over a drought that has ravaged parts of the country and threatened to leave homes in Cape Town without running water.
The city is in the grip of a three-yearlong drought as sparse winter rains have failed to bring relief, and dam levels have dropped dangerously low.
South Africa’s second most-populous city is now facing the prospect of having to turn its taps off under a so-called “Day Zero” scenario to conserve the city’s remaining water supplies
‘Jacob Zuma remains president, and remains in power. And as long as this is the case, our country suffers’