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Cape Town — Senior ANC leaders have begun working on a plan to remove President Jacob Zuma —but only after the local government elections, a Sunday newspaper reported. The officials have “secretly been selling the plan to branches, regions and provinces opposed to Zuma”, the Sunday Times reported. The plan is allegedly to remove Zuma as both party leader and South African president.
The newspaper said that one of the senior leaders had said at the party’s manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth that those behind the plan needed to “buy time and only act after the elections”. They said they were giving Zuma a “long rope to hang himself”.
The anti-Zuma camp wished to remain anonymous, but KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala, a staunch Zuma supporter, said they were aware of the plan.
Last week, Gauteng’s provincial executive committee released a statement, urging Zuma to “do the right thing”. The statement, however, stopped short of calling for Zuma to step down, News24 reported.
This was despite a source telling News24, and ANC Gauteng chairperson Paul Mashatile telling the Mail&Guardian, that the PEC had resolved that Zuma should step down.
Gauteng was the only province to break ranks. Most other ANC PECs said they supported the party’s national executive committee’s decision not to recall Zuma.
Meanwhile, many top politicians and former ANC senior members have joined the call for Zuma to step down. Among them are former deputy ANC secretary general Cheryl Carolus, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, former justice Zac Yacoob, Zwelinzima Vavi, former ANC Youth League leader Ronald Lamola, and others who have come together as members of the People’s Consultative Assembly for Democracy.
Dozens of ordinary South Africans on Saturday expressed their desire for Zuma to resign and said they were prepared to roll out continuous mass action, News24 reported.
“We must fight peacefully, non-violently and defend our freedoms, but it can’t be a once-off event. We’ve to make it a rolling mass action. At the back of our democracy is the people’s power,” a man, known only as Vish, told the crowd at the People’s Consultative Assembly for Democracy in Soweto on Saturday.
The outcry comes after the Constitutional Court found that Zuma had failed in his duty to uphold and defend the Constitution by not instituting Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s remedial actions on the Nkandla upgrades. Zuma apologised to the nation for “misunderstanding” the legislation surrounding the protector and promised to pay for the upgrades.
Meanwhile, yet another Zuma family member has been found to apparently have close financial ties with the controversial Guptas. This time it’s one of President Jacob Zuma’s wives, City Press reported yesteray.
The newspaper reports that questions were raised in 2012 about whether the Guptas helped First Lady Bongi Ngema-Zuma secure a R3.84m home loan from an Indian state-owned banking and financial services company. The home loan was reported to be for a R5.2m home in Pretoria’s upmarket Waterkloof Ridge suburb. — AP
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