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JOHANNESBURG. – President Jacob Zuma and his backers have dared his detractors in the ANC: fire the president and face the consequences.
ANC insiders have told City Press that, among the tactics the Zuma camp is using in its fightback against those who want him recalled include warning that parliament would have to be dissolved if Zuma is recalled, as it was also nailed by the Constitutional Court judgment, something that will threaten the job security of many MPs.
The issue of cutting short President Zuma’s term, which has been gaining momentum since revelations that his, friends the Guptas, have been exercising excessive influence over his administration, was given impetus by this week’s Constitutional Court ruling that he had in effect violated his oath of office through his handling of the Nkandla affair.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly will debate a motion tomorrow calling for the removal of President Zuma from office.
The motion was tabled by DA leader Mmusi Maimane through a letter to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete on Thursday just minutes after the Constitutional Court ruled that President Zuma violated his oath of office and failed to uphold and defend the Constitution of the republic.
Maimane requested that Mbete consider his request to have the motion calling for the removal of the president debated by MPs. Mbete’s spokesperson, Mandlakazi Sigcawu confirmed that the debate would indeed go ahead tomorrow.
It will be the first time in the history of a democratic South Africa that a motion to remove a president is debated.
In the past, MPs have debated motions of no confidence in the president, which are political statements.
But the motion to remove a president is provided for in the Constitution and is considered on the grounds of a serious violation of the Constitution or the law, serious misconduct or the inability to perform the functions of office.
MPs will vote at the end of the debate and the majority vote will carry. Two-thirds (267) of the National Assembly’s 400 MPs will have to vote for the impeachment for it to carry.
In a move that confirms the ANC’s allegations that the United States is trying to effect illegal regime change in South Africa, the New York Times wrote in an editorial that it was time for President Zuma to “step down”.
The New York Times claims: “Cronyism, corruption and scandal have swirled around Jacob Zuma since before he became president of South Africa in May 2009, and the muck has only deepened since.
On Thursday the country’s highest court ruled that he had violated the Constitution by refusing to pay back millions that the government spent improving his home.
“Before that, there were reports that the Guptas, a powerful business family close to Mr Zuma, had offered to arrange cabinet posts for politicians. And so it goes, prompting the secretary general of the ruling African National Congress to warn that South Africa is turning into a ‘mafia state’. Yet the ANC steadfastly continues to declare full confidence in the president.
“It is a shame that the ANC, the party of Nelson Mandela, is allowing its moral and political authority to be so grievously eroded by Mr Zuma, instead of bringing his corrupt presidency to an end. But the national executive committee of the ANC – which has dominated South African politics since the end of white minority rule in 1994 – is stacked with allies of the president, and evidently loath to take action against him in an election year.” – City Press/New York Times/Herald Reporter
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