Cape Town - What started as an ordinary meeting of the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) quickly descended into a battle for the soul of the party.
With a 2pm briefing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon to update the media on the outcome of the meeting, it's widely believed that President Jacob Zuma, who is jetting off to Cuba for Fidel Castro's funeral, is safe for now.
It emerged at the high level meeting in Pretoria on Monday that around two thirds of Zuma's cabinet wants him out, while he still enjoys the support of the branches of at least five of the country's nine provinces.
The branches of the Eastern Cape and Gauteng are believed to be in support of the faction that wants Zuma out.
Had the matter been put to a vote - unprecedented in the NEC - Zuma would have lost, and thus be removed as president of the country, leaving Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to be installed as president with immediate effect. It would then be up to Ramaphosa to use the organs of the state to investigate, and prosecute, if necessary, those implicated in former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's State of Capture report, including Zuma's son Duduzane Zuma and the Gupta family, further weakening Zuma's position.
But the battle for the leadership of the ANC would not yet have been won, as Zuma still enjoys the support of the branches, which are due to meet on the succession debate at the party's elective conference in December 2017.
While the NEC can remove Zuma as president of the country, it is unable to recall him as president of the party.
In 2008 when Thabo Mbeki was recalled as president of the country, he had already lost the leadership of the party at the Polokwane conference the year prior, making his recall easier for the ANC.
Zuma's backers have called the bid to remove him a “coup”.
It's believed the Zuma camp supports Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as his successor, while those who want him out - including the party's secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and Health Minsiter Aaron Motsoaledi, along with two-thirds of the Cabinet - want Ramaphosa to take over the leadership of the party and thus, the country.
So the NEC would have had to decide: forge ahead and remove the president of the country, but lose the support of the branches and fail to control the ANC after the 2017 elective conference; or drop the matter, leaving an already-weakened Zuma to further lick his wounds and win the long-term war for control of the party.
Ultimately, the ANC will be the biggest loser, with the power-grabbing running contrary to the revolutionary movement's founding tenets.
Cape Argus