Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma’s backers stand ready to defend him from any attempts to remove him when the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meets from Friday.
Zuma is under mounting pressure to step down following a series of reports into the controversial state capture and calls from within the tripartite alliance and outside.
On Thursday the ANC stalwarts, who have warned the party was dying, wrote a letter to the NEC in their last-ditch attempt to convince the party’s structure to recall Zuma.
This took place as yet another report was released on Thursday, this time by academics warning against corruption that amounted to a silent coup in Zuma’s administration.
In the letter, former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, on the other hand, slammed the country’s political leadership as morally compromised.
Read the letter here
ANC veteran Murphy Morobe told The Star that their letter would give a full account of the six months they have been involved in the process to save the ANC.
“We have a sense that some of the issues we have been dealing with have not reached the NEC,” said Morobe.
"Given the seriousness of this capture of the State by our own leaders within the ANC we as the veterans and stalwarts of the movement call on the National Executive Committee (NEC) – as it meets this weekend – to show leadership to our members, supporters and the nation and exercise its executive power in terms of the Constitution of the ANC to remove from Government all those who are party to this Project of State Capture. In particular, the ANC should seriously consider recalling the President as Head of State and of Government," the letter read.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said they had not yet received the letter.
The report by the team of academics, titled “Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is being stolen”, warned on Thursday against state capture, saying it was a silent coup.
The project was an academic research partnership between leading researchers, including Professor Mzuki Qobo, Professor Mark Swilling from Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Complex Systems in Transition and Professor Ivor Chipkin from Wits University’s Public Affairs Research Institute.
The report contains allegations of how Zuma and senior government officials “have colluded with a shadow network of corrupt brokers”.
The report also decried the manner in which the power elite pursued its own interests at the expense of South African society, “in particular the poorest people who will suffer first and most from the consequences of what is in reality a de facto silent coup”.
The report comes hot on the heels of the “Unburdening Report” released by the South African Council of Churches this week, which warned that the country was on the brink of becoming a mafia state as a result of state capture.
But Zuma’s backers believe that any attempts to remove him from power would be “unconstitutional” and would fail to gain traction among the NEC members.
The Star understands that plans were afoot for another motion of no confidence to be tabled against Zuma at the meeting.
This is against the backdrop of the the controversy around Brian Molefe’s redeployment as Eskom chief executive.
Zuma's deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa has made criticism of state capture central in his campaign to replace the president in December.
The NEC meeting, happening on the eve of the policy conference, will also give an indication on whether Zuma still had a stranglehold on power or has been significantly weakened.
Cosatu's decision to bar the President from speaking at their events also added to his woes.
Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association chairperson, Kebby Maphatsoe corr, said any attempts to remove Zuma would be defeated.
“Let the motion against the president come. We are ready for it! If they raise it, they must put facts on the table, but I don’t think it will fly,” he said.
A staunch Zuma supporter, Maphatsoe, said it would be unconstitutional for the NEC to recall Zuma as president, adding: “This issue is totally different from (former president) Thabo Mbeki because he was no longer ANC president when he was recalled.”
He said calls for Zuma to step down were discussed at length by the NEC and the party’s branches and the matter was considered closed.
“If you remove Zuma you are violating the constitution of the ANC. The branches of the ANC still have confidence in Zuma. He must finish his term in December,” said Maphatsoe.
ANC Youth League spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize berated members who were falling into the trap of calling on Zuma to step down, saying they were behaving like opposition parties in Parliament.
He said attempts to remove the president would not succeed and that the party’s youth league supported Zuma to finish his terms as ANC leader in December and state president in 2019.
Motlanthe also lashed out at morally unjust leadership, saying 23 years after democracy, the post-colonial experience has been “tainted morally compromised leadership, corruption, lack of ethics and therefore poor governance”.
“All these have not only compromised the future of millions of poor, working class, peasant, and young Africans, but have also, by so doing, betrayed the noble vision nurtured over decades if not centuries of struggle for human freedom.”
He made the remarks during the launch of the South African chapter of Oxfam at Constitution Hill in Joburg on Thursday(Thursday).
The ANC Women’s League couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
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