Zuma: Will he finally blink ...?

Gauteng ANC deputy chairman David Makhura, in an apparent swipe at Jacob Zuma, called this week on the ANC to rescue itself from its morass. Makhura said loyalty to the nation and its people was more than loyalty to the ANC. Gauteng has not commented on provincial party members calling for Zuma's head. File picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Gauteng ANC deputy chairman David Makhura, in an apparent swipe at Jacob Zuma, called this week on the ANC to rescue itself from its morass. Makhura said loyalty to the nation and its people was more than loyalty to the ANC. Gauteng has not commented on provincial party members calling for Zuma's head. File picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Published Apr 10, 2016

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Johannesburg - More ANC branches are breaking ranks to join the chorus of those wanting embattled party president Jacob Zuma to step down from his presidential responsibilities.

As the Zuma rebellion among a wide range of South Africans grew this week, the board of the Nelson Mandela Foundation appeared ready on Saturday to join the fray, saying it had asked for an urgent meeting with the ANC.

The developments came as Zuma, for the first time in his presidency, faced mounting political pressure this week to quit.

In a week of high political drama, Zuma’s close friends, the wealthy Gupta brothers appeared - also for the first time - to be buckling under pressure, saying it had “become virtually impossible to continue to do business in South Africa” as major South African banks, Absa and FNB, had closed their bank accounts.

There were unconfirmed reports that the family has shipped their children to Dubai.

The family has sought the intervention of, among others, the Presidency, and the ministries of finance, labour, and mineral resources.

Zuma’s son Duduzane has resigned from the Guptas' Oakbay Investments companies in the face of the heightened political climate and the hostility towards the businessmen and his father.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said its board of trustees had convened an urgent special meeting on Friday to “discuss the groundswell of public discontent in the wake of the Constitutional Court’s ruling vindicating the public protector and holding Zuma accountable for unconstitutional executive actions”.

Zuma’s opponents privately say it is only a matter of time before he, like the Guptas, finally blinks.

They also believe a number of top-ranking party officials will soon break ranks.

Following the much-publicised breaking of ranks by the ANC’s Sefako Makgatho branch in Joburg this week, Lawrence Mapoulo, the chairman of the ANC’s biggest branch in Limpopo, Cuito Cuanavale, told The Sunday Independent on Saturday that ANC members were no longer comfortable with the leadership headed by Zuma.

“We must respect the civil society groups and church leaders,” he said.

“Our branch members have expressed discomfort with the challenges faced by the ANC and Zuma’s leadership.

“Our branch is the biggest branch in the province and therefore we need to take our members seriously when they raise their views.”

Mapoulo is a former executive mayor of the Capricorn District Municipality and a former ally of ousted Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale and EFF leader Julius Malema.

Expressing his views about the church leaders and civil society groups that have called for Zuma’s axing, Mapoulo said: “The ANC was formed in church and therefore you cannot ignore the church leaders. Branches are the nucleus of the movement. It is important to give them an ear because of the discomfort over the current leadership by Zuma.”

Mapoulo warned that the ANC would not be given instructions by the opposition about how the party should handle its issues.

He confirmed that on Wednesday branch members would be given a platform at a meeting to express their discontent.

Boy Mamabolo, chairman of the Mailo Malatjie branch in Seshego, Limpopo, said: “We must not set a precedent that the ANC always recalls presidents like it did when recalling Thabo Mbeki.

“We want Zuma to finish his term. We will, however, allow internal processes to unfold. We will not be dictated to by sideshows about our internal processes.”

ANC Capricorn regional chairman Motalane Monakedi said: “The ANC must be allowed the space to digest this matter. We are confident the leadership will take a sober decision that will be good for the people of this country. We must not be distracted by sideshows.”

ANC provincial secretary Seabi told The Sunday Independent that the ANC leadership would meet this week to engage the branches about the way forward.

Seabi said the ANC had resolved to support the national leadership's decision to back Zuma to maintain unity in the party.

Significantly, the Gauteng ANC provincial executive has not condemned the Sefako Makgatho branch’s call for Zuma’s resignation - and this is being interpreted as a tacit endorsement of the branch's stance.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said: “The reach of our constitutional democracy stretches across the entire nation. We need good, accountable leadership in Parliament, in all tiers of government, the civil service, business, schools, unions, political parties, universities, churches, hospitals, communities, NGOs, and so on.

“And, of course, in our presidency, the first enabler, protector and defender of the common good embodied in our constitution.

“It’s time for South Africans to settle for nothing less than the dream Nelson Mandela demonstrated is achievable.”

In yet another development, a top ANC leader who is also a minister in Zuma’s cabinet, Naledi Pandor, told an audience in Boksburg on Friday that the late Chris Hani, who was Umkhonto we Sizwe chief of staff, would “be horrified to learn his organisation has corruption as part of the exercise of political office, by some within it”.

Observers speculated that Pandor’s remarks showed the strain ANC leaders were taking because of Zumagate.

Zuma’s supporters are also fighting calls by ANC veterans for him to step down, calling into question the legitimacy of such calls.

On Saturday, a group of former political prisoners slammed calls by some ANC veterans, including Ahmed Kathrada, for Zuma to step down.

It has become apparent that Zuma’s fate will eventually be decided internally in the ANC, with the leadership delegating the debate on the ramifications of the Constitutional Court judgment to the branches.

ANC national executive committee member Pule Mabe said there was a need to separate the judgment from the calls for regime change.

He said the call by the ANC veterans and religious leaders would be dealt with through engagements with them, as agreed by the ANC leadership.

Sunday Independent

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