Opposition parties face massive dilemma in fight against Zuma
South Africa’s opposition parties face the ultimate catch-22 in trying to get President Jacob Zuma to resign, as bringing down the unpopular president will mean they lose their best chance to win the next election, according to Daryl Glaser, political science professor at the University of Witwatersrand.
Glaser, who was speaking in a report by Bloomberg , said that the country’s opposition were almost certainly torn on the subject, noting that because of the presidents continuous scandals, the ruling African National Congress suffered its worst-ever electoral performance since the end of apartheid.
He pointed out that these concerns have been echoed by the ANC itself, with several top ANC leaders having said the party risks losing power in 2019 elections if he’s allowed to complete his second five-year term.
“A lot of them may genuinely want Zuma to go and they may hope that his going spawns a kind of chaos and division in the ruling party that they could benefit from. It is also undeniable that Zuma is something of an electoral asset to opposition parties.”
While the ANC itself has denied any ongoing succession battle within the party, earlier this week former ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa confirmed that he has formally accepted a nomination from the Western Cape branch of the ANC to run to be the next president of the ANC.
He will be going up against deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and president Zuma’s preffered candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who have already unofficially started campaigning for the succession race.
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