The ANC’s integrity commission asked Zuma to resign – he said no: report
A letter from the ANC’s integrity commission’s chairperson, Andrew Mlangeni, to ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe has revealed that the body formally requested that president Jacob Zuma resign in 2016 – which he simply refused to do.
According to a report by the Daily Maverick, Mlangeni has requested an urgent meeting with Mantashe and the party’s top officials, to discuss the recent cabinet reshuffle which saw Zuma fire former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
Mlangeni said that the integrity commission was “perturbed” by the reshuffle – particularly Gordhan’s removal, and the wider impact it would have on the South African economy, and in dividing the party even further.
The IC rejected Zuma’s reported reasoning – that Gordhan was working with ‘western powers’ to undermine the government – and said that Zuma “disregarded the principle and tradition of collective leadership, both within the ANC and with our alliance partners”.
The kicker in the letter was Mlangeni describing what happened when Zuma met with the commission in December 2016.
According to Mlangeni, the commission asked Zuma to resign as president of South Africa, in the interest of the ANC and the country, and he refused.
“We do not know whether the president informed the officials or the NEC of our request to him to resign, or of his refusal to do so,” Mlangeni said.
The commission will again meet with Zuma on 9 April 2017, where it will pose questions to the president about who he consulted with in drawing up his cabinet changes. The commission has resolved to again ask the president to resign, the DM reported.
A call from the ANC’s own integrity commission for the president to step down will join the formal position of the SACP, which has vocally opposed the president’s moves, and possibly even Cosatu, whose leaders are meeting to discuss the latest reshuffle, with a request for the president to resign on the agenda.
The only way Zuma can be removed from office is if he resigns voluntarily, through a no confidence or impeachment vote in Parliament, or through a recall from the ANC NEC.
Analysts understand that the president hold majority support in the ANC’s NEC, and that the president’s removal that way is highly unlikely.
The EFF has approached the Constitutional Court seeking an impeachment order based on the Nkandla saga, while speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete is considering whether or not to convene an emergency sitting of Parliament to vote on a motion of no confidence, led by the DA and other opposition parties.
Civil action groups and South African citizens are planning protests against the president for later in the week.
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