Splits are widening in South Africa\u2019s ruling African National Congress (ANC) over President Jacob Zuma\u2019s leadership and a decision by prosecutors to charge Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.<\/p>\n
The depth of the unease in the party was revealed on Sunday when the ANC\u2019s chief whip in Parliament, Jackson Mthembu, said members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) – including Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa – should all step down from the party\u2019s decision-making body. Unless the ANC changes course, it risks losing power in 2019 general elections, he told Johannesburg\u2019s City Press newspaper.<\/p>\n
The public has lost confidence in the ANC \u201cbecause of factional behavior, because of arrogance, and now, under our watch, a sitting minister is spuriously charged with fraud\u201d, Mthembu, who sits on the NEC, told Johannesburg-based broadcaster eNCA. \u201cPerhaps we are not the leadership that can take the ANC forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mthembu\u2019s comments signal a deepening crisis in the ANC\u2019s leadership at a time when the government is battling to stave off a credit-rating downgrade to junk.<\/p>\n
Opposition to Zuma\u2019s leadership has coalesced around Gordhan, who\u2019s clashed with the president over the management of the national tax agency and state companies as well as the affordability of nuclear power plants Zuma wants to build, since being appointed to his post in December.<\/p>\n
Gordhan case<\/strong><\/p>\n Prosecutors said this month they planned to charge Gordhan for illegally allowing a tax agency official to retire and be rehired on a temporary contract during a previous stint as finance minister.<\/p>\n Opposition parties, analysts and increasing numbers of ANC leaders say the case is a political stitch-up aimed at allowing Zuma to appoint a more pliant head of the National Treasury. Gordhan, who\u2019s due to appear in court on November 2, denies wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Read: These are the candidates most likely to be the next president of the ANC<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Zuma has been able to count on the NEC to shield him from a series of scandals since he became president in 2009, including a Constitutional Court ruling that he violated his oath of office by ignoring a directive by the public protector to repay taxpayer funds spent on upgrading his private home.<\/p>\n His refusal to quit, coupled with allegations that a wealthy family has wielded influence over his government, known as \u201cstate capture,\u201d and a sluggish economy all contributed to the ANC\u2019s worst-ever electoral performance in a local elections in August.<\/p>\n \u201cMthembu\u2019s comments indicate an unprecedented level of conflict among senior ANC leaders,\u201d Anthony Butler, a politics professor at the University of Cape Town, said by phone.<\/p>\n Treasury attacks<\/strong><\/p>\n Calls for Zuma to resign or be fired have also come from Save South Africa, a group that\u2019s led by Sipho Pityana, the chairperson of gold producer AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG], and backed by former finance minister Trevor Manuel, civil-rights and church groups. It intends staging a protest outside the courthouse in Pretoria when Gordhan is due to appear.<\/p>\n \u201cAttacks on National Treasury are nothing less than an unbridled attempt at further state capture and designed to get unfettered access to state resources,\u201d the group said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must send a strong message that when our sovereignty is threatened we are able to transcend our differences in defence of the motherland.\u201d<\/p>\n Mthembu declined to comment further when contacted on his mobile phone. ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said party leaders were accountable to the branches that elected them and they wouldn\u2019t quit.<\/p>\n No confidence<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s little chance the NEC will resign because \u201cit is the sovereign decision-making body of the ANC between leadership conferences and the party has no structure to disband it\u201d, Butler said.<\/p>\n Zuma, whose second term as ANC leader is due to end late next year and his second and final term as president in 2019, has denied intentionally breaking the law.<\/p>\n The Democratic Alliance has said it will table a motion of no confidence in Zuma in Parliament by the end of the year. The ANC, which controls 62% of the seats in Parliament, has easily seen off several previous opposition attempts to dismiss the president.<\/p>\n Asked if the ANC would allow its lawmakers to decide how they would vote this time around, Mthembu said: \u201cWhen the time comes, the ANC will deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the rising criticism, Butler still expects the ANC to rally around Zuma and deal with its leadership disputes internally.<\/p>\n \u201cThey see whatever strife there is in the party as a family affair that has little, if nothing, to do with anyone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n News24<\/a><\/p>\n These are the factions in the ANC that have been captured by Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on politics<\/h3>\n