{"id":167791,"date":"2017-04-03T07:57:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T05:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=167791"},"modified":"2017-04-03T09:29:59","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T07:29:59","slug":"the-plan-to-keep-zuma-in-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/167791\/the-plan-to-keep-zuma-in-office\/","title":{"rendered":"The plan to keep Zuma in office"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Jacob Zuma\u2019s backers\u00a0reached a conclusion in recent weeks that it was safe to get rid of opponents such as Gordhan\u00a0– and they have a number of ways to make sure the movement to oust the president loses momentum, according to a report by the\u00a0City Press<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vote<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Key to these plans is a reliance on a motion of no confidence failing, as\u00a0Zuma\u2019s backers are confident that they will muster the 201 votes to keep him in power.<\/p>\n

While members of his party including long time allies and the executive “Top Six” have spoken out against Zuma’s decision to fire Gordhan, insiders speaking to the City Press noted that Zuma could still rely on the ANC’s history to swing votes.<\/p>\n

The source noted it was\u00a0not easy for an ANC member, especially the backbenchers, to take an anti-ANC position and\u00a0that they would continue to vote ANC when the DA and EFF bring the motion to parliament.<\/p>\n

Time and Mbete<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Opposition parties are also concerned that momentum could be lost as parliament is in recess and only resumes on 9 May.<\/p>\n

The EFF’s Julius Malema has already threatened to take the speaker of the national assembly, Baleka Mbete, to court if she does not convene an urgent sitting, but he too may be waiting a while, the sources said.<\/p>\n

She is currently out of the country and plans\u00a0to draw out the process for as long as possible when she returns.<\/p>\n

Lobbying<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It is believed that Mbete’s slowing down of proceedings would also give time for Zuma\u2019s allies to lobby MPs one by one while in their home districts.<\/p>\n

In contrast, opposition ANC members such as Ramaphosa and Gordhan could not rely on this grass-roots level to drum up support.<\/p>\n

No resignations or stepping down<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Despite earlier reports, there would also be no mass resignation of Cabinet ministers. This was echoed by the SACP on Friday evening, who despite calling for Zuma’s resignation, announced that it would not be withdrawing any members so as to “fight the party from the inside”.<\/p>\n

The insiders also believe that no ANC members would be stepping down for fear of creating a vacuum to which Zuma could appoint more loyal members.<\/p>\n

They pointed to the now-forgotten ministers\u00a0who resigned in solidarity with former president, Thabo Mbeki, in 2008 and noted that speaking out too soon would be considered political suicide.<\/p>\n

\n

Read the full story in the\u00a0City Press<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Read:\u00a0Zuma facing opposition from inside and outside the ANC: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sources close to the presidency have revealed why President Jacob Zuma felt safe firing Gordhan – and how the pro-Zuma members of the ANC plan to keep him in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":167823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-167791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167791"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167851,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167791\/revisions\/167851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}