{"id":176703,"date":"2017-05-26T12:29:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T10:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=176703"},"modified":"2017-05-26T14:55:54","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T12:55:54","slug":"more-than-half-of-the-anc-nec-are-now-opposed-to-zuma-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/176703\/more-than-half-of-the-anc-nec-are-now-opposed-to-zuma-report\/","title":{"rendered":"More than half of the ANC NEC are now opposed to Zuma: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

As more voices join the chorus calling for president Jacob Zuma to step down, analysis by the Mail & Guardian<\/a><\/strong> says that the president may have lost his majority support within the ANC’s National Executive Committee.<\/p>\n

According to the M&G’s Friday edition, of the 106 ANC NEC members, it counts 54 – more than half – now opposed to Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n

The last sitting of the NEC in November 2016 proved that the understanding that the NEC was heavily in favour of Zuma was correct, when his presidency was challenged and quickly shot down.<\/p>\n

At the time, only a handful of names spoke out against Zuma, led by former tourism minister Derek Hannekom, following the release of the state capture report which heavily implicated the president in allowing the Gupta family to secure lucrative contracts with state companies.<\/p>\n

Zuma left the meeting relatively unscathed – but in the last 6 months, South Africa has suffered significant blows at the hands of Zuma, and the ANC itself has had to swallow many humiliating outcomes, also as a direct result of the president’s actions.<\/p>\n

Sitting at the top of the pile is the firing of Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas from the finance ministry – an action which directly led to South Africa being downgraded to junk status by global ratings firms.<\/p>\n

It also brought to light the divisions in ANC leadership – particularly between Zuma, and his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, and secretary general Gwede Mantashe and treasurer general, Zweli Mkhize – all of whom opposed the move.<\/p>\n

The move also led to public dissent, with South African citizens taking to the streets in protest against the president. ANC alliance members, Cosatu and the SACP were also explicit in their disapproval, with both calling for Zuma to step down.<\/p>\n

Cosatu, in particular, would take it a step further and ban Zuma from speaking at any of its events and conferences, following the president being heckled and booed at the union’s May Day rally.<\/p>\n

Adding to Zuma’s woes are all the revelations around state capture – including the latest report which lays bare his network of businessmen and political figures and their ties to the Gupta family – as well as the Brian Molefe saga, where the Gupta-linked executive (and former ANC MP) is caught up in a web of lies around his resignation in November 2016.<\/p>\n

The latest insult to the ANC’s gaping injury, analysts have said, is the ANC’s latest defeat in the contested Nquthu municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, where, despite the party’s best efforts, it suffered a definitive loss against the IFP.<\/p>\n

According to insiders speaking to the\u00a0M&G, it has become almost impossible for the party to ignore the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n

ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said that while no official discussion over a Zuma recall has been tabled, the calls from alliance members for him to be recalled will be.<\/p>\n

“We can\u2019t ignore developments [such as] the May Day rally. This is the first NEC since that meeting. The NWC [national working committee] did reflect on that.<\/p>\n

“The issue of May Day rally will arise through the NWC report. The recent announcement by Cosatu [to exclude Zuma] will also be discussed in that context. The first issue is that alliance relations are at an all-time low. There is no dispute about that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Zuma’s supporters have made it clear they plan to shut down any motion to bring up Zuma’s presidency, saying the issue has been raised before and is dealt with.<\/p>\n

The ANC’s NEC meeting will be held this weekend, starting late on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Read:\u00a0Connecting the dots: how Zuma and the Guptas\u2019 state capture is structured<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As more voices join the chorus calling for president Jacob Zuma to step down, analysis by the Mail & Guardian says that the president may have lost his majority support within the ANC’s National Executive Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":132826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-176703","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\/176703","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=176703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176715,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176703\/revisions\/176715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}