Zuma's era ending soon

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 06 Feb 2018 by Iraj Abedian

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The SA Parliament just announced that the Paliament's opening and the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2018 are postponed until further notice. This is the first concrete sign that Zuma is unlikely to address the Parliament anymore. Earlier today, the Presidency announced that Zuma has summoned all his cabinet ministers to an emergency meeting. This, too, indicates that he may have finally gotten the message, and has read the writing on the wall. Meanwhile, as I explained in my yesterday's note, Ramaphosa needs to tick all the required boxes, methodically as required by the ANC constitution. So, tomorrow there is an emergency meeting of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the ultimate decision-making body to make a resolution on Zuma's recall as a deployee of the ANC. The NEC requires a simple majority to get a binding resolution in this regard. Chances are that the Ramaphosa team will achieve this without much trouble. What will be somewhat more complex is the choice of 'interim president', and possibly an interim deputy president. The two decisions are somewhat interrelated. And with that mix will come a substantial cabinet reshuffle resulting in a major clean-up of a Zuma group of incapable and/or corrupt cabinet members. Next 24 hours will be a defining turn-around time in the fortunes of the ANC and of course, that of South Africa.