Zuma Defiant, snubbing the ANC's NEC

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 13 Feb 2018 by Iraj Abedian

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Last night at the hour of midnight, the ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC Secretary General, Ace Magashule, were instructed by the ANC's NEC to deliver a personal message to President Zuma: resign or face the ANC NEC's recall. Zuma sent them back with a sharp and short message of defiance: " I won't resign"! The NEC deliberated another two hours, and at around 3h00 a.m. resolved to recall Zuma, giving him 24 hours to resign. In the past, on a number of occassions Zuma had publicly stated that he would resign only if the ANC NEC asked him to do so. Needless to say that few believed him. Even his ardent supporters are now somewhat embarrassed and disillusioned by the turn of events over the past 24 hours. Their president has gone rogue. Today, the ANC is waiting in hope that Zuma will finally, and for once, do the right thing and save the ANC from further embarrassment and chaos. There is of course no certainty that he would do so. As it turned out, he was hoping that he would stick around for another 3 to 5 months before departing. The Ramaphosa team had enough of Zuma's antics, and decided to go for the broke. This is of course a very unknown and unchartered waters for the ANC- a fractured party which for the first time since 1994 is not in full control of the processes that are critical for its political dominance , even survival, and for the country. The opposition parties are, understandably, piling up the pressure to dissolve the Parliament, asking for an early election, hoping to unseat the ANC's dominance whilst the party is in somekind of a disarray. To begin with, the EFF has given an ultimatum to the Speaker of the Parliament until later today to brin...