ANC planned to sack Zuma this week, leaked comments from top party official reveal

A leaked comment from a top official of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has revealed that the party had planned to sack President Jacob Zuma this week.

The senior ANC official Paul Mashatile said he was part of a group of the ANC’s top six most powerful officials who met Zuma late on Sunday at his official residence in Pretoria in a bid to convince him to resign but a negotiated exit for the embattled leader now looks more likely.

“Zuma basically said to us: ‘I‘m not going anywhere. I‘m not convinced by you guys so I‘m not going to resign,” Mashatile told investors at a mining conference in Cape Town on Tuesday. His comments emerged in a recording leaked to several domestic media outlets late on Wednesday.

Read also: South Africa’s deputy president mounts pressure on prosecutors to hasten Zuma’s probe

“Our view is that if the president doesn’t want to resign, for whatever reason, we have a party to run that is going to be very soon in the election campaign,” Mashatile said. “We want to ensure that we are not involved in motions of no-confidence, or impeachment that will affect our party.”

Two days ago, the new ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed on Wednesday that he is in talks with Zuma over a transition of power.

Ramphosa revealed in a statement that he and Zuma had began talks on Tuesday night and hoped to conclude their discussions and report back to country “in coming days”.

Ramaphosa said the process was an opportunity to conclude the matter without causing discord in the country.

 

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