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South Africa’s embattled President Jacob Zuma has
resigned his office with immediate effect.
The BBC reports that Zuma made the
announcement in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday evening.
Earlier, Zuma’s governing ANC party had told him
to resign or face a vote of no confidence in parliament on Thursday.
The 75-year-old had been under increasing
pressure to give way to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC’s new leader.
Zuma, who has been in power since 2009, had been
accused of corruption.
His resignation came at the end of a long speech
in which he said he disagreed with the way the ANC had acted towards him.
He said he did not fear a motion of no
confidence, adding, “I have served the people of South Africa to the best of my
ability.”
Meanwhile, the governing African National
Congress said it would elect Zuma successor’s on Thursday (today).
“We will possibly elect a new president on
Thursday … if not Friday,” ANC treasurer general Paul Mashatile told
journalists.
“We want certainty. We would like the incoming
president to hold the postponed State of the Nation address without delay.”
The Latest Reality Metro reports that
the vote of no confidence, requested by the opposition party, the Economic
Freedom Fighters, was initially scheduled for February 22.
The ANC caucus in parliament decided to move the
vote forward after it formally asked Zuma to resign on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said that Zuma
would speak “at 0800 GMT and satellite trucks were in position at Pretoria’s
Union Buildings, the seat of the country’s government.”
But Zuma’s office said there was no “official
communication” of any impending address but urged the media to wait.
The Secretary-General of South Africa’s ANC said
Zuma did not threaten to challenge his removal by the party in court as
speculated by the local media.
The scribe of the ANC, Ace Magashule, had told a
news conference that Zuma would respond by Wednesday on the decision to
“recall” him.
“President Jacob Zuma has behaved like a leader
of the ANC. He has never threatened us with any court action, not at all. He
did in fact confirm that he would respond by tomorrow.”
The ANC ordered Zuma to step down as the head of
state after marathon talks over the fate of a leader whose scandal-plagued
years in power darkened and divided Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid “Rainbow
Nation.”
Leading members of the ANC want new party leader,
Cyril Ramaphosa, to replace Zuma as president, Magashule told a news
conference.
Zuma has been living on borrowed time since
Ramaphosa, a union leader once tipped as Mandela’s pick to take over the reins,
was elected as head of the 106-year-old ANC in December, narrowly defeating
Zuma’s ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
In spite of the damning decision to order Zuma’s
recall, the domestic media have speculated that the 75-year-old might defy the
party’s wishes, forcing it into the indignity of having to unseat him in
parliament.
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