/ 11 November 2016

​ANC unlikely to press for Zexit

Not to be overshadowed: The ANC is unlikely to take any action against Jacob Zuma
Not to be overshadowed: The ANC is unlikely to take any action against Jacob Zuma

President Jacob Zuma is going nowhere.

Despite an unprecedented groundswell of calls for the ANC to remove Zuma following the damning State of Capture report by the public protector, the ruling party remains unmoved and seems unlikely to take action against Number One.

This was the conclusion that could be drawn after the Mail & Guardian contacted eight of the party’s nine provincial structures and 40 of the ANC’s 104-member national executive committee (NEC).

The party’s highest decision-making body is meeting on November 25 and many are keen to see the ANC’s reaction to the latest scandal involving their president.

The party’s six-member national working committee (NWC) has already sought to water down former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s findings and has suggested Zuma should be the one to appoint the judicial commission of inquiry that her State of Capture report calls for.

Madonsela’s report explicitly states that, because Zuma is implicated in the state capture allegations, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng should appoint a judge to head the commission and select its staff.

Of the NEC members contacted, 28 refused to comment. Only four confirmed their intention to raise their dissatisfaction with Zuma’s central role in the public protector’s report at the committee’s November  25 meeting.

Among them is veteran NEC member and Minister of Public Service and Administration Ngoako Ramatlhodi, who said he would speak his mind without fear or favour.

“Following local government elections we took collective responsibility; that suggests we recognise the defining moment we are in,” Ramatlhodi said. “We’d want to work around that and see how we make the organisation survive and make the revolution survive. We are currently seized with the survival of the organisation.”

Fellow NEC members Enoch Godongwana and Fikile Xasa confirmed that the issue could be discussed at the NEC.

“There was that feeling that there might be a need for an urgent meeting but … we have an indication of a meeting for the NEC [at the end of the month],” Xasa said. “So whatever issues that required the special meeting will be addressed there.”

Ramatlhodi was reluctant to say whether he believes Zuma should step down, revealing that, as a veteran in the ANC who has served under all three democratically elected presidents, he has seen that speaking out often proves costly.

“When you go out there and make such calls, you cease to be relevant,” Ramatlhodi said. “And I personally have learned from my experience with [former] president [Thabo] Mbeki. I was very vocal about him stepping down and the consequences were too ghastly; I did not anticipate that. The bottom line is that you don’t go out and destroy your organisation and think you are building it.”

At least two senior party leaders who serve on the NEC have previously called on Zuma to step down. These include former speaker of Parliament Max Sisulu and the party’s current chief whip, Jackson Mthembu, who said the entire committee should resign.

Another NEC member who reiterated this call is Sandile Sejake, the president of the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association, who said he cannot afford to pay the R300 daily fee that members have to pay to attend committee meetings.

The ANC’s provinces said most of the branches have rejected appeals for Zuma to be recalled or step down.

“We don’t see a need for recall — we won’t support that,” said KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala. “We believe that he must finish his term; there is nothing that requires the organisation to recall him.”

Free State ANC chairperson Ace Magashule said: “You can’t, on the basis of observations [in the state capture report], decide if the president should step down.

“The NEC said at its last meeting there is no such need [and] the NWC said the same thing. There’s never been any single branch that called for the president to step down.”

The controversial Free State premier has also appealed to NEC members unhappy with Zuma’s leadership to unite the party.

“I would like to persuade all of us, even those who are not happy, to continue uniting the ANC and the people of South Africa,” Magashule said. “I think we must further engage our people on the ground, black and white, to have patience and engage the ANC in a very disciplined way.”

The party’s Western Cape branches dismissed the notion of Zuma vacating office before his term expires.

“There is 12 months before a new ANC president is elected; we would like those 12 months to be used for preparation for conference and nothing else,” said the party’s Western Cape spokesperson Yonela Diko.

Other provinces are not letting Zuma off the hook — they are preparing to debate the implications of Madonsela’s report ahead of the NEC meeting.

ANC Gauteng spokesperson Nkenke Kekana said: “There’s been a second round of consultation with our branches after the local government elections, and the views of the branches are well known … and will be communicated to the NEC as needed.

“The ANC is facing a huge challenge. It’s something new. We have no option but to unite. An ANC that only looks inward is its own enemy.”

The province has been vociferous in its opposition to Zuma, often in conflict with the majority stance in the party.

“In the past, it [leadership] used to be a Gauteng problem, which means it is an urban problem,” said another senior ANC member in Gauteng. But the signs are there. It’s not an urban problem; it’s an ANC problem. When you start losing wards in rural areas, you should know that.”

In the Eastern Cape, provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said the province’s position would be reviewed at the November 25 meeting.

“The ANC is under siege; our backs are against the wall,” he said. “It is no longer business as usual. We need to find ways to respond to issues being raised in public. We can’t bury our heads in the sand when challenges like these are prevailing.”

ANC Limpopo secretary Nocks Seabi said the province recently had a consultation with its branches, which confirmed that “a majority of them did not call for Zuma to step down … but the NEC has the authority to do so; individuals don’t have the power”.

Seabi acknowledged the right of ANC veterans who recently called for the NEC to take urgent action but added: “I don’t think there is a legitimate call. The president will only be told by the NEC to step down or branches of the ANC,” he said.

The Northern Cape and Mpumalanga ANC said they support the NWC’s announcement this week that the calls for Zuma to go are unfounded and that calls for an urgent NEC meeting would not be heeded. The North West ANC had not commented on the matter by the time of going to print.