The Congress of the People (Cope) will move for a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma when Parliament resumes this week, Cope deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa said on Monday.
“We derive no pleasure from dealing with this matter. Ours is not about the humiliation of the president of the Republic,” he told a media briefing following a meeting of the party’s top brass over the weekend.
The motion would be called because of the impact of Zuma’s behaviour on the country.
Shilowa said the focus of the entire country was on Zuma due to his indiscretion when it should be on the issues ordinary South Africans face, such as unemployment, poverty and HIV/Aids.
Cope general secretary Charlotte Lobe said South Africa had become a “laughing stock” internationally because Zuma “failed to heed his own government’s call on the [HIV/Aids] pandemic”.
She said Zuma had not adhered to the government’s programme on abstinence, being faithful and using condoms.
“His sexual advances to the children of his friends … go to the heart of his moral bankruptcy.
“President Jacob Zuma is not fit for office. He has tarnished the image of the Republic,” she said.
Youth movement concerns
The leadership of Cope was on Monday locked in a meeting with the party’s youth, which had called for the resignation of the party’s top leadership.
The youth accused the leadership of failing the fledgling party, charging that it had a “dysfunctional” political and organisational structure.
Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota, who was flanked by Shilowa, said the meeting with the youth was “proceeding well”.
“… All of us are satisfied that at the end of it all the necessary steps will be taken to lead us to a better position,” he said.
The party is to hold its policy conference in March and an elective conference before the end of May.
National organiser Mluleki George was adamant that the party would be ready to hold the all-important conferences.
“This decision is not just an impromptu decision … we do have the membership that will attend that congress,” he said.
Cope remained mum on its membership figures. Lobe said it was in the process of an audit to finalise them.
‘Last straw’
Meanwhile, Zuma’s fathering of an illegitimate child has hit his chances of running for a second term, with some ANC heavyweights saying his sex life is damaging the party’s image.
Zuma, who has three wives, has apologised for fathering out of wedlock his 20th child with Sonono Khoza, the daughter of close friend Irvin Khoza, who heads South Africa’s organising committee for this year’s soccer World Cup.
Publicly, the African National Congress (ANC) has backed the 67-year-old but in private senior party members feel the latest in a long line of sexual scandals is the “last straw”.
“He is becoming too much of a liability to the party and his image is damaging,” a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, who did not want to be named, told Reuters. “Polygamy and promiscuity is not the same thing.”
In 2006, Zuma was cleared of raping an HIV positive woman, but admitted during the trial he had unprotected sex with her even though he knew she had the virus.
“Zuma has managed to keep the party together and present somewhat of a united front but his embarrassing personal life may see him fall from grace,” another ANC source said.
“Even his backers are fed up with what he is doing to the image of the party. This incident could be the last straw.” — Sapa, Reuters