Zuma said that he received no official notice that a motion of no confidence in him would take place in Parliament on Thursday.
President Jacob Zuma has refused to accept the ANC’s decision to sack him, and the party will now have to rely on an open ballot motion of no confidence brought by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to remove him in Parliament.
The motion of no confidence is set to be debated in the House on Thursday at 2pm. The EFF had written to Mbete, requesting that the vote be done via secret ballot, but Mbete replied to the party saying it assists Parliament’s “efficiency in its oversight of the Executive”, according to the statement.
Zuma is now hedging his bets on a motion of no confidence after refusing to accept the ANC National Executive Comittee’s (NEC) decision that he must resign. In an interview on SABC, Zuma said that the NEC did not provide proper reasons for recalling him, and he did not understand why there was a rush for him to be removed.
“I’m being victimised here,” Zuma said.
He detailed how the ANC top 6 had rejected his proposal that he would resign in at least three months’ time. Zuma said the NEC reason for his recall was that the party could not have “two centres of power” and wanted Ramaphosa to take over leadership of the country.
But Zuma argued that historically the ANC has always had an elective conference where a president of the party was elected and the president of the country allowed to end his term. He said Mbeki’s recall was a mistake and he had fought against it because of the precedent it would set.
The president insisted he was not defying the ANC, but simply “disagreeing” with the decision taken by the party.
Zuma said that he received no official notice that a motion of no confidence in him would take place in Parliament on Thursday.
His response to the motion of no confidence was: “Why the rush?”
In an interview with CNN, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba was confident that the party caucus in Parliament would institute a motion of no confidence in Parliament.
But the EFF has beat the ANC to the punch.
The motion to be heard on Thursday was tabled by the EFF and for Zuma to be removed, the ANC majority will have to vote with opposition parties in favour of his dismissal. But ANC secretary general Ace Magashule said on Tuesday that the party could not vote with the opposition because they must hold the party line.