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Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa wants the ANC to discuss the thorny issue of President Jacob Zuma stepping down.
While Zuma’s future was fiercely debated by the ANC leadership last November, the current circumstances required that it be brought back to the table, he said on the sidelines after Sunday’s explosive speech in Nelson Mandela Bay where he openly challenged but Zuma and his friends the Gupta family.
However, Ramaphosa was reluctant to say whether Zuma’s axing would indeed be high on the agenda at the next sitting, of the ANC national executive committee, saying that can only be determined by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.
“In the end, it’s a matter that the ANC itself will have to discuss. It cannot be handled in any other way.”
Senior ANC leaders are pushing for a special national executive committee meeting to discuss Zuma’s late-night Cabinet reshuffle, which saw the axing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas, triggering the decision by ratings agencies to downgrade South Africa to junk status.
During his lecture in honour of slain South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani at a packed hall in Uitenhage, Ramaphosa linked Jonas’ firing to him refusing to take a bribe from the Guptas.
He also laid bare his intentions to contest Zuma’s preferred successor, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, at the ANC’s 54th elective conference in December.
Ramaphosa would not be drawn into saying whether or not Zuma would be charged and disciplined. He had accompanied Zuma to a meeting with the integrity committee earlier this month following a letter they had penned but later withdrew, asking Zuma to resign.
“That is a matter the integrity commission will have to decide itself. That is within their own terrain. I don’t want to pre-empt them by saying that’s what they are going to do.”
He said there would be a follow-up meeting as both Zuma and the committee iron out some issues.
Ramaphosa also weighed in on the death threats against some outspoken senior leaders, describing it as very worrying.
While he has not directly been threatened, he had heard that his name was on a hit list.
“I have not directly been threatened of death but these things have legs, they just move around and they are quite worrying,” he said in response to a question.
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa hoped the conclusion of Zuma’s review of the Public Protector’s state of capture report would coincide with the president finally establishing a judicial inquiry.
He said the state institutions and South Africans were directly affected and hence the need to get to the truth about the alleged inference of the Guptas in the state.
“Those implicated will get a chance to explain precisely how they got entangled in all of this.”
His support of an inquiry was in direct conflict with Zuma, who has openly voiced unhappiness at Thuli Madonsela, the former public protector, dictating to him that it must be headed by the chief justice, and has taken it for review.
