The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Susan Booysen, a politics professor at Stellenbosch University, said she expected that Zuma would resign — albeit grudgingly.
“I think that he is an angry person… and he is very reluctant to go. His power could still hover in the background,” Booysen told AFP.
The political wrangle has plunged South Africa — the continent’s most developed economy — into confusion over who is running the country, with last week’s annual State of the Nation address cancelled.
South African opposition parties have called for early elections as the ANC’s turbulent transfer of power to Ramaphosa grinds on.
– Decline of Mandela’s party –
Zuma’s presidency has been marred by corruption scandals, slow economic growth and record unemployment that have fuelled public frustration.
He was scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum two terms since coming to power in 2009.
In 2008, Zuma’s supporters pushed out then-president Thabo Mbeki via a similar “recall” manoeuvre over allegations of abuse of power.
In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 with Nelson Mandela at the helm as white-minority rule fell.
Ramaphosa, 65, the deputy president, must revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to boost the party’s tarnished reputation before a tricky election next year.
He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to politics.
Zuma’s hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his chosen successor — his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma — narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote to be the new party leader.
The ANC has insisted there will be no delay to the budget speech, which is due on February 21.
An opposition request for a no-confidence vote against Zuma this week was still being considered by the parliament speaker.
