South Africa on tenterhooks as Zuma to respond to ouster push

“It will (not) be a pretty resignation — 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.

“It is still to be seen whether the president actually will tender his resignation (Wednesday) evening, roughly when the deadline expires… (but) it seems that they are expecting that it will be happening.”

The impasse has plunged South Africa — the continent’s most developed economy — into confusion over who is running the country, with national events cancelled last week including the annual State of the Nation Address to parliament.

South African opposition parties have called for early elections as the ANC’s slow-motion transfer of power to the 65-year-old Ramaphosa grinds on.

– History repeating itself? –

An opposition request for a no-confidence vote against Zuma this week was still being considered by the parliament speaker.

Zuma’s presidency has been marred by corruption scandals, slow economic growth and record unemployment that have fuelled public anger.

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, 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.