The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma appears to be bent on holding on to power and not relinquishing it anytime soon as pressure mounts on him to resign.
On Sunday when leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) met him, Mr. Zuma is reported by local media in an “arrogant” manner to said that the “people still love him”.
Mr. Zuma refused to stepdown in that meeting which necessitated another meeting among the leadership of the ANC on Monday to discuss his future.
The embattled president reportedly told party’s leaders that he had done nothing wrong and that only the national executive committee (NEC) had the powers to recall him of which he requested to make a presentation to.
That request according to News24 was rejected with a source claiming “They told him we want to start an election campaign and we cannot do it with his face and with him in office with all his baggage, but he told them the people still love him”.
Supporters of the ANC on Monday clashed over the future of President Jacob Zuma. Some of Zuma’s supporters thronged the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg clashing with other anti-Zuma supporters ahead of the said meeting by the party’s leadership over the president’s future.
Since the change of leadership in the ANC last year there have been calls for Mr. Zuma who has been in power since 2009 to resign but he has ignored those calls.
Jacob Zuma would face another no-confidence vote later this month after the country’s parliament scheduled a motion of no-confidence against him.
The motion which was filed by the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party will be debated on February 22.
Another source at the Sunday meeting said “Zuma told them that he has survived eight or nine votes of no confidence and he believes he will survive another one. Even his supporters were shocked”.
“The officials said they tried to tell him that an impeachment or motion of no confidence ‘is bad for you’, but he said to them ‘when your organisation says you must go it is humiliating’,” said another source.
Source: Africafeeds.com
