New political crisis looms over Africa; pressure mounts on SA President Zuma to resign

NewsBharati 05-Feb-2018

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Pretoria, February 5: Another political crisis is looming over Africa regarding South Africa President Jacob Zuma. The pressure is mounting on the 75 years old leader to resign from his regime. Top officials from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) met President Jacob Zuma late on Sunday. Following the meet, party leaders are to hold an emergency meeting on Monday.

In December, he was replaced as leader of the ANC by Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president. Since then, his position even within the party has weakened. The leader is already facing several corruption allegations. The Sunday meeting was between Zuma and the party’s “top six” leadership team at Zuma’s residence in Pretoria.

The party has not revealed what has been discussed in the meeting but summoning emergency meeting on Monday indicates graver crisis. On the other hand, once a top ANC leader, now opposition leader Julius Malema said Zuma had refused to resign at the meeting late on Sunday.

“He refused to resign and he told them to take a decision to remove him if they wish to do so because he didn’t do anything wrong to the country,” Malema wrote on Twitter. Notably, Malema was one of the first to disclose that Ramaphosa had won the race to succeed Zuma as ANC leader.

Next year there’s an election in South Africa. Before that, ANC does not want a power struggle due to Zuma. They are expected to remove President Zuma through a formal recall or by introducing a motion in parliament.

South Africa ANC Jacob Zuma