South Africa's ANC postpones meeting called to discuss Zuma future
By James Macharia
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said on Tuesday it has postponed until the weekend of Feb. 17 a meeting of its National Executive Committee initially scheduled for this week to discuss President Jacob Zuma's future.
The ANC had called a special meeting of its decision-making executive committee to be held on Wednesday in Cape Town, heralding what could be a new bid to unseat a president beset by corruption allegations and economic decline.
Zuma has been in a weakened position since he was replaced as leader of the ANC by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in December. Zuma no longer holds a top position in the party.
The ANC had called a special meeting of its decision-making executive committee, which has the power to demand that Zuma step down. Analysts have said some members of the party allied to Ramaphosa could call for Zuma to resign.
The party has faced uncertainty over how its "two centres of power" will function, after Ramaphosa took the reins of the party, while Zuma remains as head of state. Zuma's tenure officially runs until mid-2019.
Party secretary-general Ace Magashule said the executive committee meeting had been postponed to enable Zuma and Ramaphosa to keep holding "constructive discussions" over the transition, but he did not elaborate.
Zuma waved to reporters after meeting Ramaphosa at the president's office in Cape Town, where the president also chaired routine meetings, his spokesman said.
In a statement, the presidency denied claims by the South African Communist Party, a key ally of the ruling party, that Zuma was preparing to fire Ramaphosa as deputy president and replace him with ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
The ANC had earlier said its leaders were weighing the future of South Africa's Jacob Zuma will decide a "matter of serious concern" on Wednesday.
Facing a no-confidence motion in parliament set for Feb. 22, Zuma has survived several attempts to oust him in the past. But this time around a significant part of the ANC wants him to step down well before his second term ends mid next year.
"A vote of no-confidence is not desirable, under any circumstances," ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte told a news conference that senior party officials said.
"Our most important consideration is that we don't believe South Africa should wish for us to embarrass the president of the republic, in any way whatsoever," she said.
The speaker of parliament, Baleka Mbete, postponed Zuma's speech due on Thursday. She said she met Zuma, who had already been writing to parliament to ask for his address to be put off.
"A new date for the state of the nation address will be announced very soon," Mbete said.
The opposition parties had demanded that the speech be postponed until Zuma was removed from the leadership.
"TWO CENTRES OF POWER'
The rand, which has tended to strengthen on signs that Zuma could step down before his second term as president ends next year, was firmer on Tuesday.
"This uncertainty and unhealthy competition between the ‘two centres of power’ was not unexpected or a sudden surprise yet there was no plan to deal with it given that Mr Zuma was not going to go quietly and that this would create problems," said analyst Gary van Staden at NKC African Economics.
The ANC's top six most powerful officials met Zuma late on Sunday at his official residence in Pretoria but there was no announcement of the outcome.
Analysts said that the senior officials had met Zuma to ask him to step down and that he declined to do so.
Duarte and fellow top-six member Magashule have backed Zuma.
Zuma has faced several allegations of corruption. Some within the ANC and the opposition say the Gupta family, friends of Zuma, have used their links with the president to win work with the state. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing.
The influential Nelson Mandela Foundation said in a statement "time is of the essence - Zuma must go". Leader of the official opposition and head of the Democratic Alliance party Mmusi Maimane said in a statement: "We need a new beginning."
On Monday, Zuma met Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, the influential traditional head of South Africa's biggest ethnic group in the president's home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
A Zulu royal house insider told the BusinessDay newspaper that Zuma had refused a request from the Zulu king to resign.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Winning and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg and Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
