It is rich that the ruling ANC is forced to adhere to legal niceties to remove a "constitutional delinquent" — Jacob Zuma — from his office as president of the country. A marathon 13-hour meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) this week ended in Zuma digging in his heels and rejecting calls by the party to relinquish the presidency. This is unlike his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, who voluntarily resigned once the party had "recalled" him — a clear signal that it had lost confidence in him. Mbeki’s director-general in the presidency, Frank Chikane, in his book on Mbeki’s recall, Eight Days in September, likened it to a "coup d’état" as the ANC did not follow parliamentary procedures. Perhaps in the coming years Cyril Ramaphosa’s long dance to end Zuma’s reign will, with hindsight, be seen as having been both wise and necessary to ensure the party would not again be accused of knifing the incumbent, and would not suffer another split. The special NEC meeting began at aro...
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