ROGER SOUTHALL: The consequences for the ANC are dire if Jacob Zuma wins no-confidence vote
A loss would see the ruling party further divided and weakened ahead of the 2019 elections
The African National Congress has got itself into one hell of a pickle. Next week the National Assembly will debate an opposition motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma. Were the motion to succeed, Zuma and his entire cabinet would be forced under the constitution to resign. The Speaker of the House would then become Acting President for up to 30 days while it goes about the business of electing a replacement, who would then serve as state president until the expiry of the present term of parliament in early 2019. Yet the reality is that, save a political tsunami, the motion won’t succeed even though it’s common currency that Zuma is irredeemably corrupt and that he has sold his country out to the Gupta family. He has also alienated many of the ANC’s traditional allies, and the performances of the government and the economy under his rule have become increasingly shambolic. Key figures in the ANC have indicated that their party’s MPs should vote with the opposition. These ...
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