The Gauteng ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) has resolved that President Jacob Zuma should step down, a source has told News24.
The PEC met on Tuesday where the decision was taken.
This has not been officially confirmed by the party in the province, but a statement on the resolution was expected. This will be the first ANC province to call for the president to go and comes despite the ANC’s national working committee resolving that it accepted Zuma’s apology, and the decision not to recall him.
There have been widespread calls for Zuma to resign following the constitutional court ruling that he failed to uphold the constitution when he did not comply with public protector Thuli Madonsela’s remedial action regarding payment for the upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.
Despite the resolution taken by the Gauteng PEC, a source said, the ANC Youth League in the Gauteng was against the decision and communicated that in the meeting.
It’s understood that although the ANCYL did not think Zuma was the best individual to lead the party and that the way the Nkandla matter was handled was a “fundamental blunder”, removing the president would be playing into the 2017 dynamics.
The source said the ANCYL was of the view that the unity of the organisation was paramount at this stage.
The youth league is expected to give its own briefing on the matter later this week.
The ANC in Gauteng has, in the past, spoken out strongly against some decisions taken by the ruling party and its handling of some issues, such as e-tolls and the spending on Zuma’s Nkandla home.
Last week, provincial chairman David Makhura said the country was facing an economic and political crisis, and that members of the ANC needed to ask themselves whether the party was acting in the best interest of the nation.”
Many of us know that in history when the ANC was having meetings, we knew that the ANC would take the right decisions,” he said in a recording of his address given at the memorial service of Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran, Shirish Nanabhai.
“Many of us know that in history when the ANC was going to consider what next to do, we knew that the ANC would act in the best interest of the people and the country. We should ask ourselves … whether we can still say that today, and if we have any shadow of a doubt, there is a fundamental problem we must fix.”