South African president Jacob Zuma defiantly rejected an order by the African National Congress to resign, insisting he had done nothing wrong and describing the ruling party’s demands as “very unfair”.
“I need to be furnished on what I have done [wrong] and unfortunately that hasn’t been done,” Mr Zuma told South Africa’s state broadcaster. “I found it unfair, very unfair to me . . . what is this hurry, what are you rushing for?”
Asked if he would resign, Mr Zuma said: “No, the manner in which it has been taken, there is too much of a rush.” In a long and rambling interview, he added that he was open to further discussions. “We are being plunged into a crisis that I feel some of my comrades may regret,” he said he told ANC officials.
Mr Zuma’s first public comments in more than a week came as efforts to remove him from office intensified. He spoke shortly after the ANC announced it would back a no-confidence vote in parliament on Thursday as it moves to force the scandal-tainted president from office.
The unprecedented decision by the ANC to support a motion put forward by the opposition comes after Mr Zuma defied his party’s order to go. “Everything has come to standstill, so we need to move,” said Paul Mashatile, the ANC’s treasurer general. “The ball is in his court”.
In another sign of how the net is closing on Mr Zuma and his allies, officers of the Hawks, a police anti-corruption unit, raided the home of the Gupta business family on Wednesday. The Guptas, who are long-term friends of the president and developed close business ties with one of his sons, are at the centre of graft allegations.
Members of the Hawks anti-corruption police unit raid the Gupta family home © EPA
Anger about corruption and the Guptas’ alleged influence has been one of the main factors behind the ANC’s push to remove Mr Zuma and make way for Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president.
The dawn search of the Guptas’ Johannesburg residence underlined the collapse of Zuma’s influence since Mr Ramaphosa defeated the president’s preferred candidate to become leader of the ANC in December. Mr Zuma was accused of using the Hawks and state prosecutors to intimidate his political foes, while in effect allowing allies to act with impunity.
A spokesman for the Hawks said three people were arrested in the raid and two others were due to turn themselves in.
Ajay, Atul and Tony Gupta are accused of using their friendship with Mr Zuma to win state contracts and influence political appointments. A former deputy finance minister alleged that members of the family offered him the Treasury’s top job and R600,000.
The Guptas and Mr Zuma have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Local media reported that at least one Gupta brother and a family associate were arrested.
We are being plunged into a crisis that I feel some of my comrades may regret
Jacob Zuma
The ANC formally ordered Mr Zuma to resign on Tuesday, but the president has yet to respond. Although no party member has ever refused an order by the ANC to leave a state post, the instruction has no legal force because Mr Zuma was elected by parliament.
Mr Zuma said he had offered party officials a timeframe to step down in June and Mr Ramaphosa had accepted it. But he said that in subsequent discussions ANC leaders, including the deputy president, had changed the deal.
“It’s the first time I feel a decision is not right and I disagree with it. If you want to recall, then you recall,” he said, using the ANC term for sacking party members from state posts. “It is being forced on me now . . . I think it’s a kind of an ANC where I begin to feel there’s something wrong here.”
The party, which has dominated South African politics since the first democratic election in 1994, forced Thabo Mbeki to resign as president in 2008. But it has never had to use a no-confidence vote to remove one of its own. After talks with opposition on Wednesday, the ANC and other parties agreed to move forward a no-confidence vote proposed by the Economic Freedom Fighters that was scheduled to take place next week.
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The prospect of the ANC voting with the opposition “is a big a break which will change fundamentally our politics, especially for people like me who grew up with the liberation movement”, said William Gumede, chairperson of the Democracy Works foundation. “The risk [for Mr Ramaphosa ] is that this will divide the ANC totally.”
If, as expected, the no-confidence vote succeeds, Mr Ramaphosa, a former union leader and one of the country’s richest black businessmen, would become acting president for up to 30 days. A parliamentary vote would confirm Mr Ramaphosa, 65, who has pledged to crack down on corruption and turnround the moribund economy, as head of state.
Gwede Mantashe, the ANC chairperson, said Mr Zuma would be left to “face the vultures in parliament” if he did not leave with dignity.
Mr Zuma, 75, is understood to fear prosecution over allegations of corruption after he leaves office, leading him to resist the ANC’s demands.
The Guptas set up a business empire stretching from mining to IT after moving to South Africa from India in the 1990s. The family first met Mr Zuma in the early 2000s, and at least two of the president’s children and one of his wives worked for Gupta companies at various times.
Duduzane Zuma, the president’s son, had direct or indirect holdings in several Gupta-controlled entities.
The raid on the Guptas’ residence in Johannesburg follows the launch of an investigation by prosecutors into the allegations of so-called state capture by the family, including alleged use of a government-funded dairy farm project to launder money.
The Guptas’ financial empire has come under investigation this year, leading to the seizure of assets relating to the dairy. But officials with knowledge of the family’s finances caution that the Guptas are likely to have moved most of their assets offshore.
Last week India’s Bank of Baroda, the last big bank to have dealings with the Guptas in South Africa, notified the South African central bank that it was ending operations in the country.
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