South Africa president Job Zuma emerged victorious after an eighth attempt by the parliaments attempt to supplant him through a no- confidence vote on Tuesday.
The voting result showed that about 198 of the 384 parliamentary members present voted against the Zuma’s displacement while 177 voted for his displacement while nine members didn’t cast their vote. The motion needed 201 votes to pass.
However, a majority of his party members (ANC) have decided to appoint a new party leader in December. The ANC lost three major metropolitan areas in the last round of local elections in 2016, largely because of Zuma’s growing unpopularity amid long-simmering corruption scandals.
“They are pumping propaganda through the media that the ANC is no longer supported by the people. It is their own imagination,” an exuberant Zuma told a cheering crowd outside parliament in Cape Town after the result was announced.
“The ANC is supported by the overwhelming majority,” he said, before breaking boisterously into song, cracking jokes and telling his supporters that the opposition had been thwarted in an attempted power grab.
Defense Minister and party stalwart Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told the assembly that Zuma is not the target but the ANC party.”As you yourselves in the opposition benches have said, the ANC is the target,” “Removing the ANC from power is the main aim. You’ve said it. Let’s go to a general election. Let’s go to a general election. We should not use other tactics to get rid of a governing party. That would be akin to a coup.”
