South Africa’s deputy president has promised to conclude a power transition in which he would succeed Jacob Zuma, who faces widespread calls to resign because of corruption allegations.
Standing on the balcony of Cape Town’s pillared City Hall, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa consolidated his control of the government on Sunday.
He delivered what amounted to a state of the nation address of the kind that President Zuma was unable to give as scheduled last week because of the leadership crisis in South Africa.
Mr Ramaphosa, Mr Zuma’s expected successor, set out a policy agenda for the year in his nationally televised speech, which marked the start of commemorations of the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth on July 18 1918.
Then he referred to the topic that people really wanted to hear about — his confidential negotiations in recent days with Mr Zuma over the president’s exit after a scandal-marred tenure.
The ruling ANC party’s national executive committee will discuss Mr Zuma’s fate at a meeting on Monday “and because our people want this matter to be finalised, the national executive committee will be doing precisely that,” Mr Ramaphosa said.
He said his discussions with Mr Zuma had to be conducted with “care and purpose” and with the aim of uniting South Africans.
The political opposition criticised the private talks, saying the 75-year-old president may have been pressing for an “exit package” in exchange for his resignation.
The Democratic Alliance, the biggest opposition party, referred to unconfirmed media reports that Mr Zuma demanded a state security detail for himself and his family as well as payment by the state of his legal fees.
“He must be prosecuted and, if found guilty, be locked up for his crimes,” the Democratic Alliance said.
Mr Zuma denies wrongdoing, but he has been discredited by scandals, including multi-million-dollar upgrades to his private home that were paid by the state.
There has also been alleged looting of state enterprises by his associates and the possible reinstatement of corruption charges tied to an arms deal two decades ago.
In his speech, the deputy president said the government will wage a “relentless war against corruption and mismanagement of the resources of our country” and that the justice system will punish the guilty.
Mr Ramaphosa, 65, joined Mr Zuma’s cabinet as deputy in 2014 and replaced the president as head of the African National Congress in December.
He has faced criticism for previously keeping a low profile on the issue of corruption for much of his time as Mr Zuma’s deputy, though supporters say he was biding his time and planned to engineer changes from within the government and ruling party.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here