After what the general secretary of the ruling African National Congress called a robust and difficult debate earlier this week, South African President Jacob Zuma has kept his job.
Gwede Mantashe insisted there wasn’t any no confidence debate and the decision of the ANC’s National Executive Committee was taken on consensus.
No fewer than four members of his Cabinet called for President Jacob Zuma, decimated by a series of corruption allegations against him, to stand down.
The consensus in the National Executive Committee, which has never voted on an issue, went in Zuma’s favour.
ANC General Secretary Gwede Mantashe says there will be no vengeance sought against them within the NEC.
What they say and do in Cabinet could, however, determine their political futures.
The plot to unseat Zuma came as a complete surprise to some senior members who raced to the NEC meeting that was extended into a fourth day on Monday.
It was far and away the most serious threat Zuma has faced since coming to power in 2009.
Months earlier, the party that has been in power since the end of apartheid in 1994 “recalled” President Thabo Mbeki for marginalising the leadership.
Zuma retains the presidency despite having been found by the Constitutional Court to have disregarded his constitutional obligation as chief executive.
He has taken decisions that have cost South Africans billions of rands and led the party to sharp political setbacks in local elections earlier this year.