South African President Jacob Zuma has announced his resignation. Photo / AP
South African President Jacob Zuma has announced his resignation. Photo / AP
South African President Jacob Zuma resigned from office today, bringing to a close a nine-year tenure that has been dogged by corruption scandals and has seen a steady decline in the popularity of Nelson Mandela's historic liberation movement.
Under intense pressure from the ruling African National Congress party, the 75-year-old head of state said his decision was spurred by altercations that had taken place outside the party headquarters in Johannesburg in recent days.
"No life should be lost in my name, and also the ANC should never be divided in my name," Zuma said in a televised statement in Pretoria.
"I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect, even though I disagree with the leadership of my organisation," he said. "I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC."
South African Deputy President and African National Congress party President Cyril Ramaphosa, delivers a speech in Cape Town on Sunday in front of an image of Nelson Mandela. Photo / AP
The resignation came one day after ANC ordered him to step down or face a vote of no confidence in Parliament. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced Zuma as ANC leader in December, is expected to become acting president, according to South African law.
It ends a long week of limbo for many South Africans as the ANC has tried to persuade Zuma to resign and renew South Africans' faith in the party that brought the nation out of the apartheid era.
To his critics, the president's early departure — his term as head of state was not up until national elections next year — marks the end of a frustrating era in which the nation drifted and Zuma's name became nearly synonymous with the use of the public office for personal gain.
Many South Africans hope Ramaphosa, should South Africa's parliament elect him as the nation's next president this week as expected, will put South Africa on a new path, taking on corruption and restoring the reputation of Africa's oldest liberation movement.
In his statement, Zuma reiterated comments he made earlier in the day in a televised interview that he did not agree with his party's decision to order him out of office, nor had he been told why he had to leave.
South African President Jacob Zuma is resigning with immediate effect. Photo / AP
"I do not fear exiting political office," he said. "However I have only asked my party to articulate my transgressions and the reason for its immediate instruction that I vacate office."
Despite announcing their decision to recall Zuma on Tuesday, ANC officials have been reticent about why they think he should resign, in an apparent reluctance to broach the matter of the numerous corruption scandals he has been embroiled in.
During the interview, Zuma stated repeatedly that he did not agree with his party's decision to order him out of office before his term is up next year, saying it was not in keeping with party's tradition. He warned that infighting among leaders in the governing party could end in violence on the streets between ANC supporters who disagree with one another.
"The manner in which you remove the president is a very serious matter . . . you don't force people," Zuma said. "I think we are being plunged in a crisis that I'm sure my comrades, my leaders will regret. Some people may not like this, may feel something is wrong."
As he spoke, a clock in the corner of the television screen on the eNCA news channel counted down the hours, minutes and seconds to the deadline the party has given him to resign.
The stunning standoff between Zuma and his party is the culmination of a long-simmering battle over the leader's future after nearly a decade in power. Increasingly, Zuma has been pummeled by graft scandals and complaints about the government's inability to turn around a sagging economy.
"The ball is in [Zuma's] court," Paul Mashatile, the ANC's treasurer general, said at a briefing after the party meeting. "We can't wait. It's not fair to South Africans, not fair to the ANC, not fair to anybody. Everything has come to a standstill. We need to be able to move."
Party officials said Wednesday that the ANC wanted to act quickly to vote Ramaphosa in as president and have him deliver the State of the Nation address Friday.
"We cannot continue to be in a state of limbo," ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu said. "We need to get Ramaphosa elected as president and everything will flow from there."
For years, Zuma has outmaneuvered his detractors, and ANC parliamentarians have backed their leader in votes to unseat him in parliament.
But support for Zuma has eroded since Ramaphosa replaced him as party leader in December.
Even longtime allies who staunchly supported Zuma for years also demanded that he step down. Early Wednesday, an elite police unit raided a Johannesburg compound belonging to the wealthy Gupta family, accused of colluding with Zuma. The raid was interpreted by some as a warning for Zuma to act soon.
