COSATU statement following the ANC NEC’s decision to recall President Zuma

13 February 2018

The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the ANC NEC decision to recall President Jacob Zuma from office as the President of South Africa. We have also noted that the president has since refused to abide by the decision of the NEC and resign.

The federation is not at all surprised by this level of intransigence and total inebriation with power by President Jacob Zuma. This after all is the president who working with his mercenary followers converted his Cabinet into a rent-seeking, docile and unaccountable caste.

He divided and humiliated the ANC on a number of occasions and weakened and almost dismantled the Alliance. The ANC under his leadership behaved like a fanatical cult.

While the idea of not humiliating him was gracious from the new leadership, we think the time has arrived for the ANC to stop this undistinguished political theatre and put the country first. We call on them to recall President Zuma using parliamentary processes and if it means supporting the Motion of No Confidence that was tabled by the EFF, so be it.

Allowing this gruesome posturing by President Jacob Zuma to continue unabated, risks plunging the country into an economic and political crisis. COSATU also urges the ANC to explore the possibility of charging President Zuma and subjecting him to a disciplinary process for defying a Constitutional structure of the ANC and bringing the organisation into disrepute.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 13 February 2018