Zuma exit: There are ‘no conditions’ attached, says Magashule

As the ANC’s top six officials prepare to meet with President Jacob Zuma this evening to discuss his future as the country’s head of State, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule says the party’s national leaders will go into the meeting with Zuma with “no conditions”, because there is no set agenda to remove him from office.

Magashule reportedly made the remarks in an interview with City Press yesterday.

He told the publication the ANC national officials were not going into the meeting with Zuma “with an attitude that says the president is going or not going. We are not going to go there with an attitude. There is no step aside or do not step aside.”

The City Press reports that Zuma apparently agreed to the meeting after a Magashule-led delegation visited him earlier this week. The paper has heard that a special sitting of the ANC’s highest decision-making body, the national executive committee (NEC), will be convened if Zuma and the officials do not come to an agreement today.

However, those close to Zuma said there was no need for him to be forced to step down, as a “deployee of the ANC”, they argued that he would likely agree to resign if he is asked officially to do so.

“Why must he listen to anybody other than the party that elected him into this position?” a Zuma ally was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Sunday Times reports that deputy president David Mabuza will lead the ANC’s top six officials when they meet with Zuma at his official presidential home of Mahlamba Ndlopfu in Pretoria.

According to the report, sources close to the matter said this was to help avoid accusations of conflict of interest being levelled against ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa as he was expected to take over State power from Zuma as soon as he steps down.

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