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President Jacob Zuma.
After surviving yet another motion of no confidence in his leadership at the weekend, President Jacob Zuma has reportedly issued a stern warning to his detractors within the African National Congress, saying they shouldn’t “push him too far”.
According to sources with direct knowledge of events that took place at the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting, Zuma threatened party leaders during his closing addressing at the Saint George’s Hotel to stop criticising him in public as he would no longer continue to “keep quiet”, News24 reported.
“I have been quiet because I don’t want to harm the ANC, so continue attacking me in the media and you will see,” Zuma was quoted as saying.
A furious Zuma, according to the report, apparently warned NEC members that it should be the last time he faced a motion of no confidence, saying he didn’t understand calls for him to resign now as he was not standing for re-election as party leader.
“He was very angry. It was the first time I have seen him so angry,” one NEC source said.
The ANC in Gauteng reportedly got reprimanded by Zuma. He said the party’s leadership in the province shouldn’t blame him for the ANC’s embarrassing electoral loses during last year’s municipal polls, and reminded the province that it had refused to distribute T-shirts bearing his name on the campaign trail.
Zuma also brought up allegations of a plot to poison him in 2014, saying he knew who was behind the plot but did not want to “harm” the ANC.
It was reported in January 2015 that his second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, after an allegedly failed attempt to poison Zuma, was asked by State Security Minister David Mahlobo to leave the family’s Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.
A case of attempted murder was subsequently opened against his wife.
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