ANC NEC cancelled. Is this the end for Zuma?

06 February 2018 - 21:46
By Kyle Cowan
The ANC cancelled its scheduled NEC meeting for Wednesday after discussions between party president Cyril Ramaphosa and his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
Image: Thuli Dlamini The ANC cancelled its scheduled NEC meeting for Wednesday after discussions between party president Cyril Ramaphosa and his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

The ANC has cancelled a meeting of its national executive committee that had been scheduled for Wednesday, following a day of discussions between Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Jacob Zuma.

The NEC meeting would have discussed feedback from a meeting of the ruling party's national working committee at Luthuli House on Tuesday.

That meeting came after talks between the ANC's top six officials and Zuma on Monday, where the leadership tried to persuade the president to resign.

ANC spokeswoman Khusela Diko confirmed the postponement of the meeting.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, the ANC said the postponement followed "fruitful and constructive engagements" held between Ramaphosa and Zuma.

"The NEC will now meet, as scheduled, in a Special NEC meeting on February 17," the statement said.

The cancellation of the meeting of the NEC, the highest decision-making body in the ANC between conferences, came hours after Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete announced that the annual state of the nation address – which was to be held in Parliament on Thursday – would be postponed.

Zuma had been due to deliver the speech.

He and Ramaphosa met at Genadendal, the president’s official residence in Cape Town, for most of Tuesday.

This is a developing story.