Times Select understands that it had would have been made clear to Zuma that the ANC's National Executive Committee was seeking a Thabo-Mbeki-like exit for Zuma.
If Zuma resisted, a motion of no confidence sponsored by the ANC for the first time would have decided his fate.
Zuma engineered the ouster of Mbeki in 2008 shortly after taking over the helm of the ANC. He has not said whether he will resign voluntarily before his second term as president ends next year.
Controversy
The 75-year-old has been South Africa’s most controversial president since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, overseeing a tumultuous nine years marked by economic decline and numerous allegations of corruption.
Some within the ANC and the opposition say the Gupta family, friends of Zuma, have used their links with the president to influence cabinet appointments and win state tenders.
The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing but the allegations are the focus of a judicial enquiry.
Ramaphosa to outline Zuma’s fate today — Mbete
Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), will give details on President Jacob Zuma’s future on Wednesday, Parliament speaker Baleka Mbete said.
Ramaphosa and Zuma, who is under pressure to resign, held talks on Tuesday in Cape Town that the ANC described as “constructive“.
“In this day there will be some progress which the president of the ANC will be ready to come back to us about,” Mbete told the eNCA television channel.
Zuma’s spokesman declined to comment.
The ANC had scheduled an urgent meeting of its national executive on Wednesday evening to discuss Zuma’s future but postponed it late on Tuesday. The delay increased speculation that a deal for Zuma to resign had been ironed out.
In the hours before the news broke that he had agreed to resign, ANC insiders told Times Select he was desperately clinging to power.
Times Select understands that it had would have been made clear to Zuma that the ANC's National Executive Committee was seeking a Thabo-Mbeki-like exit for Zuma.
If Zuma resisted, a motion of no confidence sponsored by the ANC for the first time would have decided his fate.
Zuma engineered the ouster of Mbeki in 2008 shortly after taking over the helm of the ANC. He has not said whether he will resign voluntarily before his second term as president ends next year.
Controversy
The 75-year-old has been South Africa’s most controversial president since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, overseeing a tumultuous nine years marked by economic decline and numerous allegations of corruption.
Some within the ANC and the opposition say the Gupta family, friends of Zuma, have used their links with the president to influence cabinet appointments and win state tenders.
The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing but the allegations are the focus of a judicial enquiry.
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