Jacob Zuma will not be president for long. While our politics are still as clear as mud, his imminent departure from office is as clear as day. It is no longer a question of if but when will he leave his office at the Union Buildings.
While we want him gone, we should not be under any illusions. Zuma will use every trick in the book to cling to power, and getting him to agree to leave office voluntarily will not be easy. Zuma knows that ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa prefers a drama-free transfer of power and has cautioned that Zuma must not be humiliated in the process.
Convincing Zuma to step down will be like climbing Mount Everest. With time running out, Ramaphosa may have to change his strategy and boot Zuma out. This should not be a difficult thing to do as his own party wants Zuma out. Do not be fooled by the few loud voices, including that of secretary-general Ace Magashule and deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, who have come out to support Zuma.Addressing a rally in KwaZulu-Natal recently, Magashule said: "Jacob Zuma is the president of the country. There is no decision which we have taken as the NEC [national executive committee] ... it is only factional leaders who want to be populist who are making noise ... these undisciplined members who engage the newspapers. Just because he is no longer president of the ANC doesn't mean he should not be supported. What a wonderful president he was."
Magashule and Duarte this week received support from Black First, Land First and other movements that have come together to form the "Hands Off Zuma" campaign. They plan to march on Luthuli House tomorrow to warn the ANC not to recall Zuma. They are a minority.
Interestingly, not even one ANC structure has endorsed the campaign. This is because the majority of ANC members and their national leaders want Zuma to vacate office as soon as possible. They are not alone. South Africans of all faiths, colours and creeds are in unison that Zuma should go. Opposition parties have long wanted him out.For the ANC to stand any chance of growing its electoral support in next year's general elections, it will have to remove him now. It will be counterproductive for the ANC to start its election campaign with Zuma as state president. Zuma represents everything that is wrong in our government and the governing party.
This week provided us with yet another reason why Zuma has to go. Appearing before the parliamentary committee probing state capture, Deputy Minister Ben Martins admitted to having invited the Gupta brothers to his ministerial home to discuss government when he was transport minister.
Martins told the committee he saw "nothing untoward" in arranging a meeting between Lucky Montana - the CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa at the time - the Gupta brothers and Duduzane Zuma to discuss tenders they were interested in at the state rail agency.
"I saw nothing untoward in arranging this meeting as its aim was to clarify and give answers to the questions that Mr Gupta had posed to me," Martins told MPs on Wednesday.
Something has seriously gone wrong when members of the national executive see nothing wrong with inviting the president's son and his business associates to his home to discuss government contracts with public servants.While this admission may have come as a shock to many, this practice has become normal under Zuma. Now people like Martins are so emboldened that they can even tell parliament there is nothing wrong with such actions.
Zuma will go and the rebuilding our country will begin. Later today, as we report in this edition, David Mabuza, the ANC's deputy president, will lead other officials to Mahlamba Ndlopfu, the president's official residence in Pretoria. In that meeting Mabuza is expected to ask Zuma to step down.
Eventually he will go and the country will be freed from his clutches...