'It is a bad day'
2005-06-14 13:20
Cape Town - An strong indication that deputy president Jacob Zuma will get the axe from President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday is that his scheduled question time in the National Council of
Provinces has been taken off the parliamentary order paper.
While a wide range of publications - including Sky News - has reported
that
Zuma will, indeed, get the chop, presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo told
I-
Net Bridge a short while ago that no comment on the matter would be given.
The
media will have to wait for the televised address of the special joint
sitting
of parliament at 14h00.
News of the joint sitting arose on Monday afternoon after a national
working committee of the African National Congress was held. Khumalo
confirmed
then that the president had requested a joint sitting of both the National
Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
The reason given was that the president wished to deliver a statement
arising on matters arising out of Judge Hilary Squire's judgment in the
Schabir
Shaik trial. Shaik was Zuma's financial adviser.
Adding significance to Tuesday afternoon's events is the fact that the
president's pending trip to Doha has been cancelled.
Meanwhile, Zuma was scheduled to take questions in the National Council
of
Provinces on Tuesday afternoon on a range of matters including whether any
stakeholders had been identified for immediate engagement in the second
economy
and what programmes were in place to effect changes.
He was also to have been asked about the current status of the peace
process in Burundi and the multi-party negotiations in Sri Lanka.
Parliamentary election
He was
also
up to take a question on the nature of the current relations between South
Africa and Zimbabwe and also South Africa's relationship with the official
opposition in that country following the recent parliamentary election.
These questions to the deputy president - who has been the key man in
negotiating settlements in the Great Lakes region in particular during his
term
of office - are likely now to be never asked of Zuma.
The likelihood of Zuma being axed - at least suspended from his position
while investigations and possible prosecution take place against him - now
appears strong. Ruling African National Congress MPs approached in the
corridors of parliament did not wish to comment but one said: "It is a bad
day."
Zuma, who was born in Inkandla, KwaZulu-Natal on April 12, 1942 has been
deputy president since the 1999 national election. He was elected the ruling
party's deputy president at its conference in 1997.
He previously served as MEC for Economic Affairs and Tourism in KwaZulu-
Natal.