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Cape Town – A motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma is expected to be debated in the National Assembly on Thursday.
This is after the Democratic Alliance wrote to parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete requesting that the motion be debated.
The party has called on the ANC to respond to the calls of South Africans for Zuma to be removed from office.
Leader of the DA Mmusi Maimane said on Wednesday, "The choice between Jacob Zuma and South Africa is both simple and profound. President Zuma's brand of corruption, economic mismanagement and lies can no longer continue to exist alongside the project of building a better South Africa for all."
The ANC in Parliament said it would not support the motion.
"We respect the constitutionally-enshrined right of any parliamentary party to table a motion of no confidence in the president as a tool of parliamentary oversight and accountability.
"However the motions by the DA have become ritualistic practices founded on spurious allegations and narrow political motives rather than substance. Since the start of the current term of Parliament, which is just over two years old, a total of seven motions have been tabled by the opposition," the party said in a statement from the office of the ANC chief whip, Jackson Mthembu.
Mthembu recently called on the ANC's national executive committee, including Zuma, to resign. He received widespread criticism for speaking out about issues plaguing the party.
Supported by opposition
Despite the ruling party's disapproval, the motion has the support of most of the opposition parties in Parliament.
The UDM on Wednesday said they supported the motion wholeheartedly.
“We have been telling him to go for years. It’s time,” UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said.
ACDP MP Steve Swart said the party will also support the motion following the release of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's state capture report.
"We believe they are damning observations regarding the president,” he told News24.
"If you consider that with the tensions within the ANC, and the ludicrous charging of the Finance Minister, we believe the President must accept accountability for these actions."
He also said Zuma does not have the confidence of the nation to manage the state of the economy and battle the looming credit downgrade.
FF Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said the party would support the motion, given all that has happened recently, typified by the "debacle" between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the NPA.
"When you have a president, he is supposed to be there for all the people of South Africa, and he himself said, as far as he's concerned, it's the ANC first, and then South Africa. That says it all,” he told News24.
