Jacob Zuma’s grip on power appeared to be weakening after parliamentary officials decided to delay a key national speech that the embattled South African president was due to give this week.

The unprecedented measure on Tuesday underlined the crisis within the ruling African National Congress as the party tried to manage an increasingly chaotic transfer of power from the incumbent president to his deputy and rival, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Zuma, 75, who is facing multiple charges of corruption, was scheduled to give the annual state of the nation address to parliament on Thursday. However, it has now been postponed, possibly by a week.

“We decided to approach [Zuma] to postpone the state of the nation address … We need to create room for establishing a much more conducive atmosphere in parliament,” Baleka Mbete, the national assembly speaker, told reporters outside parliament in Cape Town. Mbete did not give a new date for the speech.

A statement from the presidency later claimed Zuma had requested the delay.

Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst, said the postponement was deeply damaging to the ANC. “The ANC’s inability to manage the transition has resulted in the disruption of key institutions. There is no way Zuma can survive now, but the question is the cost to the party,” he said.

Senior ANC leaders met the president over the weekend to ask him to step down. Local media reported that Zuma had refused.

A meeting of party leaders scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled after an evening meeting between Zuma and Ramaphosa, which was described as “constructive” by close associates.

One possibility is that Zuma will be ordered to resign, though this may raise significant constitutional issues. According to ANC rules, all members, even elected officials, fulfil their functions according to the will of the party.

Another scenario is a negotiated deal allowing Zuma to leave office “voluntarily”, though Ramaphosa has ruled out any formal amnesty or impunity.

Zuma’s premature departure – his second five-year term is due to expire in 2019 – would consolidate the power of Ramaphosa, who was elected ANC leader in December and has been Zuma’s deputy since 2014. Ramaphosa would become president, in accordance with the constitution.

Supporters of Ramaphosa, a multimillionaire businessman who is seen as the standard bearer of the party’s reformist wing, say it is essential that Zuma is sidelined as early as possible to allow the ANC to regroup before campaigning starts in earnest for elections in 2019.



Quick Guide Jacob Zuma charge sheet Show Zuma is facing 18 charges of money laundering, racketeering and fraud based on allegations relating to more than 700 payments between 1995 and the 2000s. Some of the charges are said to be linked to a multibillion-dollar arms deal in 1999. The charges were dropped shortly before Zuma became president in 2009, but were reinstated in 2016. He is appealing against that decision, and denies any wrongdoing. In 2014, a constitutionally mandated independent corruption watchdog accused Zuma of spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to turn his house in his home village of Nkandla into a display of “opulence on a grand scale”. Zuma denied the charge but South Africa’s highest court eventually forced him to repay some of the money.

The ex-president has repeatedly been accused of improper relations with the Guptas, a very wealthy family of businessmen. Zuma’s son works for the Guptas and the president is accused of allowing the family to benefit from government contracts and handpick senior officials. Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing. In 2016, Zuma was forced to order a review of the purchase with public funds of hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of cars for his four wives. The 11 cars included four Range Rover SUVs and two Land Rover Discovery SUVs. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/X03719

Zuma had led the ANC since 2007 and has been South Africa’s president since 2009. His tenure in both posts has been marred by a series of corruption scandals that have undermined the image and legitimacy of the party that led South Africans to freedom in 1994.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, which promotes the legacy of South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon, made a rare public intervention in politics on Tuesday, calling for Zuma to be ousted as he had “demonstrated” that he was “not fit to govern”.

In a damning statement, the foundation said there was “overwhelming evidence that systematic looting by patronage networks linked to President Zuma have betrayed the country Nelson Mandela dreamed of”.

The crisis has revealed the deep personal and ideological splits within the ANC. The party’s NEC is split between the supporters of Ramaphosa and those of Zuma. Backers and opponents of the president briefly clashed outside the ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg on Monday morning.

“This is an indication of what is to come with major policy decisions. A personal squabble has morphed into an ideological battle … so bigger battles will go on and on through Cyril [Ramaphosa’s] presidency. A shift away from Zuma as president does not mean a shift away from his style and politics,” Mathekga said.



As president, Ramaphosa will have to balance the need to reassure foreign investors and local businesses against the intense popular demand for dramatic measures to address South Africa’s deep problems. The 68-year-old former trade union leader has said South Africa is coming out of a “period of uncertainty, a period of darkness, and getting into a new phase”.

The ANC has weathered such crises before. In 2008 Thabo Mbeki stood down as president a year before the end of his term after the ruling party formally requested his resignation over allegations he had misused his power. His deputy then took over, until Zuma led the party to another victory in the 2009 elections and became president.

Opposition parties welcomed the postponement of the speech. “We cannot waste money, time nor another iota of our dwindling credibility on the international stage by allowing Jacob Zuma to deliver the state of the nation address,” the Democratic Alliance said in a statement.



