This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, on Tuesday faced calls from the country’s biggest union, a key ANC ally, to stand down after his cabinet reshuffle cost the country one of its investment-grade credit ratings and deepened splits within the ruling party.

Jacob Zuma: his exit might be anything but dignified | Jason Burke Read more

The call from Cosatu came moments after Zuma made his first public remarks about Thursday’s sacking of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan, which rating agency Standard & Poor’s cited as a reason for its downgrade of South Africa to junk status.

The union said in a statement that it no longer believed in Zuma’s ability to lead and it wanted to restructure its alliance with the party: “The time has arrived for him to step down and allow the country to be led forward by a new collective at a government level. We no longer believe in his leadership abilities.”

Zuma said in his remarks that people should remain calm after the rating cut and said Gordhan’s departure, which also rocked the rand, did not mean fiscal policies would change. He urged his cabinet to reach out and reassure international investors.

Gordhan was seen as a bulwark against corruption and as finance minister had blocked some questionable policies by other members of Zuma’s government.

South Africa’s new finance minister, Malusi Gigaba, told a news conference the ratings cut, which is set to push up South Africa’s borrowing costs, would force even greater government focus on growing the economy.

Gigaba reiterated plans to transform the economy to improve the fortunes of black people. More than two decades after the ANC ended white-minority rule with Nelson Mandela at the helm, inequality festers.

After reaching a 20-month high, the rand has fallen about 13% against the US dollar since Monday last week, when Zuma ordered Gordhan to return home “immediately” from an investor roadshow abroad. Gordhan had been seen for some time as the target of political pressure from a faction allied to Zuma.



The sacking outraged both opponents and some political allies of Zuma, undermining his authority as president and threatening to split the ANC, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

It has been publicly criticised by half the party’s “Top Six” officials, including the deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe. South Africa’s Communist party, another long-time ally of the ANC, has also called on Zuma to go.

On Tuesday, the country’s main opposition party called for parliament to return from recess to debate the “crisis” triggered by Gordhan’s sacking.

The reshuffle, in which Zuma also sacked some critics, has led to an official request by the opposition Democratic Alliance for a vote of no confidence in parliament and plans for protest marches.

Calls have been growing for Zuma to step down since August last year when the ANC lost control of key metropolitan areas in local elections, partly because of dissatisfaction with the president’s performance

Previous no-confidence motions against Zuma have failed as the ANC has a commanding majority.