South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party says it’s preparing an unprecedented no-confidence vote to force out the country’s president, Jacob Zuma, and swear in its new leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the latest twist in a dramatic power struggle.
“Everything has come to a standstill, so we need to move,” said Paul Mashatile, the ANC’s treasurer general, according to the Financial Times. “The ball is in his court.”
Zuma, who is 75, has not yet responded to the ANC National Executive Committee’s decision to replace him, Bloomberg says. The deadline given to him to resign expires tonight.
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The news comes after body-armoured officers of South Africa’s specialist anti-corruption unit raided the home of the country’s powerful Gupta business family and made three arrests in what the FT calls “another sign of how the net is closing on Mr Zuma and his allies”.
One of the Gupta brothers is among the three arrested and police say two other people are expected to hand themselves in, the BBC reports.
The Indian-born South African Gupta family is central to the corruption allegations against Zuma, Al Jazeera English says. The president allegedly gave the family “undue access” to sensitive state information, a role in the hiring and firing of cabinet ministers, and government contracts, the broadcaster adds.
