If South African President Jacob Zuma is Recalled Tomorrow…

If President Jacob Zuma is recalled tomorrow, there will be no immediate general elections, and the African National Congress (ANC) will remain in power. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has set the record straight that it is not asking for a change of regime, but only the removal of the ruling party’s leader.

The opposition party recommends that the ANC replace Zuma with former President Kgalema Motlanthe until the General Elections in 2019.

Tomorrow Parliament will debate a Motion of No Confidence in South Africa’s current president, Zuma, brought by the DA.

Today DA leader Mmusi Maimane said “we are not asking for a change of Party, that will be for the people to decide on in 2019 [when SA’s next National Elections are held].

“Our call now is to ensure that the Office of the President is occupied by a woman or man who respects the office and the laws of the land.”

This morning Maimane tweeted: “I think it would be wise to pass the motion tomorrow, elect Fmr Pres Motlanthe into the Presidency till 2019. We need this for SA.”

If Motlanthe was reinstated, this would be his second time stepping in as a ‘replacement’. In 2008 Motlanthe became President after Thabo Mbeki resigned after himself having been recalled. Motlanthe remained President until the National Elections in May 2009 when Zuma became President and Motlanthe his Deputy.

Tomorrow’s debate will give the ANC an “opportunity to do the right thing” and to “show that it is the listening and humble organisation it proclaims to be”, said the DA.

The National Assembly’s 400 Members will be able to choose between “President Jacob Zuma’s continued stranglehold on the country’s Constitutional Democracy or the development of South Africa and her people”.

The choice, Maimane said, is “both simple and profound”.

The ANC has accused the opposition of dragging Parliament and the nation into its “petty games of political stunts” and that “the frivolity of this motion is that it claims guilt of state capture on the part of the President when none in fact exist in the report…” The report, it says, has raised inconclusive matters which need to be dealt with by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

The ANC says it is committed to eradicating corruption, and that “the ANC in Parliament will not support the motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma called by the DA on Thursday.”